BYO Recipes

The Brew Your Own mag. is a pretty good read from a home brewer stand point. The one huge complaint is that their so called clone recipes are a joke. Sorry but it is what it is. Many times I'll find the same recipe in multiple issues that varies by many ingredients and amounts. I'll also find major differences from what the Brewer's site says. Sure they can  tweak it for hop availability but they don't tell us the original either. Frankly they should tell us the source of a commercial clone recipe and any changes they made from the original.

Gluten Free Brewing

Paul and myself (Ryan) brewed a 10 gallon batch of Porter over the 4th of July weekend. We added two vials of Clarity-Ferm which reduces proteins in beer. One of which is supposed to be gluten. Now Paul talked to a doctor and we do need to find out more information about the tests and what proteins were reduced.  But so far its very promising that this will allow people with celiacs to drink homebrewed beer. Here is are article by Charlie Papazian on Gluten free beer.

Club Big Brew

We are planning a big club brew on Scott's 40 gallon system. Vote for a date here!

Hops are growing

My hops are climbing. I have some 3 year hops that are mostly 2ft tall with some higher. The second year hops are still about 6 inches tall. If you want to grow hops here are some things to think of. First off pick a hop that you use a lot. You will not know their alpha acid content exactly so I'd pick an aroma or flavor hop variety. Second, when you get the rhizome soak it in water before planting for a few hours. Third, once you do have sprouts setup a string or something for them to climb or they will find something. Its hard to move them after just a few days.  There are some articles on BYO magezine's site, Basic Brewing episodes and lots of info out there.

Support Surly

Surly Brewing plans to build a new brewery addition which requires some law changes. Support Surly Brewing in this effort.

Iron Brewer moved to Rich's

Moving comp to Rich's house
4313 Manorview Dr NW
Rochester, MN 55901
See e-mail or facebook group page for more info

Meeting notes for Tuesday July 27th

Wow, what a great meeting. There were some awesome beers and meads tonight. It was a good variety of new brewer to seasoned ones.  Even the new daddy showed up. Congrats Andy, let us know when he can say attenuation!

If you'd like to write an article or review for the site let me know. Articles help new brewers, site traffic and ad revenue. It does not have to be the ultimate resource, just a starting point with were to go from there.

Dues:
We'll be re-upping the dues in Sept/Oct. Yearly dues are $5 a year, or $6 if you'd like to do paypal. Dues go for site hosting and covering NHC and competition costs.

Competitions:
We'll be doing a friendly lawn mower beer competition Thursday Aug 26th. Beers will be judged by popular opinion on what a lawn mower beer is. So submit what ever you like but it will be judges by your peers against their idea of a lawn mower beer. If you'd like to host this 3 hour meeting let me know.

For fall we were thinking of doing a iron brewer competition. There would be 2 or 3 rounds, The first round would be a easily accessible secret ingredient supplied by the brewer. We're trying to get the 2nd and third round secret ingredient sponsored (free).

Bulk Buys:

We'll be placing a bulk hop purchase from Farmhouse brewing supply, http://www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com/scripts/hopsList.asp?idCategory=21. If you'd like any hops let me know. They come in 4oz packs usually from $.65/oz to $1/oz. Way cheap. Let me know.

We're also making a bulk honey buy in Sept. for fresh harvest raw (none heated) honey. Its $22/gallon or $110/5 gallons.  Let me know.

Remember to tip the wait staff at Binkies or bring some extra homebrew for them. They put up with us and our tasting glasses.

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