A big thanks to everyone who came out to our meeting last night at Convergence Collective. I know several people were out of town and, let’s face it, it’s hard to compete with a Thunder playoff game, so our attendance was down a bit. But a good time was still had by all. Some highlights and news from the night:
1. This month’s tasting was SMaSH (single malt and single hop) beers. One type of grain, one type of hop, one type of yeast, water . . . and nothing else. Definitely makes you appreciate specialty grains. Congratulations once again go to Tony Tielli, whose light but spicy Czech pilsner (recipe below) took first place in the tasting completion.
First Place: Tony Tielli, Czech Pilsner
Second Place: Wes Glinsmann, Centennial IPA
Third Place: Stephen Law, Amarillo IPA
And, although not entries for the tasting, thanks to Richard Magann (jalepeno ale) and Blaine Stansel (black licorice doppelbock) for bringing some extra beer to the party.
2. The American Homebrewer’s Association annual “Big Brew Day” is May 7th. Big Brew Day is designed to be a good day to help introduce new people to the hobby of homebrewing. So here is what we decided to do: every Red Earth Brewer who will be around on the 7th should invite a friend or friends who are interested to come brew with you. Just do something simple that they can help with—an extract only or extract/specialty grain beer. Go through the whole process with them. Then, invite them to come with you to our July meeting, where they can get to know us as a club and we’ll have a big tasting event of everybody’s extract homebrews. This will be a great way to introduce people to the hobby of homebrewing as well as welcome them into our group.
3. Our future tasting schedule is as follows, so brew accordingly:
August: Specialty Ale (BJCP Style #23). Here is where the fun starts. The American Homebrewers’ Association Club-Only competition is a “specialty/experimental/historical” beer. In other words, anything the far reaches of your imagination can come up with. So this will be your chance to finally brew that one really crazy idea that you’d always wanted to try.
December: Those who have a lagering fridge should do a dark lager (BJCP Style #4) to be ready for the AHA’s January club-only competition. Everybody else should brew some kind of Winter Warmer (i.e. imperial stout, barleywine or other malty, high-alcohol type of beer).
4. Our next meeting will be Thursday, May 19th. We should have a location finalized shortly and will let everybody know where the meeting will be.
Just a reminder: Gail sends out the meeting notices via email, but we post a lot of other information on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Sometimes informative, sometimes humorous, always entertaining. So be sure you follow Red Earth Brewers on Twitter and Facebook.
Happy brewing!
Tony’s SMaSH Czech Pilsner
6 gallon batch
Target OG 1.052
Target FG 1.010
Color 4 SRM
IBU - 43
ABV - 5.1
5.36kg (100%) German Pilsner Malt (Wyermann)
68g Czech Saaz - 60 minutes
47g Czech Saaz - 30 minutes
25g Czech Saaz - 15 minutes
30g Czech Saaz - 1 minute
White Labs WLP800 Pilsner Yeast
Mash using the modified double decoction method. 90 Minute boil. Pitch a massive quantity of yeast at 45F and let ramp up to 50F (I repitched slurry from a previous batch). Ferment at 50F for 3 weeks, cold crash and lager for 6 weeks. Keg, Filter, Carb, Drink!
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