SSBC Newsletter

Past Newsletters

May 2009

Business:

Brewoff Results: we cleared about $420 from the Brewoff. Thanks to Kevin for organizing and everyone who helped out.

Group Brew: Decided upon the Westvleteren 12° recipe. Wade offerred yeast slurry from a current 10-gallon batch, and we'll use that as our yeast if we don't end up getting it from Union Station (through Len). Jim Bowser may also be able to get something from Cambridge Brewing if we need to. We also need to start an e-mail for who will be bringing what food that day. Or we can all chip in for pizza.

Last year's Group Brew: Shares from the 2008 Braggot are at Brian Shurtleff's house, pick up your share if you brewed and haven't received it yet.

Summer Cookout: We will have a joint Wort Processors and SSBC cookout at Fred and Mary Anne's in September after they return from Alaska. This will be our club picnic for the year. The date is not decided yet.

Pub Crawl Coordinator: Brendan resigned as the Pub Crawl Coordinator. Maybe we can throw together some short, local pub crawl if anyone wants to do this and someone sets it up. Possibly we could do something like meet up at Redlefsen in RI for a Sunday afternoon (owner would love to have us over). Bill Tredo offerred to take over the Pub Crawl Coordinator position. First order of business: probing for interest in a canal boat trip in England. Check his e-mail on that topic and let him know if you are interested.

June Meeting: This will be the Food and Beer meeting, with this year's topic being Pairing Beer With Food. Kevin sent out an e-mail to get people to sign up for courses to bring - salad, soup, 3 petite-entrees and dessert. Groups of people can make each course and choose the beer to pair with it. We'll need to get a list of who will be coming to plan accordingly. Also will add a cheese course at the beginning. Kevin will coordinate the topic and make one of the courses. The meeting will be at Frank White's house.

BJCP exam: Over the past few years we have averaged over 150 entries in the South Shore Brewoff. Is there any interest in having a BJCP exam so we can have more judges available for the competition? Several people showed interest.

National Homebrew Competition: Congrats to Jeff Fuller and Frank White for placing in the NorthEast for the NHC!

National Homebrew Conference: The NHC takes place in San Fransisco in June 17-20. Several members are going this year. Let Kevin know if anyone wants to plan any tours of the area while out there (like Alcatraz).

Presentation: Yeast Experiment

Jason led us on a expedition through various yeast styles used in the same recipe by different brewers. This experiment was intended to showcase the differences in different yeast strains. The results definately varied from one yeast to another.

Here are the yeasts that were represented:

Kolsch - Wyeast 2565 (Jim Blanchette)
Scottish Ale - Wyeast 1728 (Frank Chenette)
English Ale (London) - WLP013 (Brian Shurtleff)
Irish Ale - WLP004 (Brian Shurtleff)
Bret - Brettanomyces C. (Jason Colby)
French Ale - WLP072 (Al Filion)
Belgian Ale - Wyeast 1214 (Frank White)
Unibroue/Belgian - cultured from bottle (Jeff Fuller)

If there are any updates or corrections, please contact Rick Rodriguez