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Kickin' Back on the Ranch by Brian Vessa (Published in the July 1996 Brews and News) Greetings to all Falcons! Summer is here, and it's time to enjoy the long days with some cold homebrew and your favorite bar-b-que! Thanks to some quick work by Steve Keppler and Doug King, the June newsletter made it out in time for many Falcons to be reminded of the meeting on the 2nd, which was a mere two weeks after the Mayfaire. There was more attendance than I would have guessed, which was great to see. There were several new faces at the meeting, and I think many of them joined! We had an excellent tasting of homebrewer's beers, including some bitter that had been brewed on the Shop system as part of the style of the month program. I really enjoyed the fact that we got to talk about all of these beers in detail, went over recipes and fielded questions. I found the discussion of first-wort hopping quite fascinating. I've been experimenting with a modified form of this recently, and I can definitely say it increases the hop efficiency and presence in the beer. I love the fact that so many Falcons want to participate in this part of the meeting! Afterwards, we had a short business meeting. There seems to be a lot of interest in the Pasadena Pub Crawl, and we got a lot of sign-ups. I think this will probably happen in September-Mark Poliner is working on it. He is also trying to put together an organized Falcon presence at the Southern California Brewing Company's Oktoberfest, which runs for the last part of September and through Oktober. Our own Oktoberfest will be Oktober 5th, location still to be determined. There is a lot of interest in the Fall tour of Anheuser-Busch, and we may already be at the limit. I'll try to have a date for that by the July meeting. The long-awaited Membership Cards made their appearance at the June meeting--thanks Gary! If you didn't get one at the meeting, it should be included with this newsletter. I think I'm still in shock..... John Leslie told us about a spot for the Sunfest that looks really good. It is the 3 Points Ranch just off Highway 138, east of Highway 5, about an hour north of town. See the article elsewhere in this newsletter for more details. Mark Poliner, our Activities Director, went up to check it out and agreed that it was really a happening place, so I've made arrangements for the weekend of August 2, 3, 4. It is privately owned, and they are going to turn the whole place over to us on Saturday the 3rd. Thanks to John and Susan for finding this place and I know we will enjoy it! After the business part, Matt served an excellent chicken barbecue, with corn on the cob and all the trimmings. Quite a feast, although not too many people took advantage of it. Troubleshooter's Corner participants ate first, so that they could troubleshoot during the lunch break without starving! Rusty Reece filled in for Paul Sedgwick and did a Demo-while-Dining on the subject of wort chillers, which garnered a fair amount of interest. Then, Bruce Brode led us on a tasting of Wheat beers that was definitely worth waiting for--in fact, I counted around 30 Falcons who stayed and participated. There will be a couple of wheat beers brewed on the shop system in late June and early July. Doug King will lead a Wit beer, and Bruce Brode will lead a 100% wheat beer using rice hulls in the mash to prevent the classic "stuck sparge" that can often happen with mashes containing a lot of wheat. These should be excellent Sunfest brews.....All in all, a great meeting, and we were done and out of there by 5PM. The smoke from the barbecue filled the clubhouse again, so the board has decided to take some action. The barbecue will now be located on the other side of the clubhouse, near where you would walk in from the shop (AKA Casselman's Corner.....), and the kegs will be on the other side. Matt and Doug King have installed an exhaust fan on the south side in the wall near the grease board, and a box fan in the window on the north side to encourage air to move North to South, so the smoke should not be a problem. This will also improve the general circulation in the clubhouse and make it more bearable in the summer months. We considered an air conditioner, but with the doors open it really won't work right. Hopefully, this will make being in the clubhouse for meetings much more enjoyable! At the July meeting, we will have the elections for new club officers to be instituted at the Oktoberfest. The nominations are open right up until the election, which will be at the end of the business meeting. There are several positions with no one yet nominated. The ballots will be counted during lunch, and we'll make the announcements after that. Please-let's take this seriously. Have someone nominate you if you can possibly see your way to serving the club as an officer. Come to the meeting and cast your vote in any case! The Maltose Falcons' Brews Band was going to play at Weber's Place on Tuesday night, July 16th, but Tom Rowland injured his hand in a scuba diving accident. We will postpone the gig until August. Best wishes to Tom for a speedy recovery! Well, that's it for this month. Happy Brewing, and I'll see you at the meeting on July 14th. Back to The Roost || Brew Recipes || Brews & News |
