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A Trip to the Dentist by Brian Vessa (Published in the August 1996 Brews and News) Greetings Fellow Falcons! After this last meeting, I am really ready to relax and have a good time at the Sunfest! It was very well attended with noisy and thirsty Falcons. We had an excellent beer tasting at the beginning of the meeting, and then moved on to business. We made plans to have gifts for the Anchor employees on September 7th. In a late-breaking news flash, I found out from Russ Wigglesworth that the Anchor Employees' Dinner has been canceled due to a negotiations breakdown with the California Culinary Academy over price and ability to serve homebrew and donated beer. We will still do the gifts as planned, since this is their 100 year anniversary. Other arrangements need to be made to get them there, which we will discuss at the next board meeting. Anheuser-Busch is also celebrating their 100 year anniversary this year, and we will be making two plaques for them, one for the St. Louis brewery and another for Van Nuys. Dates were also set on the Pasadena Pub Crawl (September 28th) and upcoming brews on the shop system. See Doug's Minutes for a blow-by-blow description of the meeting, which I think are really excellent and informative. Darryl Richman, a long time Falcon who moved to the Seattle area several years ago, was at the meeting. It was really great to see him. A couple of years ago, I did a Pacific Northwest tour and stayed at his place for a few days, but I hadn't seen him since then. He told me that he is one of the investors in a new brewpub, The Redmond Brewing Company. I'll be interested to check it out if I can get up that way in he fall. A lot of people stayed for the Deacon's Amber Lager tasting, which featured 3 great examples of the style. I think Abbey Ales are coming up in September, which should really be enlightening. We'd better budget extra for that one! The good news is that we managed to get someone to fill every office for the next term, even though it felt like a trip to the dentist rather than one to the local brewhouse. See elsewhere for a listing of the results. The bad news was that we ran out of beer fairly early, and had to make a run for some Moosehead (which was actually turned out to be pretty good!) I want to thank Tom Hamilton and Doug King for being willing to drive and buy the keg to bail us out of this emergency. (Ironically, they and Michael Bowe were the only Falcons who brought a quantity of beer in the first place.....). The club treasury kicked in a little over half of the money to get things started, and Tom managed to get donations for the rest (which fortunately was not as difficult as finding new club officers). Hopefully this will never happen again....It's hard to believe that this club full of excellent brewers can't keep a meeting supplied. Steve Casselman, Bruce Brode and I were at the recent California State Fair judging on the weekend of June 29-30. Saturday, we judged craft beers in two sessions, and had an excellent buffet dinner courtesy of Sacramento Brewing Company in the evening. As it turned out, I had judged on the "Foreign Style Stout" panel that day which awarded the SBC Oatmeal Stout the First Place winner in the category. Naturally, after this was announced, more magically appeared............All the beers we tried of theirs were excellent, including a very well-hopped red ale. Afterwards, Bruce and I went to River City Brewing, which had won several award that day, and checked out a taster set. The beers were extremely clean and well made. The Hefeweizen was first rate, and I thought the Porter was fairly tasty. They had a nice Pilsener, Pale Ale and Vienna, but they were very tame--the manager said that the clientele doesn't appreciate bold beers. Ah, well, the realities of the brewpub business.......The next day, we judged homebrews. Overall, I would say the homebrews were better than the craft beers, and many judges agreed. I had been amazed at how many "pro" beers were infected or otherwise off. I judged American Lager and American Light Ales, which include Cream Ales, American Wheats and "Light Ales" (scaled down American Pale Ales). Both competitions were run by the Gold Country Brewers, who did a first-rate job. I really enjoyed meeting and talking with brewers, judges and organizers from other clubs and microbreweries in the state. I think we will see closer communication on competition scheduling in the future. On Sunday before we left, we visited the new Sudwerks near the Cal Expo. The beers are fair, but not up to the original Davis location's quality yet, in my opinion. They were very clean, but just not that tasty, and some seemed a little green. Oh well, maybe my palate was just burned-out from a full weekend of beer tasting. It was a really terrific weekend, all in all, and well worth the drive to Saramento. I went up to Three Points Ranch and checked it out. We are going to have a funky-good time at this years' Sunfest, let me tell you! It's like a charming Midwest country store transplanted to rural Southern California, with a bar, a pool table and that's about it. However, they have a great patio area with a stage, which is where we will have the party. It's a corner property, on 11 acres, and we will be camping out behind the place. See the article elsewhere for more details. It looks like we'll have plenty of beer there--I know lot's of Falcon's have been brewing for this event. We are hoping for a donation of Anchor beer from Bob Brewer as well. The Falcons' Brews Band will play, with Doug Harlan filling in for Tom Rowland while he heals from an encounter with a sea urchin. Let's all hope for a speedy recovery for Tom-I spoke to him before the meeting, and he says he's getting better, but it will probably be a while before he's back in action. Bruce Brode is organizing the annual Sunfest Beer Auction, and there are a number of interesting beers already donated to the cause. If you have any you'd like to contribute, call him at (310) 558-8458 and bring them along or get them to him ahead of time if you won't be there. I expect that there will be a meeting of the Dead Palates Society at some point Saturday night, so if you have anything appropriate for this (including beers won at the auction....!), bring them along. The Maltose Falcons Brews Band will be playing at Weber's Place on Tuesday night, August 20th from 8:30 to 11:30. Weber's is located at 19312 Vanowen St. in Reseda, just west of Tampa on the south side. It couldn't be at a more appropriate venue-the beer selection is awesome, and Brandy is really excited to have us. Come on out for some great beer and support the band at our first public gig in the Valley. Speaking of Weber's, Brandy is offering tickets to the Magic Castle to Falcons during the month of August, since she is a member. Call her at (818) 345-9800 and stop by for a brew if you'd like to get some tickets. I've never been there, so I certainly intend to take her up on this one! Maybe we should organize a Falcon's Night at the Magic Castle.....? I stopped by Westwood Brewing recently and hung out with Ben Madden for a while. He is really turning out some terrific beers, and isn't afraid to make them big bodied and satisfying. The clientele seems to have no problem with that-in fact, he has trouble keeping up with demand at times! I think the beers have gotten even better since we were there in March. If you haven't been there lately, you really should check it out. The September meeting has been moved to September 15th, initially to accommodate the Anchor Employees dinner, which was canceled. It will remain on that date to encourage Falcons to judge at the Sonoma County Fair on September 7th. Hopefully we will have a guest speaker at the meeting. The fall tour of Anheuser-Busch is nearly full. It will probably occur in late Oktober-I will be speaking to George Reisch in mid-August to nail down a date. The fall Mead Tasting will likely occur on September 21st, though this is not fully confirmed. Bruce Brode is coordinating with the Cellarmasters. I have invited them to attend our Oktoberfest again, which will be Saturday, Oktober 5th. Biff Tate and David Janss are looking into a location. It looks like a fun Summer and Fall coming up for the Falcons. I'll see you at the Sunfest! Back to The Roost || Brew Recipes || Brews & News |
