Messages

1

Homebrew Competitions / Re: NHC regional experiences

« on: April 22, 2013, 10:58:43 am »

Thanks to the both of you (Michael & Ross) & all of our guest judges for helping us out at the NHC (1st Round) in Tulsa, OK. We had some great beers & meads with some solid catered food from the 907 Café to lay down some good "belly mortar" for enjoying all of those fine homebrews. It's always nice to see entrants putting forth effort to help judge a competition they have vested interest in. I agree that we were "short-handed" due to Tulsa Craft Beer Week (TCBW) compared to our normal judging pool, but we also had a great crew on the other side of town at the festival speaking "the good beer (homebrew) gospel" and received alot of publicity for craft & homebrewed beer in Oklahoma. We'll definitely coordinate better & offset the dates IF High Gravity (Desiree) decides to host it again next year, but this year it was totally out of our control. Thanks again to you both! P.s. It was very nice to finally meet you Ross "Angry Scotsman" Harper. You're really not as "Angry" as all of that!   

2

Homebrew Competitions / What BJCP category do you enter an Oud Bruin with Raspberries?

« on: March 19, 2013, 12:46:42 pm »

The 2008 v. of the guidelines states this in 17C, "Oud Bruin can be used as a base for fruit-flavored beers such as kriek (cherries) or frambozen (raspberries), though these should be entered in the classic-style fruit beer category" and then conflicts itself with this under Category 20 "Note that fruit-based lambics should be entered in the Fruit Lambic category (17F), while other fruit-based Belgian specialties should be entered in the Belgian Specialty Ale category (16E)" So which is it, Category 16E or 20? It's all kind of confusing if you're wanting to enter a cherry or raspberry flavored Oud Bruin e.g. Liefmans Frambozen. 

3

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: AHA Action Alerts and other Government Affairs info

« on: March 06, 2013, 07:05:59 am »

I'm NOT sure if this is the right place to post, but I'm having significant trouble trying to login to vote for the AHA Governing Committee. It locked me out after only two attempts at logging in with this message "Error: We could not create your new user account. Have an Account? Please login in order to access this content." Isn't it the same log in info. used to access these forums? Any suggestions? I would like to vote! 

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Beer Recipes / Re: Graetzer Recipe/Article in Zymurgy Nov/Dec 2012

« on: November 19, 2012, 05:19:57 pm »

We got the Gose. It was a fun beer. Let me know how yours turns out. Where did you buy the Weyermann  Weizenrauchmalz, Jeff?

Will do! I'll have to send you & Susan a couple of fresh bottles of the Choc Grätzer for "evaluation" purposes. I was given part of an open bag from the brewery and have just enough for another batch! 

5

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Fun at FOAM Cup

« on: November 19, 2012, 05:13:08 pm »

Made my first journey to Tulsa to judge at this event.  I've seen lots of FOAM members medal at other comps, wanted to get a sense of what their club was like and meet a few of the members.  Judged with some very experienced people and learned a lot.  They had about 750 entries but thanks to some weekday flights things weren't chaotic on Friday and Saturday.  In fact it was a very well-run comp.  My compliments to Dave and Desiree.

I didn't enter anything this time, just thought I'd see how that felt.  I think I'll go back to entering a few beers, it gives you a little more to look forward to.

It was great to meet you tomsayer & many thanks for making the trek this far south to help us judge! Part of the fun for us is hosting our out-of-town homebrew brethren & enjoying the comraderie. Hopefully as the competition grows, we can expand the activities to include a pub crawl & maybe guest speaker(s)? I'll pass along the compliments to Des, as she's not on here much. Thanks also rjharper, tcanova & of course ububdawg for the support!   

6

Beer Recipes / Re: Graetzer Recipe/Article in Zymurgy Nov/Dec 2012

« on: November 18, 2012, 05:01:41 pm »

The author replied. He says they don't adjust water as far as he knows. The acid rest in the article will drop the pH, according to him.

Might be time to think about that some more. Maybe do an experiment with my tap water, which is pretty close to the water in the article.

I know that the water at the Choc Brewery in McAlester, OK is very soft, so they had to seriously modified it to as closely emulate the Grodzisk water as possible. I'm brewing another batch over the holidays using the Weyermann Weizenrauchmalz, the Polish Ale yeast & some of the brewery's water. I'll let you know how it comes out! Did I send you a bottle of Choc Grätzer? What'd you guys think?

7

Beer Recipes / Re: Yeast Recomendations for Baltic Porter

« on: April 02, 2012, 04:54:16 pm »

Another recommendation not already listed here is Wyeast #1187-Ringwood Ale. Although it can be a rather "persnickety" strain, it can produce a rather exceptional Baltic Porter. I recommend using a slurry from a previous batch & then fermenting as close to 65°F as possible. 

8

Homebrew Competitions / Re: NHC Entries closed....

« on: March 08, 2012, 12:28:34 pm »

... I would make that drive again this year, but can't make the 8-11 hour drive to Denver/Minneapolis/Chicago/Indy this year.  So no judging for me.  Hopefully Tulsa or KC will get it next year... cheers-- --Michael

I think part of the solution is more 1st round sites capped at the current 750 entries, so to that end my homebrew club (FOAM) has volunteered to host the Old West region in Tulsa, OK (previously DFW) next year.  Most of us have been traveling to help out our regional sites anyway, so we'll just save gas money and hold one here next year!  We just came off a successful year as an MCAB Q with our annual FOAM Cup competition in November which saw a 25% increase over the previous year's entry #'s (626), but we required some out-of-state judges (10-15%) such as udubdawg to get the job done. Thanks again!    Now with another round of new judging recruits from our 3rd year-in-a-row BJCP BiCEP/Exam we'll ready for the "big dance" in 2013... even if no "foreigners" show up in the Sooner State to help us out. The real logistical problem will be how to handle 36+ entries/category in the final round as the NHC numbers approach the 10,000 mark! 

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Pimp My System / Re: Tap Handle Project

« on: January 02, 2012, 04:36:51 pm »

Nice job man! 

10

Ingredients / Re: Durst Pale Malt

« on: January 02, 2012, 04:35:56 pm »

Having used it before as well, I got similar #'s to Pauls. 

11

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Second wind in the primary

« on: January 02, 2012, 04:33:15 pm »

It's very possible, as yeast metabolize in different phases based upon conditions. I suspect that they may have just hit the "high-krausen" phase. Enjoy watching your beasties thrive! 

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All Grain Brewing / Re: Vienna Lager (pic)

« on: November 12, 2011, 06:07:53 pm »

Looks like it's going to be a tasty beer for Mexican Fiesta night!   

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Kegging and Bottling / Re: Bottling a lager

« on: November 12, 2011, 06:05:21 pm »

I'd recommend "swirling" a bit of yeast slurry into the bottling bucket to insure proper natural carbonation. No worries! 

14

Equipment and Software / Re: Homemade counter pressure filler

« on: August 15, 2011, 07:01:10 pm »

I made the CPBF from the aformentioned book & used it for many moons before "upgrading" to a FOXX Mfg. model. Not too much difference except the valves. 

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Homebrew Competitions / Re: Club-Only Competition Bock Results

« on: April 24, 2011, 02:52:35 pm »

Awesome Bocks...KUDOS!