[BrianK]

We still have a few shirts left. I’m not sure what sizes and whatnot but I believe there are four or five left (they are in the downstairs bathroom at scotzin’s). If I remember correctly we each paid $20 per shirt. I’m not sure if the initial purchase came out of club funds or how we worked that. I believe Brian (not me, the other one) needs a shirt yet and Matt Bucknell if we want to officially welcome them to the club. I’ll check with our motorclothes manager if she’s in tomorrow at work and I may be able to get us a hookup for someone to do the patches and/or sewing. Another thing I’m looking into is tasting glasses. If anyone has the club logo in a simple jpg file can you shoot me an email? Just the little bit I looked around it would be about $160 including "set up" and shipping for a quantity of 36 5.5 oz glasses. That works out to about $4.50 a glass. Let me know what you guys think and if you have any contacts that may be able to help us out.
–Brian

[BrianK]

Jeff Johns vs Matt Miller category 9E strong scotch ale

Jake Kustan vs Cale Baker category 11A Mild

[BrianK]

I will be attending but I’ll have to meet you guys in York because I won’t get off work until 6. I’d also like to draw the first set of names/styles for anyone who wants to participate in the brew off. If you can’t make the meeting and still want in, let me know. I’ll be going through the bjcp styles and picking out the ones we can realistically brew in the given time frame. I’m also working on a few simple rules for the competition and will present them at the meeting.
–Brian

[BrianK]

I believe the next meeting is November 13th to keep with our regular schedule. I’m not sure if there was a solid location laid down yet. I don’t think there’s really any point in voting because there wasn’t any more than one person who stepped forward for each position. It doesn’t make for much of an election if there is only one candidate. Supermarket sweep date wasn’t nailed down yet but it will be sometime around thanksgiving to early December. And yeah I check the forum, it’s on my daily list of things to do while I’m fucking off at work…

[BrianK]

I just typed up a reply to this, but for some reason it didn’t post. If I’m repeating myself here, please forgive me. As it sits now, your beer is about 4.8% which doesn’t seem too far off for either one of these styles. What final gravity are you shooting for? How does it taste? If it’s only slightly sweet, I think the carbonation might balance it out. If it’s cloying then it’s a whole different ball game. Some people say to pitch champagne yeast. I tried this ONCE but had zero success. Others say to pitch something clean and highly attenuative like us05 or nottingham. This worked for me once when I had used an English strain that crapped out before the work was done. Have you tried raising the temp? I know sometimes that helps lower it a few more points toward the end. Another theory is to pitch a saison strain. The idea is that most yeast driven flavors are produced early on in fermentation and if the saison yeast takes off, it will eat sugars but produce very little in the way of flavor. I have not tried this, but it doesn’t seem out of the range of possibility. Perhaps select a saison strain that produces less fruity/peppery flavors just to be safe (wyeast 3711 comes to mind). The thing that concerns me is this is a split batch and neither one seemed to hit the target. Is it maybe equipment failure? Thermometer not reading correctly resulting in a higher mash temp? Hydrometer not reading correctly etc.? I’ve had maybe 3 or 4 get stuck over my career. Some I have fixed/figured out the reason and others I haven’t. Good luck. Keep us posted, I’m interested to hear how it turns out.

[BrianK]

Everything looks to be good except for maybe the black patent. If it was me, I might consider dropping it. I still haven’t brewed what I would consider a really good porter, but with fall coming it’s on my list of upcoming projects. The problems I’ve had in the past have been too much dark/roasty flavors in my recipes and they kinda come out more like a stout and not quite as smooth as I think a porter should be. But it’s your beer, so ultimately it’s your decision. I like the hop choices, I look forward to trying it when it’s done.

[BrianK]

I just need one ticket. I will be bringing a saison.

[BrianK]

I have off that day so I’m pretty sure I can attend. I have a few beers I could potentially bring but I’m going to have to see what survives the holiday weekend. Most likely a blonde ale 5% abv or a saison 7% abv.

[BrianK]

Jake,
As far as beer and smoking meats, I use an injection to season the inside of the meat. Mix up a marinade and carefully inject the meat. This takes a bit of practice, especially on smaller/thinner cuts like brisket or ribs where the marinade tends too shoot out acroos the kitchen or leak out and not be absorbed. My marinade usually consists of beer and other liquid ingredients such as broth, soy sauce, vinegar, worcestershire sauce etc. Then coat the meat with oil and apply my dry rub and onto the grill to smoke. I also use one of those disposable foil pans filled with beer under the meat while it’s smoking to keep the heat moist and avoid drying out the meat. Another tip, do not re-inject the meat after it starts cooking. Contrary to what you might think, this actually draws moisture out of the center. Same goes for basting/mopping. If you choose to baste, limit it to once halfway through cooking. Any more than that and you are just washing off your dry rub and screwing up the bark formed on the outside.

I look forward to trying out your chicken legs. I smoke a lot of whole spatchcocked chickens and smoked wings are one of my favorite ways to prepare wings (a pain in the ass but well worth it in the end). I’ve found a pretty good fool proof method for smoking that just uses a charcoal grill (no special equipment required). I’ll post pics and explain the method next time I do it if anyone is interested. It’s very simple and really the only way you can fuck it up is if you leave something on there too long.

[BrianK]

Congratulations. That’s pretty impressive for your first mead.

[BrianK]

I would be very interested in sampling this. If you have a bottle laying around, bring it to a meeting. Any idea what grape varieties you use or does it vary from year to year? I saw that Scotzin’s has the grape juices available from South America, I’m thinking about getting some. I’ve made a few meads and one wine from a kit (which is aging at the moment, not anywhere close to being ready to drink).

[Author]

Posts