View from the Top

Bitch Bitch Bitch!

It’s times like these where it’s pretty hard for Jim and myself to get inspired to continue writing and producing a newsletter for this organization. Although there is a small core of loyal attenders of meetings, and the executive is working to keep the organization going and stable, it seems that the general membership has lost interest in putting any effort into maintaining the Guild. Last year I thought we were on a roll: meetings were pretty well attended, the newsletter had a number of contributors aside from me, we hosted the first rounds of an international competition, and we had a number of newer faces who were starting to make a name for themselves in competition. We were Best Club in every CABA competition in Canada and we were ranked the number one club in the nation by the AHA. You’d think with all that success that there would be no problem having enthusiastic meetings, with lots of people turning out to talk about, share, and enjoy beer. But that doesn’t seem to be happening.

In fact our membership is down and we seem to have lost a number of long term members. Or we have long-term members who while still with the Guild show up only rarely. January’s meeting was a case in point. It was attended by only eight members, most of whom were the executive. As I said there is a small core of faces I see meeting after meeting and these people still seem to be enthusiastic about brewing. What about the rest of you? Do you brew anymore? What I’d like to hear from is those people who haven’t shown up for a while or do so only sporadically. What it is that the Guild is no longer offering to them that they The Worthouse News January, 2001 are no longer supporting the club? While the executive is responsible for maintaining the club, we are not solely responsible for generating all the ideas, enthusiasm and activities that go into making up a strong organization. Membership should drive the organization with the executive being there to direct activities and ensure that ideas are put into action. Without active member support this organization will not maintain itself.

Ok, enough bitching, I just had to get that out of my system because it was really starting to bring me down. I love this hobby and with all the neat new products out there to play with, with so much friendly competition available, and with a sizable pool of gifted local brewers, I just find it hard to believe that we are not all just bursting with pride and enthusiasm over what we do! We’re the best, why aren’t we there to celebrate it?

Competitions

The new year brings with it a new competitive brewing season and judging on past year experience, EHG members need little cajoling to enter competitions, but this year brings with it a new incentive with our introduction of the Canadian Homebrewer of the Year. Starting with March in Montreal, brewers will be able to score points towards the Canadian Homebrewer of the Year Award throughout the year. In addition to MIM, the Great Canadian Homebrew Competition in April, the Aurora Brewing Challenge in June and All About Ales in November will be the recognized competitions for this award. Another competition may still be added.

Full rules for Canadian Homebrewer of the Year will be posted on the CABA website www.realbeer.com/caba by the time this newsletter is published but essentially brewers will score points based on their best
three results in each competition. The competition is open to all brewers who are residents of Canada. You don't have to be a member of CABA, but if you want to Make a run for the title, it makes sense to
join as most competitions have a $3 difference in entry fees between CABA and non-CABA members, plus you'll get all the benefits of CABA membership including a subscription to a good magazine.

Winning and being named Canadian Homebrewer of the Year will obviously be a great honor for that individual, but CABA's main objective is to recognize accomplishment in homebrewing. We will
therefore award those brewers who achieve predetermined point totals with certificates of merit.

March-in-Montreal entry deadline is fast approaching as all entries must be received in Montreal by March 17th. The classes for MIM are Continental Lager, Pale Ale, Brown Ale, Porter, Stout, Specialty, Belgian
– Extra Strength and Belgian -Sour. For a full set of rules see: http://www.realbeer.com/caba/pdfs/MIM01.pdf.

Following March in Montreal, the next event on the competition calendar is the Great Canadian Homebrew Competition with an entry deadline of April 21. As this is the Canadian qualifier for the American
Homebrew Association's National Homebrew Competition a full range of styles will be included in this competition. Details to follow soon.

I'm writing to let you know that the Urban Knaves of Grain is hosting our Third Annual Drunk Monk Challenge on March 24th at Two Brothers' Brewing Co. in Warrenville, IL. It'll be the 1st competition on the 2001 Midwest The Worthouse News January, 2001 Homebrewer of the Year schedule, as well as one of the Qualifying Events for MCAB IV. I'm sending along a listing - I was wondering if you could disseminate this info to the club over there - also, I'd like to extend an invite to you folks over there, in case you have the time, to come on over and partake in some UKG hospitality. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to write me back or call (630) 378-4694, or contact the links that are in the listing below.

3/24/00

The Drunk Monk Challenge, Warrenville, IL

AHA Sanctioned Competition, MWHBOY and MCAB IV Qualifying event Sponsored by the Urban Knaves of Grain. Entries due 3/17/00. Entry fee: $6/1st entry, $4 ea./2 or more entries. Contact Joe Formanek at (630) 378-4694 (home) e-mail: Jformanek griffithlabs com, or see the UKG homepage at http://www.sgu.net/ukg

Thanks!

Joe Formanek

Urban Knaves of Grain

Brewing in an Office Basement

For those of you who don’t know – I combine my legal work with my brewing hobby!! For me, it works!! And, for my clients, who wander to the basement, grab a brew, and wander to the boardroom – it also seems to work!

Now, I guess the worst thing that could happen, is that I serve the clients a bad brew – the only thing that might be worse, would be to lose a case!! To avoid that, in the past year, I have thrown out three brews – two North German Pils, and one Porter!!

Our fearless leader, Roxy, tried to make me feel good by suggesting that it was/is the water. I wanted to believe it, and, for a while, I did!

Then, one day, as I tasted another brew – an IPA – I tasted what I thought were the unpleasant characteristics of the three dead guys – a sulphur, like, sour taste!! That same evening, I was doing another brew (can’t remember what!), and was getting something from the pail where I have a lot of gizmos soaking in water and Javex. As I fished for the rubber stopper, I felt some crystalline stuff on the side of the pail. I tasted it. Javex crystals!!!! Yuk!!! I tasted the IPA, again, that sharp taste – like, “Yuk” again! I went back, and read my notes, same stuff on the three brews I had thrown out!! I checked my carboys (I used to let water and Javex sit in them… .) – low and behold, Javex crystals!!! I was putting all that delicious wort into a carboy laced with Javex crystals!! Damn!!!!

I am convinced that was the basis of my failures! Not the water (thanks Roxy!)!
So, I did a check – imagine my surprise when I discovered that everything I was brewing with, that was glass or plastic, had some crystallization. Out went the Javex solution, and I spent the next several hours looking for a neutralizer (vinegar works). I cleaned, I scrubbed, and I tasted. Finally clean.

I then took a look at the overall process I carried out, and, I cleaned up. Gone is the grain dust, gone is the sticky wort from the floor, and, gone is the yeast buildup on the bottom of some of the bottles. I have read a lot of the need for good brewing habits, now I know that to be the case. I don’t want to serve a bad beer, nor do I want to lose a case!!

Time Savers

The biggest reason I always hear for not brewing is not having enough time. Here are some tips for saving time in brewing or at least reducing the amount of time you have to devote to any one session. Trying to find a clear 8 hour period to do a full, start to finish, 5 US gallon batch can be difficult even for the most organized among us. We can try to reduce the total amount of time we need to brew or we can split it up so there is less time needed for the main job. Beer making is composed of a whole lot of tasks, so saving a few minutes here and a few minutes there can really add up to saving a whole lot of time on the total process. Efficiency is critical. Like any other sport, the more you practice the more efficient you become in your art form. The more you brew the quicker and easier it becomes.

Divide and Conquer

One way to resolve the time problem is to split it up into two days. Weigh and grind your grains a day or two before you brew. That can save you 30-45 minutes on the day you brew. Measure out your water nto your brew pot, do salt adjustments and have it on the stove. That will save about 5 minutes. Have all your equipment laid out the night before you brew. Again that will save about 5-10 minutes. Getting organized the night before can save you almost an hour of time on brew day.
Other ways to split up time is multitasking on brew day. Two big blocks of time where there is nothing you can do directly to speed things up are mashing and boiling. Use these down times to do other hings. For example, a big time saver is to always be cleaning as you go. Always clean out your mash tun as soon as you have the pot of wort on the stove -don’t wait until the brew is done to clean. Also, don’t wait until you have a full kettle before you get it boiling. As soon as you have a few gallons of wort in the kettle, put it on the stove and get it going.

Total Time Savers

The easiest way to save total time is to simply brew smaller batches. Yes, you get less beer per time invested but you also invest less time per batch. The choice between having no beer or a few bottles of beer is pretty obvious to me. Some people feel that there is not much time savings between a 3 and 5 gallon batch, but from a lot of experience brewing both, I can assure you there is. It’s the many little steps principle. It takes less time to weigh out the grains, it takes less time to grind the grains, it takes less time to heat the mash water, it takes less time to go through the temperature steps, it takes less time to transfer the mash, it takes less time to sparge, it takes less time to boil, it takes less time to cool, it takes less time to hop back and rack into the fermenter. Later on it takes less time to siphon the beer, it takes less time to organize and clean the bottles, and it takes less time to bottle and cap ‘em. It all adds up to saving yourself about 1.5 hours of time on brew day. I often find it easier to brew more often, with less time on any one day, than to find large blocks of time for a big batch. I also prefer to have a smaller amount of a large variety of beers in my house than a large amount of a small variety of beers.

Another way to save time is to invest in a propane burner. These guys can boil a pot of water in a few minutes and really save a lot of time throughout the mashing and boiling stages.

And, don’t be so proud as to not brew an extract beer. Again the choice between not having brew in the house and brewing extract is pretty obvious. You needn’t think that extract beers are beneath your standards. Just try a few brews made by Boyd! Extract brewing is by far the best way to save time and Boyd tells me that is the single biggest reason he sticks to extract brewing. Not having to mash and sparge will easily save you 1.5-2 hours on brewing day.

Finally, at bottling you can save a lot of time and hassle by not bottling at all! Invest in a good kegging system. It’s a lot faster to clean out one keg and rack the beer into it than to clean out, sterilize and siphon beer into 30-50 bottles. An added time bonus - the beer is ready to consume in less time!

Gold and Other Medals

None that I know of recently… .However, there are competitions coming up, and, rumor has it that our good friend Ian McLaren is brewing a few times per week – it does sound promising! Not only that, but, in this newsletter, there is information of a few competitions coming up! To avoid Roxy’s Rage, it seems that a plethora of entries would be great! I’m doing my thing, with a handful of Belgian’s that I have brewed in the past few months.! By the way, if anyone has a chance ask to try Frank’s Imperial Ale – it is Gold Medal stuff in my view!

Web Sites

New stuff found by your editor – if anyone else has any – send them to me: <email removed>

Canadian Homebrewing Directory
www.chbd.com
A good index of stuff!

Brewery Lane
www.brewerylane.com
stuff to buy – grains, etc.

Brewtique
www.brewtique.ns.ca
I can’t remember, I either liked or disliked this one!!! Age, you know!

Halifax Brewnosers
www.to.ns.ca/recreation/brewnose/noframes.html
Hm, maybe there is a reason to contemplate a name change!!!

The Brewery
www.brewery.org
I do recall – I like this one!

Redstick Brewmaster
www.hbd.org/~redstick/redstick.html
A good site!

Gambrinus’ Mug
http://brewery.org/brewery/gambmug
One of the great one’s – lots and lots of recipies!

Odds and Ends

Well, this is the first attempt of your technically challenged editor to satisfy the masses, and avoid “The Rant”!!! So, if it all works, some will be in color, some will be by email, and, hopefully, everyone enjoys! I still can’t find the infamous template, ergo, my style – next month, it will be done thru Publisher!

As Roxy says, in her “Rant”, we could use some help – recipes are always welcome, articles even more so, and, tidbits would be a delight!
Finally, in the next issue, we will give notice of a proposed bylaw change, to allow an overlap of executive positions – so we don’t hit a vacuum at the end of every term!

Enjoy your brews!!

View from the top

Well it was certainly gratifying to see the turnout at the February meeting. We actually had enough people show up that it actually felt like we were a club again.

One of the requests that has been repeatedly brought to my attention is that people want to be tasting more homebrew at the meetings. Members really want to taste
what other people are brewing and they don’ want to be just tasting those few brews
being made by the elite few super competitors. When I first joined the Guild over a decade ago, it was an unspoken rule that everyone would bring at least three bottles of brew to share with the other members. It didn’t matter if the beer had won a gold medal at the nationals or was lawnmower beer, brewed to style or was “just” homebrew, flawless or fucked up. Virtually everyone brought beer. We all enjoyed tasting the gamut of brews that were being made by all members of the Guild.

At that time there were very few of us competing nationally and even fewer were winning. Even though our standards were not as high then as they are today, there was certainly a wider range of homebrew being served at the meetings. I encourage you not to be intimidated by the quality of those few of us who have achieved national standards - none of us started out that way. Every one of us who has reached those high levels spent years making — well, ... homebrew, some of it good and a lot not so good. But the one thing we all did was that we always brought what we made to the meetings and we passed it around and we asked for opinions. And we got them. And we used that information to brew better beer.

So it is not necessary to hold back bringing your beer because you don’ think it matches the standards of Harry Wagner; because let me tell you, when Harry first started out he wasn’t making great beer. But he also wasn’t embarrassed about bringing what he did make just because it didn’t match that being made by Neil Herbst. However, over time Harry’ beers have become the standard by which we judge beers at the national level. By bringing beer to the Guild meetings Harry got immediate and honest feedback about the quality of his beer, and for that, he got better, much better!

Yes, competing in national level competitions has certainly improved our brewing, but nothing can match the immediate feedback you get from a brewer you respect when you share one of your beers with him at a Guild meeting. So no matter what your level, novice or expert, national champion or beer kit beginner, bring your beers to the meetings and share them with your peers. We all benefit by tasting the range of beers brewed by all of us. We’ supposed to be a guild, a group of craftsmen devoted to helping each other be better - let’ perform like one.

EHB News

Pales Please!
To help bring about what I talked about in “View” we are going to have a style theme for the March meeting. Now with many homebrew competitions coming up it is quite likely that a number of you have been doing some serious brewing in some of the more popular styles. So we are going to take a wild guess and gamble that there just might be some British and American Pale Ales and Bitters around. So if you happen to have anything that could be broadly defined as a pale ale we encourage you to bring a few bottles to share with the members. Let’s experience as wide a range as possible. And don’ worry about bringing the best, or being the best or being the worst. It doesn’ matter. Just bring some Pale Ale homebrew.
Of course if you don’ happen to have any Pale Ale, bring a few bottles of whatever you have. With competition season fast approaching we need to start tuning up the taste buds, both to help the judges judge and to help members decide on what they should be entering (or what they should call there entry).

Upcoming Competitions

March in Montreal - entry deadline 17 March, judging 31 March - limited classes
Marquis de Suds, Calgary - entry deadline 14 April, judging 21 April - all styles but grouped into broad classes (same entry form as last year)
Great Canadian Homebrew Competition, Toronto (CABA event) - AHA qualifier - entry deadline 21 April - all BJCP classes and styles (realbeer.com/caba)
Regina Ales - entry deadline 6-12 May - all styles but grouped into 8 broad classes (email russ rtemple@accesscomm.ca)
Aurora Brewing Challenge, Edmonton (CABA event) - MCAB 4 qualifier - entry deadline 31 May, judging 1-3 June - BJCP classes and styles 1 -20 plus meads, specialty fruit and spice, and smoked (www.ehg.ca)
The executive highly encourages you to compete in these competitions. All of them boast first class judging and all groups are working very hard to support each other. In fact I have never seen such inter-club cooperation as I have witnessed in this year, especially among the western Canadian brew clubs.
Entry forms for March in Montreal, Regina Ales and Aurora Brewing Challenge will be available at the March Guild meeting and should soon be posted or linked to our web site www.ehg.ca.

Notices, and Other Stuff!

Hops:
The Hops are in! So, it is important that you get out to Monday's meeting! Why?
Because, the vultures will be there, and any hops not picked up, will be auctioned to the highest bidder!
This includes the English hops that we have all been waiting for! They will all be packaged and waiting for us – be there! By the way, cost is $1.25 per package for the English!
Scotch Ale
Our noble Brewmaster, Mr. Herbst, has asked that I advise that he is brewing a scotch ale at the brewery, on Monday the 5th, starting at 5:30 (he used the 24 hour clock! and has invited all to attend who might be interested! I highly recommend, mainly because I am Scotch!!!
Help!!!
By the way, if you haven't noticed, our esteemed leader has done most of the newsletter!! Not good, we will soon be the subjects of the "Rant"!! Not fun!! Contribute, recipes, ideas, mistakes, tricks, -- please!
Ramblings...
I just returned from the east – Saskatchewan that is! I was there on personal business. Surprise! While there, I was approached to invest in a malt plant!! A local entrepreneur has raised $4.3 million, of the required $5.5 million, to open and operate a specialty malt plant. He is for real!! He has a great business plan, and, he has purchasers in –place. His product is to be specialty malts, for brewing and baking! His long range plan is to then develop a brewery next to the malt plant – there is a great supply of excellent water, and, of course barley!!! There may be hope for this old farmer, yet!
On another note, tonight, after returning, I racked about 5 carbouys from primary to secondary – two wines, and four beers! One of the mistakes was the Stout I brewed about 10 days ago – read a recipe for 10 gallons, and went to work on it! Alas and alack, I forgot to half the hops!! Wow, are they strong when they are fresh, and double what they should be!! So, a day or two later, I brewed the same recipe, and added no hops!! Tonight, I racked them to secondary, and split them half and half! Quite wonderful, indeed, as I type, I note many mistakes – thank god for spell check! Anyway, I find it beneficial to keep notes, and to try to build on each brewing experience, for me, it has worked! I would really enjoy sharing some of your brewing experiences in the Worthouse News.
By the way, have you shared your brewing experiences with a buddy, family member, and friend? I recently had the son of a friend of mine, visit at my office. Michael gave me a great hand, by grinding about 5 pounds of two row – I will be ready to brew again!!
And, the great part, he is only 11, and therefore, didn't drink a beer!! The moral, he loved it, and learned a lot, so he will be the next generation!
Finally, we need to energize the membership! I propose a couple of things – tastings every meeting – bring your beers, let the experts rank them, and let us taste them!!! And, the second part of that is, can we fool the experts? Can we ask them what the ingredients of our beers might be? Oops, I forgot, I also propose that we do some “kit” challenges!! Any takers?

Web sites

Just a few this month!!!

The Cellar Homebrew
www.cellar-homebrew.com/
A good site, interesting internal search engine.

Real Beer Page
www.realbeer.com
Lots of good stuff!

Underground Homebrewing Supply
www.undergrounddigital.com
I like this one! A very good catalogue, and, a couple of links

Beer100
www.beer100.com
A USA links page touching lots of brewpubs – if you are US bound, this is the one for you!

Cask Conditioned Ale

One of the real pleasures of home brewing is in recreating styles of beer that are extinct, virtually extinct or at the very least, unavailable in your region of habitation. One of the cult classics of the beer world that fits into these categories is cask conditioned ale and its more restrictively defined sister, real ale. These were the classic pub beers of Great Britain, that with the rise of the mega breweries of the mid to late 20 th century, were largely extirpated from their homeland in favour of bland, fizzy commercial shlock ales and more recently, Eurolagers. However, as most of us know, with the rise of CAMRA, Campaign for Real Ales, there has been a resurgence of interest and demand for real ales, although it is unlikely to ever approach it's former popularity.
To the mega brewer, cask conditioned ales and real ales are a real pain. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, because they are not served with the "benefit" of CO2 they have a very limited lifespan, only a few days after being tapped. Limited shelf life is a primary concern for modern brewers. Secondly, the beers required knowledgeable publicans who understood beer and knew when to tap it and how to handle it. With the destruction of the Ma and Pa locals, the person serving the beer was likely to be an ignorant bar rat with no understanding of the beer. This forced the breweries to have to take on the job of conditioning the beer themselves. This meant keeping beer on their premise that they had already paid tax on and it meant hiring workers to do that job. Both undesirable for big breweries. Finally, real ale does not travel well. The old rule of thumb was that you could not ship a real ale farther than the distance a team of horses could travel to and return in a day.
Obviously, for mega brewers intent on capturing national markets, sales districts in the order of a 100 sq. km were not going to be economically feasible. So real ale was steadily weaned out and replaced by keg conditioned ales and bottles.
To capture a national market British brewers have followed a trend of reducing product diversity, focusing on a few national brands. Much of the beer has been dummied down in terms of original gravity of which a significant portion now comes from sugar or molasses.
To fight this loss of product quality and to preserve the heritage of the British brewing industry CAMRA has lobbied both the brewing industry and government. The pressure the brewers to maintain what few real ales and cask conditioned ales they still produce and they lobby the government to prevent takeovers of small and regional breweries by national and international corporations.
What are real or cask conditioned ales?
Because cask conditioned beers are exposed to oxygen once they are tapped, they have a very limited lifespan - often measured in days. The beers will become progressively more dull and tangy. Because the beers are served so young, usually within 10-14 days of being brewed, they have a fresh character highly prized by lovers of real ale. A beers unique characters tend to stand out as they do not have a chance to blend through aging. Again, to mega brewers trying to appeal to a mass market, they do no want their products to have unique flavor characteristics - another reason for the demise of real ale.
Because cask conditioned ales are served from their secondary fermentation vessel they typically do not have a big hop aroma. British brewers prefer to dry hop for hop aroma, but adding hops to the serving vessel is problematic as they can plug up the equipment and they are hard to clean out.
To my understanding "cask conditioned ales" are a broader class that includes within it "real ale." Cask conditioned ales are any ale in which the beer undergoes its secondary fermentation in the cask it is to be served from. That is, it is literally cask conditioned. Real ale is a cask-conditioned ale in which the cask is made of wood. That simple difference is important because wood will breath whereas stainless steel tanks will not. Air and microbial activity will have a more pronounced affect on real ales giving them a unique flavor profile compared to other cask-conditioned ales. All cask-conditioned beers are supposed to be served only under the influence of air. Carbon dioxide tanks are not allowed in the production of traditional cask conditioned ales. All the carbonation in the beer comes from the secondary ferment in the conditioning tank. Thus carbonation levels of cask -conditioned ales are going to be much lower than in keg beer conditioned with CO2.
This is one of the reasons why traditional British Bitters, no matter how bitter or flavored with hops, are allowed to have little to no hop aroma. The one exception was India Pale Ale. In those beers the benefits of hops antiseptic quality to enhance d product stability on the long sea voyage outweighed the hassle of their serving and cleaning problems. However, most real ales have a relatively low hop character and thus are classically: ordinary and best bitters, milds, Scottish ales, and at the high end, old, strong and scotch ale.
Also, since these beers are served right from the conditioning tank they cannot be filtered. Clarification is done by use of isinglass. The lack of filtration lends itself to maintaining more of the ales original character. However, mega breweries often use sterile filtration, done at an extremely small pore diameter, to enhance product stability. The cost of this practice however is that it also filters out many flavor compounds. To a schlock mega brewer this flavor reduction is a small price to pay for increased shelf life.
From the above we can derive some of the flavor profile of typical cask conditioned ale. It will be low in conditioning and will have a fresh, clean rich taste. It will lack the crispness that comes from CO2 acidity, but on the other hand its flavors will not be masked by the carbonation level. It will most likely be balanced towards the malt and will have only a light hop bouquet, if any. Further, as these beers are conditioned at cellar temperatures, they will be served at around 55 F (13 C). This relatively warm temperature, compared to modern bar serving temperatures, allows for maximum beer flavors to come through. In a word, these will be the freshest, most flavorful malt dominated ales possible.
Home-brewed Cask Conditioned Ales
Since there is no such thing as a bottle conditioned cask-conditioned ale, those of you without a keg are out of luck. Those of you who have a kegging system have the opportunity to recreate these classic beer styles. They are not at all difficult to do and you can adjust the level of "authenticity" to suit your own brewing preferences.
Malts
You want a malt that is going to clear easily and this requires a well -modified malt with a low protein level. Our locally available Westcan Malt works just fine.
Conditioning
Start your primary ferment pretty much as normal. Let the beer go until the yeast breaks from the surface or your airlock pops once every 15 seconds. You might want to let the beer have an extra day just to make sure it is fermented. This is because the next thing you ideally want to do is stick the primary in a fridge for 3-5 days. This forces much of the yeast out of suspension and helps clarify the beer. Remember, you are going to be serving from your secondary, so it is desirable to get rid of a lot of sediment and yeast before racking into the tank. The fridge does not have to be really cold. Many brewers cool to only 50 F or 10 C. However, I find that 45 F works very well.
After the beer has cold conditioned rack it into your keg and gently stir in your finings. I prefer isinglass as I find it rapidly gives very clear beer and it settles out fairly well to the bottom of the tank. I gently rock or bang on the container every two days or so for the first week to knock the isinglass off the sides of the tank and ensure that it all settles to the bottom.
In terms of conditioning there is some controversy at this point; and so here you have an opportunity to make some decisions about how much of a purist you are going to be. Hard core real ale purists demand no CO2 in the tank other than what comes from the secondary ferment. To handle this situation you will need to make or acquire a rack to hold your keg. You need to tip the keg at an angle with the top down and with the short (normally gas in) tube at the bottom and the long (normally beer out) tube at the top. You will then serve the beer by connecting your cobra hose or beer engine to the short tube to let your beer pour out under its own pressure. You will need to periodically release air into the keg by depressing the long tube valve. In this way you are truly making and serving traditional cask conditioned ale. It will be exposed to the air within a few days and will develop some classic oxidized flavors prized by aficionados. Also, your sediment will settle near the lid of the keg and your short tube will likely be above the sediment, yielding clear beer from the first pour. The disadvantage of this purity is that your beer will go bad within a few days to at most a week. Unless you can consume 5 gallons of beer in a week, (big family, a big party, you're an alcoholic) this is probably not the best choice.
Faced with a relatively low demand for real ales modern brewers will now often put a little corn sugar into the secondary. This allows a thin blanket of CO2 to form over the beer and improves shelf life. It can also yield a bit higher level of carbonation which is more likely to appeal to the modern beer consumer. After much whining, but faced with the reality of losing even more beers to keg versions, CAMRA has relented on this practice and will now accept that a beer can be called cask conditioned if it is conditioned with a bit of sugar.
However, they will still not accept a brewer using a CO2 tank to put a thin layer of CO2 into the cask. To my mind this is ridiculous. There is no effective difference, except to produce less sediment (desirable), between using sugar to condition a beer and using a CO2 tank. Both will carbonate a beer and both will produce a protective blanket. In fact, by injecting CO2 into the tank you can better control your gas level and keep it low. A number of breweries are arguing this point.
For myself, I follow the latter method. Product stability is more important than absolute purity of purpose. I set my regulator to the lowest point where I can inject CO2 into my tank. I then add my finings, pump in some gas and let it settle. Then I release the pressure, open the tank and rack in the beer beneath the gas cloud. I then pump in the gas again and let the beer sit until it is conditioned.
I let my casks condition about a week before I start to consume the beer. You can see that from the time you brew to the time you consume is about 14 days, or about 2 weeks faster than normal keg conditioned beer. A real advantage of cask -conditioned beer is that you can whip one up on pretty short notice.
Hopping
As I mentioned above, most cask-conditioned ales are balanced towards the malt so hop bouquet is not a necessary character of these beers. However, there are a number of ways you can get hop bouquet. Firstly, you can late hop in the last 5 minutes of the boil. This produces a soft hop bouquet, similar to Eurolagers, which would seem to be very appropriate for cask conditioned ales. Secondly, you can put leaf hops into your hop back but this tends to be inefficient on a homebrew scale. Thirdly, you can dry hop in your primary for the 3-5 days the beer is in the fridge. As ferment activity will be very low you should not have the risk of the hops plugging up the airlock. I would use pellet hops as they will "dissolve" into the beer. Leaf hops are likely to just float on the surface. Lastly, you could put the hops into a hop sock and throw it into the cask. It has been suggested that a very large tea ball could be partially filled with pellet hops and put into the cask. I like that idea but have not yet tried it. Leave space in the ball as the hops will expand when soaked with beer.
That's all there is to making cask conditioned ale using homebrew methods. The practice can easily be adapted by anyone who has a kegging system. A fridge may not even be necessary if you brew them during the winter and you have a cold room in your house.

Gold And Other Medals

Nothing New that I am aware of, however, these EHG members are all representing Canada with their brewing prowess!

Jim Beebe
Harry Wagner (4)
Dean Fikar (2)
Maurice Lemieux
Frank Kuzemski
Roxy Hastings
Ian MacLaren (3)
John Tyler
Joe Lindsay
Dwayne Dunn
Ken Nybeck
Jim Scott
Greg Burns
Shawn Scott

Of course, some of the above are not our members, but simply won at our competition! Well done crew!
MCAB is being held on April 27 th in sunny California! Anyone planning to attend?
Finally, AHA memberships, and Zymurgy can be subscribed to at: www.beertown.org
That's all for now!