View from the Top

Once again I am caught with too little time and too much to say. So I will focus on two upcoming events that are very important for club members to participate in. First the Great Canadian Homebrew Competition (GCHC) in Toronto and secondly, the Regina Ales Competition.

GCHC

This is an important event for a number of reason, foremost being that it provides entry for the top 3 beers in each class to move on to the American Homebrewers Association annual national competition. This is also the event that allows us to gain the most points in the AHA’s national ranking of top clubs in North America. Until last year we were the number one club in Canada and have always been in the top 10. Last year Regina took the title of best club in Canada and came in the top five. This year we have a chance to regain that title, given that I have already scored a significant number of points by winning the British Bitter Best Club competition. With a bit of effort we should do well this year. As you are undoubtably aware the Guild is subsidizing the shipping of your entries to this competition. In order to make this happen you need to bring your entries (2 bottles for each entry ,completed entry form, and entry fees) to the April meeting. We will be packaging the beers for a group shipping at the meeting. Bring a wine box if you have one – it will really help. The details for this competition are included in this newsletter. Please go for it and compete. Show you’re proud to represent Edmonton in this national level competition. You don’t have to be a seasoned expert. Regina won the competition last year based largely on novice brewers submitting extract brews.

Regina Ales

Once again our sister club in Regina is hosting a competition that strongly encourages all levels of competitors. The ALES go out of their way to encourage brewers to enter their competition as an educational experience. They charge $5.00 per entry for first 5 entries, any entry above that is no charge – so it’s very inexpensive to send multiple entries. You can enter as many times as you want within a subclass. They actually encourage you to enter a single beer in many subclasses so that you can get multiple opinions on what style your beer is. It should be no surprise, therefore that in the past few years this has become Canada’s second Largest competition – our’s being the largest.

Regina has always given fantastic support to our competition – we would not be number one without them. I encourage you to reciprocate their generosity and send them some beers. We really hope Regina is able to break the 200 mark this year. I do not have a workable version of Regina’s entry form. But it can be downloaded at www.alesclub.com I will have Gunther email the version to all members on our list when I am able to get a working copy.

Let’s meet at Alley Kat at 11:00 AM on Saturday April 19 to package up the beers. I will take them to Pak Mail for shipping. If you can’t make that date, drop your entries off at Alley Kat sometime before the 19th. I would like to send at least 40 entries to Regina. To help reach that goal, I will commit myself to sending at least 8 entries. Again, shipping will be subsidized by the Guild.

Kudos

Once again Edmonton struck for metal in a regional competition. At the Lethbridge Werthogs annual competition Bruce Sample took a silver medal in Light Ales and I took a silver in Light Lagers. Gold in Light Ales went to long distance member Tim Oborn, who wrote the BJCP exam with us. I understand that Greg Wondga had a hand in brewing that entry. This was a combined class competition where you not only had to win in your style but also against all beers in the class. So it was a true mark of excellent brewing to medal in this one. Showing their typical strong support for regional competitions, Regina sent in between 20-30% of the entries and took well over 50% of the medals.

Bits and Pieces

1. For the first time in our history, the executive decided to not completely stop club meetings during the summer. While there will be no meeting in July, there will be one in August. It will be a casual outdoor BBQ and we hope to hold it on the evening of Friday the 8th. It will be held in the backyard of Roxy Hastings. The house has a big covered back deck and a big sunny yard. The beer style for the evening will be American Pale Ale. We hope this helps maintain our momentum and gets our members in swing for the September AGM.
2. We are taking July off but we want to compete as many times as possible in the AHA club only competition. Therefore, we have decided that the EHG member who ranks highest (I wanted to say, who takes gold ) in the European Pale Lager category of the ABC will represent the club in the AHA club only competition. That competition is being held in early August.

BURRP

Just a reminder that at May’s meeting we will be tasting the results of the BURRP brews. We have about 15 members participating. It’ll be a real interesting event. Already I know there is an amazing variety of beers being produced from the simple starting point of 10 lbs of pale malt. Neil and I introduced three new members to the joy of all-grain brewing helping create a Belgian Ale, Munich Dunkel and a British Pale Ale.

Great Glory at March in Montreal

Two Albertans shone at the March in Montreal competition. Our very own Roxy scored a first place with a Dunkelweizen (watch out, Günther), second place with British Bitter and Munich Helles and third place with his Saison. Veryl Todd form Lethbridge won a first with his Octoberfest. Congratulations to both.

Calling all beer enthusiasts !!

Let's go to Original Joes, where all the cool kats go to quaff their favourite malt beverages!

Matt and Barry of Originals Joes have extended an invitation to all guild members to drop by for a superior dining and drinking experience.

Original Joes dining menu offers a wide choice of appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches and entrees plus the best desserts and coffees. First time visitors can't go wrong with "Joe's double dog", a charbroiled European all beef wiener with onions, Roma tomatoes and special sauce. Yum!

Original Joes also has an excellent variety of beverages to please all. Choose from red and white wines, cocktails and an excellent selection of beers on tap including your favourite Alley Kat beer. Burp!

For those who have not visited Original Joes, they are located at 12520-102 Ave, phone 452-3034 if you need more information. Visit their website at www.originaljoes.ca.

Please introduce yourself to Matt or Barry, they're the busy guys behind the bar. Tell them "The Guild" sent you.

What, you're still reading this ? Put down this newsletter and get yourself down to Original Joes, you're in for a good time. Don't forget to bring your friends.

Upcoming Out of Town Competitions

Great Canadian Homebrew Competition – CABA sponsored – AHA qualifier

Where: Toronto
Entries Due: 19 April
Styles: Full BJCP/AHA including meads and cider. 2 bottles per entry. Standard rules of 1 entry per subclass
Fees: $6.00 CABA members, $9.00 non members. Fifth and additional $5.00 CABA members. If you win and proceed to AHA there is an additional small charge levied by AHA for competing. (In turn AHA defers all 1st round fees to CABA – good deal for all Canadians)
Website: http://www.realbeer.com/caba
Ship to: Magnotta Brewery
271 Chrislea Road
Vaughan, Ontario,
L4L 8N6

I highly encourage all members to compete in this national level competition. This is THE competition for clubs to gain points for the AHA brew club of the year. It is very important to the international stature of our competition for us to score high in the AHA standings. For a number of years we were the best club at this competition and ranked as the number one club in Canada. But last year Regina took it by storm – in part because only 2 EHG members competed instead of our usual 7-11. Time to recapture the crown boys. Get brewing for this one. It’s a great pretest for Regina and ABC. Top 3 beers in each class go on to compete in AHA annual national competition in May. The EHG will subsidize the cost of a group shipping of beers to this event.

ALES Annual Open Homebrew Competition

Where: Regina
Entries due: in early May. 2 bottles per entry. No limit to entries per subclass.
Styles: Full BJCP/AHA including meads.
Fees: $5.00/ entry for first five entries; 6th and more – NO CHARGE!
Send to:
The Bushwakker Brewpub
2206 Dewdney Avenue
Regina, Saskatchewan
S4R 1H3
Contact:
Kelly Deis 1- 306-761-1942
kbdeis@accesscomm.ca
I can’t say enough good things about this most excellent
brew club. These guys have worked hard and now host
the second largest competition in Canada, with ours
being the only larger one. Last year they had 133 entries
and they are looking to break the magic 150 and move
up 1 level in competition rank to get more judging
points. The ALES have given ABC just fantastic support
over the last number of years and I highly encourage
Edmonton to return the favour. It would be awesome if
we helped them break the 150 level. Besides, they need
some friendly competition on their home turf
It is interesting that Regina encourages lots of kit beer
entries and attributes much of their success to
encouraging non-all-grain brewers to compete.
Apparently many of their wins in GCHC were not from
grain brewers. So get brewing extract men – we need
you!
The EHG will subsidize the cost of a group shipping of beers to this event.

Marquis de Suds

Where: Calgary
Entries Due: June 18th
Judging: June 21
No other information available at this time. The plan right now is to have 6-8 mixed styles groups with 3 bottles per entry. Special this year in honor of the solstice; the “Best Lawnmower Beer” award for the most thirst quenching, session beer of the comp.
Email: timoborn@shaw.ca

This competition is being revised by one of our BJCP participants, Tim Oborn. Tim is really pumped to make this event happen. Let’s make sure we send a whole bunch of beers to Calgary to help get this competition rejuvinated. I here Regina is planning to compete heavily. Let’s end the competition season with another victory for Edmonton and Alberta! Tim will be coming up to Edmonton to judge at the ABC – I bet we can ship our entries back with him. Tim says he’ll be looking for judges from Edmonton to help out; it’ll be a good chance for our judges to get some more competition points this year.

More information on these and other competitions will be posted every month. If you have some solid information on these competitions please email me directly with the data. Entry forms for all these competitions are attached to this newsletter.

It's the chips, stupid

There's a game on TV, so you grab a beer and a bag of chips and you settle in. The chips leave you a little thirsty, so you grab another beer. After a while, you notice that the chips are almost gone and it's not even halftime. You jump in the car at the break, go and pick up a Burger King Whopper and a bag of fries and return for the second half. Of course, you have to drink another beer.

OK, it's not "just the chips," but the calories in three beers (450 for "average" beers) don't add up to the calories in a Whopper (650), or an 8-ounce bag of potato chips (1,200), or a large order of fries (500) at a fast food restaurant.

As noted elsewhere, if you drink one 12-ounce bottle of beer every day and don't otherwise alter your diet or your exercise regime then you can expect to gain about 15 pounds over the course of a year. Something has to give. We sure don't advocate giving up eating, but it seldom hurts to get more excercise or to think about what you are eating.

Meanwhile, here are the calorie counts for food and drink you might consider discretionary:

• A five-ounce glass of wine 125 calories (that's average, and like beer may vary quite a bit).
• One ounce of distilled spirits, 90 proof, 75 calories.
• Bloody Mary (1.5 ounces vodka), 130 calories.
• Pina colada (8 ounces), 465 calories.
• Long Island iced tea (8 ounces), 225 calories.
• Martini (3 ounces), 190 calories.
• Margarita (8 ounces), 300 calories.
• Mint Julep (10 ounces), 210 calories.
• Pretzel sticks, 1 ounce, 115 calories.
• Plain salted peanuts, 1 ounce, 160 calories.
• Air-popped popcorn, 1 cup, 31 calories.
• Oil-popped with butter, 1 cup, 115 calories.
• Milk chocolate bar, 1.5 ounces, 225 calories.
• Peanut M&Ms, 1 package, 250 calories.
• Snickers, 1 bar, 280 calories.
• Cashew nuts, 3.5 ounces, 575 calories.
• Large taco, 575 calories.
• Onion rings, 8, 175 calories.
• Milk shake, 360 calories.
• A banana split, 550 calories.

When to say when

Although some customers complain, the Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington, Vt., limits customers to two pints of beer an hour, knowing full well alcohol has a cumulative effect.

The fact is, alcohol affects individuals differently. Your blood alcohol level will be influenced by your age, gender, physical condition, amount of food consumed and any drugs or medication. The altitude where you are drinking makes a difference, as does the strength of the beer.

Those factors all complicate the ongoing debate about how much you can drink before it is unsafe to drive. However, in most states, if your blood- alcohol limit is above .08% then it is not legal for you to drive, and legal is legal. We present these charts with that in mind.

We also return our thoughts to the Vermont Pub & Brewery. In it's pub area there is a Ben Franklin saying, "All things in moderation," etched beautfiully in glass. That is worth remembering wherever you drink. These charts offer approximate blood alcohol percentages that would be expected for men and women of about these weights and for various amounts consumed. Remember, in most states .08% is the number to remember. One drink is considered 1.25 ounces of 80 proof spirits, one 12- ounce serving of "regular" (5% abv) beer or 5 ounces of table wine. Also, subtract .01% for each 40 minutes of drinking.

India Pale Ale Revival

Objective: To receive a traditional style India Pale Ale similar to the style being brewed and shipped to India DURING THE LATE 18TH century. The brewing process, the recipe, and the environment of which the ale will age will all be similar to the process used by English brewers during this time period.

Announcement: IPA's are popular in the Northwest as a lot of our palates yearn for that hop profile only found in these bitter ales. Brewer's know the history of this ale and recreate their own derivations using modern processes, ingredients and conditioning practices. IPA was founded on the basis of brewing an ale that could last the long voyage from England to India and still arrive fresh, 4 months later.

A Brief History: In the mid to late 18th century English brewers saw a huge market potential in the East Indies for distribution of their fine ales to the English troops and an increasing number of English civilians. In the first few attempts these darker style ales would arrive in India musty and sour due to the long sea voyage. A wine merchant by the name of Kenton came up with the idea of uncorking these ales, allowing them to go flat and then re-corking them right before shipping. This process added a sort of second carbonation briskness to the ale from being shook up in the hulls of the ships. Two problems still existed at this point. The first problem was the beer still had little to no shelf life after the voyage, and second the dark ales of England were not so desirable in the heat of India.

Along came an idea from George Hodgson a brewer at the Bow Brewery in East London. Hodgson took hi popular English pale ale, increased the alcohol content and the hop profile, dry hopped the heck out of it and added more sugar than usual to the wood casks before shipping. These factors acting together would allow the beer to maintain its quality during the 4 month voyage from England to India and was drink ably preferred in the Indian heat.

Intent: The Raccoon Lodge & Brew Pub is launching a traditional IPA reenactment. This specially brewed IPA will begin in our brew house and be conditioned in oak barrels much like the barrels used to store the beer during its rigorous 3-4 month voyage from England to India. The Raccoon Den will feature storyboards and maps of the 4 month voyage form start to finish. Every month the "Hinny" ship will reach a port of call where one of the 4 oak barrels will be tapped to taste the beer at different points of its voyage.

On June 15th, after the 4month voyage to India, the final barrel will be tapped and inspected by the official tasters whose evaluations could deny the beer entry into India. If accepted, the beer will then reach the masses in India for consumption.

Taken with permission from an e-mail by Ron Gansberg, head brewer and "Chief Imagineer" of Raccoon Lodge Brewery