July 1998 Volume 21, Issue 7

June Steward's Report

by John Pyles

The following beers were tasted at the June Draught Board meeting (according to my notes).

Bob Wilcox and Bryan brought their beers from the Pale Alexperiment. This was a parallel brew organized by Louis Bonham of the Home Brew Digest in which all the beers used the same recipe and ingredients, and will be analyzed in a lab. Bryan's was a little sweeter than Bob's.

Lisa brought a Bock she made as a Helles but it turned out to be too dark for that style. It was a nice malty beer with caramel notes. A discussion of the differences between the malt flavors from caramel malt and the malt flavors from decoction followed.

Bryan brought a Classic American Pilsner made with a proportion of corn in the grist. The beer was made with Pilsner Urquell yeast and Northern Brewer hops. A good clean beer with little "corn" character.

This was followed by Bryan and Lisa's portion of the "Big 10" brew conducted at the Jack Russell brewery as part of the AHA's National Homebrew Day brew-in. This brew came from wort reclaimed by draining the hop back and was a full bodied, extremely hoppy brew.

We then tasted Lewis' latest Pale Ale. This beer was just out of the secondary and was very young. It had a malty aroma with little hop nose. Some members felt that it was seriously over-hopped. We're looking forward to tasting this beer again after it has aged.

We also tasted the Parking Lot Pale Ale that Charlie and other club members made on the shop system for the club Brew-In in May. The beer fridge at the shop failed, so the beer was warm and over carbonated. It also had the cloudiness that seems to be typical of Charlie's beers. (Just wait, it'll clear -- someday.)

The next beer on the schedule was a Brown Ale from the Jack Russell Brewing Co. It was a classic example of a lactobacillis infection. Good for teaching newbies what a lacto infection tastes like, but little else.

Next came Bob Jones' Pils, made with Saaz hops, Pilsner Urquell yeast and a 2-1/2 hour boil, this beer was a great example of home brewed lager. Fermented at <45 degrees F. with a huge yeast starter, this beer was well attenuated and extremely clean.

Last but not least was Bruce's Vienna lager. This beer was also made with the Pilsner Urquell yeast (all of which was obtained from the Faultline brewery in Walnut Creek). A good example of a Graf-style Vienna, it was similar to Negra Modelo but a little maltier.