At Friday's club meeting Michael Fairbrother gave us an update on the preparations for the New England Regional Homebrew Competition and it sounds great. Lots of sponsors, a beautiful sounding location (The Shed, in Acton, Maine), swag lined up for judges and stewards, a few entries already registered, and the website is ready for you to enter your beer. You can also sign up to be a judge or a steward at the competition, which I highly recommend as it is a lot of fun, you get to taste a lot of excellent beer, and its the only way you will get one of the awesome swag bags the NERHBC committee is putting together.
I plan to enter a beer in the NERBC this fall, but before it can be entered it needs to be bottled. At Friday's meeting I was talking to Bill Rucker and I mentioned that I was going to buy some more bottles because I didn't want to deal with cleaning the really old messy, still labeled commercial bottles that seem to breed in our cellar. He told me that half a scoop of OxiClean in a 5 gallon bucket of warm water will take the labels off nearly all commercial bottles and will clean the icky stuff (my term, not his) out of the bottoms of old bottles. It worked great! I now have plenty of sparkly clean bottles ready to sanitize and fill and it took twenty-five cents worth of OxiClean. I cleaned a little over 2 cases of bottles and only 2 ended up in the recycle bin because the labels wouldn't come off. They were both Stark Mill Brewery bottles. (I said they were old!) If you bottle your homebrew you should try this. If you don't bottle your homebrew, you should be bringing me your empty bottles. Thanks Bill!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Thanks the the Gosselins!
Yesterday's BFD Cookout was awesome! Great food, great beer on tap, cool people to hang out with, bocce ball, and cornhole. What could be better? A big thanks to Shawn & Dawn Gosselin for letting us all descend upon them.
As I mentioned during the business meeting, the Fitchburg Order of Ale Makers (FOAM) will be holding their Blues and Brews Homebrew Competition on August 16. Entries may be dropped off between July 18th and August 9th at Jaspers Homebrew in Nashua or at various non-NH locations. Entry forms, drop-off locations, and details are on the FOAM website. The results of the competition will be announced at the 2008 BLUES 'N' BREWS FESTIVAL.
As I mentioned during the business meeting, the Fitchburg Order of Ale Makers (FOAM) will be holding their Blues and Brews Homebrew Competition on August 16. Entries may be dropped off between July 18th and August 9th at Jaspers Homebrew in Nashua or at various non-NH locations. Entry forms, drop-off locations, and details are on the FOAM website. The results of the competition will be announced at the 2008 BLUES 'N' BREWS FESTIVAL.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Congratulations John!
The AHA competition winners were just announced (they will be posted in a little while). BFD's own John Allin took the bronze medal in the French and Belgian Ales category! The Brewing Network did a live broadcast of the awards ceremony. Congratulations John!Sunday, June 8, 2008
Meeting at Martha's
The next club meeting will be Friday, June 13 at 7:00pm. We will be meeting at Martha's Exchange in Nashua, hosted by brewer Greg Ouellette. The meeting will be in a private room (ask the hostess to direct you when you come in). Directions are on Martha's website.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
A jockey box for club night.
Jockey Box
A jockey box is a portable dispensing device that's used to chill beer just in time for serving, removing the need to keep kegs of beer cold when serving. A jockey box needs to be functional, easy to use, and ideally pleasant to look at as you are showcasing all the craftsmanship that went into making your homebrew.
It works on the principles that the kegs of beer are sitting at room temperature, and when the beer passes through the heat exchange (coil or cold plate) located in the cooler box the beer temperature will drop to the ideal dispensing temperature. It is the perfect system for large parties or special events such as a family reunion, company picnic, camping, or club night at the National Homebrewers Conference (NHC). As it does not require any electricity it can be set up anywhere. CO2 gas is used to pressurize the keg for dispensing.
Brew Free or Die will be serving it's homebrew at this year's NHC, this is will be our third year of attending and serving beer at club night. Last year we took top honors by winning best beer at club night with a Zeus IPA from Todd Russell. The jockey box that I had previously built consisted of a 5-way cold plate (capable of serving 5 beers at one time). It had worked great over the last several years, but I really wanted to increase the number of beer/mead/cider that could be on draft, and I really showcase our homebrew, here's how I went about it.
I found a 7-way cold plate on ebay. I have had very consistent results with both types of heat exchangers (coils, cold plates), however I am not sure it's practical to have 7 coils inside one cooler. A cold plate consists of cast aluminum block with stainless steel coils inside of it, the cold plate for this project weights in at 26 lbs.
I wanted a wooden exterior for the jockey box. While on my way to the hardware store to pick up the raw materials that I would need to build one from scratch, I took a quick tour of HomeGoods and I found exactly what I needed. It's a outdoor wooden cooler that's meant to match the deck furniture. The price was about half that of anything I had found on line. It was unfinished, designed to be taken apart with a hex wrench, and designed to take the abuse of being outside for extended periods of time. All it needed was to be finished, and some other minor changes.
Getting the cooler home I completely disassembled it so that I had 5 panels, where I proceeded to sand, and polyurethane. Each layer of polyurethane must be allowed to dry completely (24 hours), then sanded with at minimum 200 grit paper, cleaned of dust and then a new layer of polyurethane applied.
I enhanced the structural integrity of the wooden exterior so that I could add handles to the side for easier jockeying around, and I wanted to ensure that the faucets would have enough support. Taking a 1/4" thick piece of plywood, I glued and secured the plywood to the slats on the sides where the handles were going, and the where the faucets were going to be paced.
Here's what the jockey box looked like after getting polyurethane applied:
Given that the hinges and the connectors had a brass finishes, I choose to keep all the accents in brass, including the drip tray, handles for carrying, and additional accents pieces, etc.
Here's a photo of the interior of the jockey box:
Given that a jockey box is often on a table, I didn't want the inbound tubing exiting from the back of the jockey box, where it would be visible. So with the cooler disassembled I drilled the 7 holes for the inbound beer lines, and then ran them down between the wooden exterior and the cooler. I connected the in and out lines in the picture above so I could keep track of which line is going to be which for final assembly. I am using 3/16" ID PVC tubing for the beer line, ordered a 100' as it was more cost efficient. I use hose clamps on all fittings. Nothing worse than opening a jockey box and seeing it full of your beer... this did happen to me at an event quite a number of years back. The handles shown in the picture above provide easy way for carrying the jockey box.
Next up is working out the logistics of where to place the faucets. I had 17.5 inch surface to work with allowing me to center the faucets every 2.5 inches allowing them equally spaced. A 7/8" hole saw was used to cut the holes for the faucets. I was extremely worried about making a mistake at this stage, and measured twice to ensure I had accurate center marks before I drilled. Also of consideration is the height of the faucets.
Here's a photo of the drip tray slider that I built, likely easier ways to do this but this is the best I could come up with that would allow me to hide the drip tray for storage and shipping, and allow for it to be extended without visible supports. This photo shows the underneath of the jockey box, I used two 5 inch sections of copper pipe, and a 10" dowel. It's set back 5 inches from the edge of the jockey box, a section of plywood is attached to the two dowels, and then I secured the support tray (oak board pictured) to the piece of plywood. Using a screw at the end of each dowel prevents the drip tray from being extended too far.
Here's a photo of the drip tray hidden:
Here the drip tray is extended:
Michael Fairbrother
Treasurer Brew Free or Die
Life time member of AHA
A jockey box is a portable dispensing device that's used to chill beer just in time for serving, removing the need to keep kegs of beer cold when serving. A jockey box needs to be functional, easy to use, and ideally pleasant to look at as you are showcasing all the craftsmanship that went into making your homebrew.
It works on the principles that the kegs of beer are sitting at room temperature, and when the beer passes through the heat exchange (coil or cold plate) located in the cooler box the beer temperature will drop to the ideal dispensing temperature. It is the perfect system for large parties or special events such as a family reunion, company picnic, camping, or club night at the National Homebrewers Conference (NHC). As it does not require any electricity it can be set up anywhere. CO2 gas is used to pressurize the keg for dispensing.
Brew Free or Die will be serving it's homebrew at this year's NHC, this is will be our third year of attending and serving beer at club night. Last year we took top honors by winning best beer at club night with a Zeus IPA from Todd Russell. The jockey box that I had previously built consisted of a 5-way cold plate (capable of serving 5 beers at one time). It had worked great over the last several years, but I really wanted to increase the number of beer/mead/cider that could be on draft, and I really showcase our homebrew, here's how I went about it.
I found a 7-way cold plate on ebay. I have had very consistent results with both types of heat exchangers (coils, cold plates), however I am not sure it's practical to have 7 coils inside one cooler. A cold plate consists of cast aluminum block with stainless steel coils inside of it, the cold plate for this project weights in at 26 lbs.
I wanted a wooden exterior for the jockey box. While on my way to the hardware store to pick up the raw materials that I would need to build one from scratch, I took a quick tour of HomeGoods and I found exactly what I needed. It's a outdoor wooden cooler that's meant to match the deck furniture. The price was about half that of anything I had found on line. It was unfinished, designed to be taken apart with a hex wrench, and designed to take the abuse of being outside for extended periods of time. All it needed was to be finished, and some other minor changes.
Getting the cooler home I completely disassembled it so that I had 5 panels, where I proceeded to sand, and polyurethane. Each layer of polyurethane must be allowed to dry completely (24 hours), then sanded with at minimum 200 grit paper, cleaned of dust and then a new layer of polyurethane applied.
I enhanced the structural integrity of the wooden exterior so that I could add handles to the side for easier jockeying around, and I wanted to ensure that the faucets would have enough support. Taking a 1/4" thick piece of plywood, I glued and secured the plywood to the slats on the sides where the handles were going, and the where the faucets were going to be paced.
Here's what the jockey box looked like after getting polyurethane applied:
Given that the hinges and the connectors had a brass finishes, I choose to keep all the accents in brass, including the drip tray, handles for carrying, and additional accents pieces, etc.
Here's a photo of the interior of the jockey box:
Given that a jockey box is often on a table, I didn't want the inbound tubing exiting from the back of the jockey box, where it would be visible. So with the cooler disassembled I drilled the 7 holes for the inbound beer lines, and then ran them down between the wooden exterior and the cooler. I connected the in and out lines in the picture above so I could keep track of which line is going to be which for final assembly. I am using 3/16" ID PVC tubing for the beer line, ordered a 100' as it was more cost efficient. I use hose clamps on all fittings. Nothing worse than opening a jockey box and seeing it full of your beer... this did happen to me at an event quite a number of years back. The handles shown in the picture above provide easy way for carrying the jockey box.
Next up is working out the logistics of where to place the faucets. I had 17.5 inch surface to work with allowing me to center the faucets every 2.5 inches allowing them equally spaced. A 7/8" hole saw was used to cut the holes for the faucets. I was extremely worried about making a mistake at this stage, and measured twice to ensure I had accurate center marks before I drilled. Also of consideration is the height of the faucets.
Here's a photo of the drip tray slider that I built, likely easier ways to do this but this is the best I could come up with that would allow me to hide the drip tray for storage and shipping, and allow for it to be extended without visible supports. This photo shows the underneath of the jockey box, I used two 5 inch sections of copper pipe, and a 10" dowel. It's set back 5 inches from the edge of the jockey box, a section of plywood is attached to the two dowels, and then I secured the support tray (oak board pictured) to the piece of plywood. Using a screw at the end of each dowel prevents the drip tray from being extended too far.
Here's a photo of the drip tray hidden:
Here the drip tray is extended:
Michael Fairbrother
Treasurer Brew Free or Die
Life time member of AHA
Sunday, May 11, 2008
BJCP Category 16 (Belgian & French Ales) Club Competition
It's time to brew up something funky for summer! The winner of the Brown Ale Competition picked Belgian and French Ales for the next club competition. This is BJCP Category 16 under the 2004 Style Guidelines. Brew a Witbier, Belgian Pale Ale, Saison, Biere de Garde, or Belgian Specialty Ale in time for tasting in August. Regardless of what you brew, it will be judged in one of those sub-categories.
The same competition rules apply as always:
The beer must be ready to drink by the August 2008 BFD meeting at Bert and Harriet Bingel's house. It must be labelled with the brewer’s name and submitted in one of the following containers: 2 12 oz. bottles, 1 22 oz. bottle, or 1 container with at least 22 ounces of beer (i.e. growler, plastic soda bottle, etc.).
Contact any of the members of the Competition Committee (Todd, Phil, Billy K., Bill R. or Mary) if you have any questions.
The same competition rules apply as always:
The beer must be ready to drink by the August 2008 BFD meeting at Bert and Harriet Bingel's house. It must be labelled with the brewer’s name and submitted in one of the following containers: 2 12 oz. bottles, 1 22 oz. bottle, or 1 container with at least 22 ounces of beer (i.e. growler, plastic soda bottle, etc.).
Contact any of the members of the Competition Committee (Todd, Phil, Billy K., Bill R. or Mary) if you have any questions.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Why it's not a good idea to miss club meetings
Billy and Sue Kannenburg hosted a FABULOUS meeting last night! In addition to the usual excellent assortment of snacks and homebrews there were beers Sue brought back to share with us from her trip to Seattle. I thought the Elysian Ambrosia Maibock and the Alaskan Smoked Porter were standouts. The dip that Billy made was also outstanding. (Hint: Recipes can be added as comments to this blog post.) Jim Prucha explained how he makes excellent beer from extract, and brought some delicious samples (I liked the 10th anniversary beer especially).
Friday morning also brought exciting news for BFD: the results from the first round of the National Homebrewers competition were announced. Winners in the North East region included:
Friday morning also brought exciting news for BFD: the results from the first round of the National Homebrewers competition were announced. Winners in the North East region included:
- John Allin, 2nd place in Belgian and French Ale
- Chris Dodge 1st place in Scottish and Irish Red
- Chris Dodge 1st place in American Ale
- Michael Fairbrother, 1st place in Traditional Mead
- Jim Prucha 2nd place in Dark Lager
- Todd Russell, 1st place in Porter
Way to go BFD brewers!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Brown Ale Club Competition Results
Thanks to Billy, Sue, Joe, Maureen, Eric, Jim, and Mary for judging the 10 entries on Friday. Cheers to all the brewers who submitted beers ranging from Northern English Brown ales to a Honey Brown with Sour Cherries. I look forward to seeing the same level of participation and quality at the next competition.
Without further ado, here are the results:
3rd Place - Jim Prucha - Northern English Brown
2nd Place - Billy Kannenburg - Northern English Brown
1st Place - Todd Russell - Mild
The winners all received fantastic new BFD ribbons courtesy of Brian Parda.
As announced previously, the winner will get to choose the category for the next competition. Stay tuned for an update at the May Meeting.
Without further ado, here are the results:
3rd Place - Jim Prucha - Northern English Brown
2nd Place - Billy Kannenburg - Northern English Brown
1st Place - Todd Russell - Mild
The winners all received fantastic new BFD ribbons courtesy of Brian Parda.
As announced previously, the winner will get to choose the category for the next competition. Stay tuned for an update at the May Meeting.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Here's one for you Kevin
Kevin,
What can I possibly say... other than rest in peace, you will be missed!
You made some incredible food that was bold and spicy, and were an inspiration to others who were just getting into brewing, you had a great sense of humor and a wonderful appreciation of all things beer, cider, and mead!
I will kick one back in your honor tonight.
Michael
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