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A Fest for Sore Arms BY Brian Vessa (Published in the November 1996 Brews and News) Greetings Fellow Falcons! The Maltose Falcon's Oktoberfest party has to rank among one of the most fun fests in years. Biff Tate organized this fall's brew event in a grand style. Bill and Molly Ellis gave us 3 tapes with German/Oktoberfest music, which really set the mood. They said we can keep them, too! Thank you so much--I think it really made the day more authentic in spirit. Of course, we had all kinds of great beer--there was plenty of homebrew was on tap all day, most of it excellent! In addition we were lucky enough to have donated kegs from Ben Madden at Westwood Brewing (ESB) , Curits Womach at Southern California Brewing (Marzen and Blonde), and Alex Puchner at BJ's Pizza (IPA). While the Maltose Falcon's Brews Band played its first set, people lined up to see how far they could throw a half barrel keg full of water (roughly 120 pounds). I heard that not only the macho men, but also some adventurous females attempted this feat of strength and agility. The contest winner was Rob Nuville-congratulations! After that, we had an delicious meal of sausage, sauerkraut, spicy red cabbage, hot pretzels with homeade mustard, and........those ribs. Those incredible, absolutely perfectly cooked, melt-in-your-mouth ribs. Our new Burgermeister Gary Smith and company cooked up one mean meal, let me tell you! Gary works at a restaurant, and apparantly got the main supplies from there. I know I ate more ribs than I ever have in my life........Thanks also to those who cooked and donated all the scrumptuous side dishes and baked goods--especially great for munchies later...... After lunch, we had another contest. This was to see who could hold a German Pint of beer outstretched to arm's length the longest. There were several rounds of this, complete with German music and drum rolls from yours truly. I guess we were having a lot of fun, because I can't remember who won the men's final round--I do remember that Lily Wissell won the ladies round......... In a gesture of zaniness, Chris Flower offered $100 to the club if another round would be undertaken--this time for a minimum of 10 minutes, with various poses thrown in for discomfort.....it was crazy indeed. The winners of this masochistic contest were Matt Cotter and Scott Griffiths from Rhino Chasers. I even saw people go back and do more keg throwing later! There was a lot of fun, hooting and heckling during these events--maybe we're on to something??? Tom Rowland conducted the raffle, which featured many great glassware and clothing items, as well as some very fine bottled beers. After plenty of brew had been enjoyed, the band played a long second set of boogie blues and rock, including three new songs. Tom even played some tunes with us, which he hasn't been able to do since his injury. When we finished, people were actually screaming for more, so I chowed down on more of "those ribs", quaffed a few brews that I hadn't tried yet, and then we did a short 3rd set. By that time, there were very few people left, so we decided to pack up and not do a Dead Palates Society meeting this time. All in all, a very well organized, excellent Oktoberfest. A hearty thanks to those that came the next day and cleaned up! Thanks also to our loyal hostess Barbara Antler, who let us use her place for the umteenth time, and she wasn't even there! This club owes her big time. We had thirteen entries for the Maltose Falcons' Oktoberfest Competition, a small but good showing. Rusty Reece, Doug King and I judged them, and picked Ken Fay's cider as Best of Show, and Bruce Wenzel's IPA as runner-up. Both were absolutely delicious, and it was a very tough decision. Congratulations to both of you, and thanks to all that entered. The AHA Club-Only Competition for Best of Fest went unnoticed by the Falcon's this time. We had no entries at all. I guess we don't have many lager brewers? Oh well......There is still time for Belgian Blockbuster entries to be brought to the November 3rd meeting, or to the shop by November 4th. Bruce Brode will be serving Lambics for the Beer Style of the Month tasting at the November meeting, and a shop brew will follow during the month, but unfortunately this is a bit late for the contest, although never too late for the palate! (Even if it's dead......) I'm greatly looking foward to this tasting. On the disappointing side of the news, flaky Falcons have caused the treasury to lose $225 paying for a bus that never left on the Pasadena Pub Crawl. Not only that, but the breweries we intended to visit will remember this for a long time. At the last board meeting, we all agreed that no Falcon activity of this sort will be undertaken ever again without full payment from those who want to attend at the meeting prior to the event, or a minimum of 3 weeks ahead. Money will be refunded to those who paid if the event is cancelled due to lack of committed interest. I hope we can continue to schedule activities in the future--there are many things I know could be interesting and fun to do. Please bring suggestions to the meeting, or call our new Activities Director David Janss at (818) 881-1738 In an effort to bring you your newsletter as timely as possible, we are moving up the deadline date a couple of days. It will generally be ten days after the meeting (a Wednesday). This allows the editor and membership director reasonable time to assemble, proofread, print and mail the newsletter without being in panic mode. I would also like to encourage more Falcons to get involved in writing for the newsletter. It seems we have the same people all the time........If you have email, you can submit your article to Steve Keppler at <keppler@ix.netcom.com>. If you're not on line, even if you don't have a computer , write one anyway and get it to a board member. Don't be shy! The newsletter is only as good as its contents. Don't forget that we also need and appreciate events and competition calendar submissions, recipes, notice of awards for the Winner's Nest, and any other items you'd like to share in print with your fellow Falcons. Also at the board meeting, we put together a calendar for the next year, which I will list separately for this month so members can peruse it easily. If you have any comments or suggestions, bring it up at the meeting or contact me directly beforehand. We will take these into consideration in modifying the calendar if necessary, and then it will be the operating schedule, barring unforseen events. Note that we are interested in working with other clubs and competitions in the state to minimize conflicts, so this has been taken into account. A new feature is the proposal of having the Mayfaire party on April 19th, and a regular meeting in May. This is for several reasons. May is a very full month already, with the Southern California Homebrewers Festival, the first round AHA judging, and Memorial Day. By moving the party to April, it allows members who want to go to Fresno and judge on May 17-18 to do so without missing the Mayfaire, which by the last few years' schedule would have been on that weekend Also, it puts the Mayfaire competition up a bit, so as not to conflict with the myriad of other Spring competitions. Besides, it spreads out the beer related activities on the calendar, which hopefully will make it easier for busy Falcons to attend more events. Hey, they have Oktoberfest in September, don't they? David Janss is working on the Holiday Beer Tasting at the Stuffed Sandwich in San Gabriel. The tentative date is Saturday, December 14th at 1PM. If you've never been to one of these, this is your chance! Sam and Marlene always have incredible beers for us to taste. Bring money and sign up at the November meeting. Also at the November meeting, we will have a lunch demo led by Ken Fay on a professional quality tap delivery system he has designed. This should be a really educational experience. He will be sharing his design parameters and give handouts to all participants. Burgermeister Gary Smith will be serving enchiladas. As usual, we will have a homebrewed beer tasting at 1:00. The last one had so many beers, we couldn't get through them all! There are many fine brewers in this club, and we've been tasting some great beers in the last few months. Please bring yours to share. Bruce will serve Lambics after lunch, a style we all love but may not know much about. I know it will be a great time for all. I'll see you there! |
