Febraury 1997 Volume 20, Issue 2

Steward’s Report for the January Meeting

by Roger St. Denis.

Pale Ale was the style of the month for January and members brought in a variety for tasting.

We started with Charlie Webster's English Mild a nice low gravity beer to start us off.

Bruce Brazil shared his English Pale, an experiment with the new Oregon Goldings hops. The hops gave the beer that English taste, but at much less cost since they are grown "locally". This new source should help us brew more authentic beers.

Harry brought his mild which was also an experiment with pilsner style malts (50% Pale and 50% Munich) and Saazs hops. This all lent the beer a decided European nose and crisp taste.

Bruce Brazil is teaching the first Draught Board "How to Brew" class for the Brewmaster. He brought out some of the Brown Ale made from their system using the materials in the Brewmaster's Kit. Seems like we will be making some recommendations for future kits and modifications to the equipment for brewing classes.

Bob Jones brought out his "hoppy" pale ale which was not quite an IPA. It has lots of hoppy aromatics and goes down nice. I followed up with my first attempt at a (not so) red ale which got lots of suggestions I need not go into.

Harry Graham brought out an excellent commercial example, Sierra Nevada, which we all enjoyed. He followed this with his Christmas Ale made with 5 pounds of Nestle’s caramel. This beer has aged well over the past few months, the lovely caramel taste and nose make it a pleasant sipping beer. The caramel flavor has drastically improved since the Christmas Party.

We had 8 beers, all in style. 7 home brews and 1 commercial example.

Thanks to all contributors for the beer and the food (terrific turkey sausages!). It was another educational, interesting tasting session.