Tuesday, September 6, 2011

August Meeting Wrap-Up

It was a great meeting with a lot going on. So without further ado . . .

Membership Dues Take Effect 10/1
Wes unveiled the results of our Red Earth Brewers survey (see the full results here) and we voted on a couple of items. The most noticeable change will be that, starting in October, we will begin charging dues of $5 per quarter/$20 per year. This will allow us to send our entries to the AHA's club-only competitions, print flyers and newsletters, and otherwise promote our club.

Chase Healey. Leading the charge for good beer
in Oklahoma.
Club Elections
It's hard to believe that we've been up and running for almost a year now. But at our September meeting, we will be holding new officer elections. The positions available are: President , Director of Events, Director of Communications and Treasurer. We appointed an elections committee (Scott Cragg, Thad Burk and Jason MacKinnon) to come up with a slate of officers and conduct the elections at the next meeting. If you are interested in serving as an officer, please email Scott at cragg.scott (at) gmail dot com.

Chase Healey and Oklahoma's Beer Scene
Our special guest this month was Chase Healey, head brewer at Redbud Brewing and the mastermind behind all the great beers at both Redbud and COOP. Chase gave us some great insights into the brewing world and what the future holds for Redbud. He also had some great advice for both novice and advanced homebrewers. We really appreciate Chase joining us this month and all that he is doing to promote the craft beer scene in Oklahoma.


Southern Plains Craft Beer Festival
The Learn to Brew homebrew shop in Moore will be hosting a craft beer festival on Saturday, October 15th. Most of the local craft brewers will be there pouring, and they have also invited us to have a table at the event. If you can donate some homebrew for us to pour that day or can help us pour that day, please email Wes Glinsmann at redearthbrewers@gmail.com.

Also, as part of the festival, they will be hosting a Pale Ale homebrew tasting competition. Entry is free, so if you have a pale ale you would like to have judged, entries are due to LTB by October 1st.

Click here for more information on the festival.

Club Tasting Competition
Bacon and pecans. A winning combination.
Finally, the most exciting part of the night was our long-awaited tasting in the "Specialty/Historical/Experimental" beers category (BJCP #23). We had a lot of really good and very creative entries. The club vote winners were:

First Place: Wes Glinsmann, Imperial Bacon Porter (recipe below)
Second Place (tie): Scott Cragg, Pecan Brown Ale
Second Place (tie): Ross Harper, Pecan Porter


This is definitely a creative bunch, so we really appreciate everyone who brought some beer to sample.

For future planning, here are are upcoming meetings:

September 15: Cooking with beer social. Bring food made with beer--along with your favorite homebrew or craft beer--to share at this social gathering. Location TBA.

October 20: German Wheat and Rye Beer tasting (BJCP #15). Location Thad Burk's house in Bethany.

November 17: Social. Location TBA.

December 15: Winter Warmer tasting. Location TBA

Thanks again to everyone who has helped make Red Earth Brewers so successful over the last year! We're looking forward to even better things ahead.



Pigskin Porter

O.G. 1.074
F.G. 1.019

Ingredients (5 gallon batch)

12 pounds two-row pale malt
1 pound chocolate malt
1 pound crystal 60L
8 oz. cara-pils
8 oz. debittered black malt
8 oz. roasted barley
1 oz Chinook hop pellets (12.2% AA)
1 oz Cascade hop pellets (5.0% AA)
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp Irish moss
White Labs California Ale (WLP001) yeast
Bacon extract (see directions below)

Bacon Extract
Fry one pound of bacon. Pour bacon drippings and crumbled bacon into Tupperware container. Pour in enough vodka to cover. Let sit 5-7 days to infuse. Place container in freezer and grease will separate to the top. Remove the grease layer (may want to repeat this step). Strain the infused vodka through a coffee strainer and set aside until secondary fermentation.

Process
Mash at 153 degrees for 60 minutes.
60 minute boil.
Add Chinook hops at 60 minutes and Cascade at 45 minutes.
Add yeast nutrient and Irish moss at 15 minutes left in boil.
Pitch yeast and let ferment 7-10 days. Transfer to secondary.
While in secondary, begin adding the bacon extract an ounce or so at a time. Let sit for a couple of days, then sample. Repeat as needed until you get the right amount of bacon flavor you are wanting.