September 1998

MONTHLY MASH

THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF

SOUTHERN NEVADA ALE              FERMENTERS UNION

TAKE A HIKE

A new feature of Monthly Mash is to give some space to promote the local brewpubs that support us. Holy Cow, Main Street Station and Barley’s have always bent over backwards to make our SNAFU events at their brewpubs an enjoyable time and also easy on our pocketbooks. So I have invited the brewmasters of Holy Cow, Main Street, and Barley’s to inform us of any specials they’re running this month. At the Triple Seven Brewpub in Main Street Station you can get a FREE cigar on Fridays from 4-6 p.m. with the purchase of any 23 ounce brew. And they’re pretty good cigars-Churchills! Also during college football games on Saturdays you can get your first beer of every game shown on the T.V.’s for $1. The same holds true for Sunday NFL games. And on Mondays you can enter a drawing for the Armchair Quarterback. Right before the game begins the winning entry is drawn and you and a friend can win FREE beer and food for the duration of the game. All during football season at Barley’s you can get a huge slice of pizza for a buck, or a hot dog for a buck, or nachos for a buck. And you can get a 22 oz. Barley’s draft for only $1.99. These special deals apply on Saturdays from 9-6, Sundays from 9-9, and Mondays from 4:30-9:30. Also on Monday nights during the game there’s "Funky Football" in which a prize is given away during every commercial. You can also enter your name to win the "Couch Potato" prize which gets you and a friend FREE beer and food during the game. And T.V.’s are being installed in the gaming pits so that on the Sunday game of the week after every touchdown all those playing will be issued a match play coupon good up to $10. Currently at Holy Cow you can taste their Pilsner that recently won a silver medal in the World Cup. And coming soon will be the Pumpkin Ale. Also you can get a whole pound of crab legs for only $4.95!

ALE TO THE CHIEF

August was a difficult month for our club. The difficulty of course was dealing with the death of a club member who had perhaps done more to promote our club over the last 10 years than anyone. It’s still hard to think of a club event without seeing Sheldon Jackson, always the life of the party, always there with outstanding beer, always there with a positive outlook on things, and always there to offer brewing advice which stemmed from his decades of brewing experience. Between the memorial service in Pahrump and the SNAFU service at the Elk’s Lodge more than 70 people turned out to pay their respects. Sheldon will be very much missed, but never ever forgotten. At our picnic/hike/campout at Mt. Charleston last month we were blessed with absolutely perfect weather and tremendous food. And for once we had almost as many women present as men at a SNAFU function. Too bad we weren’t at a dance. Back to the food, we were honored as usual to have Jay Lefkowitz preparing outstanding food with his usual flair. Jay outdid himself this time with marinated teriyaki beef skewers, Cajun chicken patties, corn on the cob, rice, and of course brats and hot dogs. We also enjoyed Oliver and Ann’s spinach pie and Steve’s girlfriend Colleen’s jalapeno quiche. It would have been a vegetarian’s delight but our two most prominent vegetarian members-Dave Miller and Tara Pike weren’t there to appreciate it. August was a very productive month for bringing in new members to the club. We have a total of 8 new members to welcome into our club. They are: Phil and Sara Doersam, Curtis Dorsey, Justin Cooper, John Gassaway, Digger Giuffre, and Don and Heather Gedye. Club membership now stands at 74. Welcome to SNAFU! August also saw the smooth and successful transition of Mr. Radz to Beer and Brew Gear. Be sure to read the Interview With Jeff Chrisman article to hear about the changes to the shop and new products now available. I can tell already that SNAFU will have a great working relationship with Jeff Chrisman, the owner of Beer and Brew Gear. We had a very agreeable group at our August meeting. All present voted unanimously to authorize the expenditure of $140 for Ralph Goodman to purchase materials to make a tent covering for our club’s use at outdoor events. Ralph obtained a great deal on this and has generously agreed to construct it for us. It will hopefully be ready for use at the upcoming Renfairre on Oct. 10 at which SNAFU will have a booth and will be serving ales, ciders, and meads to the chivalrous folk in attendance. We may also possibly use it at the beer festival later that month on Oct. 24 at the Sunset Station amphitheater. Speaking of those two Oct. events we once again need your beer to serve to prospective homebrew converts. As usual we will reimburse you up to $30 dollars for the cost of your ingredients if you will donate a batch of beer for us to serve. Also at the August meeting everyone present was in agreement to our revised club bylaws. Most of those present (unless they left too early) signed their approval of the new bylaws. If you weren’t at the meeting you’ll have an opportunity to sign your name to the bylaws at the Sept.. meeting. Also unanimously approved was a SNAFU phone voice mail line hot line that members can call to hear about upcoming events and to leave a message if they have any questions. This will cost $8.95 a month. Unfortunately all the numbers that would spell out easy to remember words like beer, hops, snafu, etc. have already been taken. So we’ll have to decide if we still want to have it with a number that won’t spell out anything. As usual our members were extremely generous in donating things to our raffle last month. Here’s an acknowledgment to all who donated: Rick Dusek and Linda Warburton donated 2 Pheasant cigars, Mike Plinski a bottle of Rogue Old Crustacean and Rogue Imperial Stout, Bob Barnes a bottle of Rogue Smoke Ale and Rogue Imperial Stout, Dave Miller 3 Italian Avanti $1,000,000 (or so he says) cigars, Kent Bolton a 4-pack of Big Rock microbrews, a 6-pack of Sierra Nevada pale Ale, and a Hoptown pub glass, Tom O’Leary a bottle of Grateful Deaf Barley Wine and a bottle of Blackberry Mead, Bob Hall a tape cassette, Greg Radziewicz 2 Brew House Beer Kits , and Jeff Chrisman a 6-pack of Temecula Valley Pale Ale and 2 Homebrew Pilsner glasses. Thanks again to all who donated. Remember you get one free raffle ticket if you make a donation. Our next officer’s meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 24 at Screwballs on Warm Springs Rd. We’ll be discussing our two October events, a possible special club outing for November, a club Christmas party for December, and a location for our Winterfest. Call a club officer if you plan on attending.

NEW BREWERS WANTED

If you are new to brewing and would like to help brew a batch with someone who’s been brewing for a while, come on down to the Beer and Brew Shop (formerly Mr. Radz) on Saturday, September 26 at 12:00. The brew class will take about two hours. We’ll be making an extract version of Sheldon Jackson’s Winterfest Best of Show Liberty Ale recipe.

NORTHWEST HOMEBREW EXPRESS. PORTLAND OREGON

Another of life’s engaging adventures that began with a session of E-Mail confusion. Long before the actual event occurred the AHA initiated a program to pair up lone attendees so they could share rooms and split the cost. Good idea. I submitted my name, figuring that after having bunked with Mssrs. Barnes and Urcioli at other events I could adapt to just about anything. Well, just in case the system should go awry, I went ahead and booked myself an N/S Single room, and registered for the whole smear Homebrew Program. Time went on, and on some more, and nothing’s happening . I have my (non refundable etc. etc.) plane tickets, and my hotel room confirmed, but naught from the AHA. Then comes an E-Mail from a guy in Minneapolis who says he signed up too and having heard nothing, called Denver and found out he and I were the only guys signed up so they told him to get with me and work something out . That we did after much ado with the hotel. All rooms are booked, can’t change mine to a double. The ultimate solution, a rollaway bed in my room, but they won’t do that until I personally request it at the front desk, if one is available at that time... I arrived in Portland around noon Wed, and was picked up by Bridget, the most charming mother of my #1 granddaughter. Bridget is a history buff, very proud of Portland, and has a tendency not to take a direct path anywhere. We went all around the airport, up and down several rivers, across a few bridges and worked up a thirst. What better place to go than to school. Not just any old school, one built back when men wore spats, was facing demolition, got declared historical, was bought by the Mc Manamins BrewPub chain and renovated into a Hotel Spa, Pub, Theater etc. while keeping historical integrity. I had some respectable IPAs while trying not to feel sneaky about drinking beer in school.. Best get on to check in at the hotel and personally request a rollaway for Mr. Gary Westman from Minneapolis. That mission accomplished we are off to catch Bridget’s mate Keith. He is a general tinkerer, whose interests are in the areas of Geology, Forestry, Mining ,and Woodcrafts. Somehow time evaporates and dinner time slips up on us. Happymeals are out of the question so Bridget suggests a place called Hubers. A curious place this, French name, Chinese cook , specializes in turkey, been there 80 years, same cook, now owner, has been there over 40 years. They can’t have tablecloths on the tables because their drink specialty Spanish Coffee is made with flaming liquors poured from overhead arms length into a glass held kneehigh. Dazzling show... Super turkey... I’m back at the hotel in time to see Fred Eckhardt get roasted and to check out the Homebrew Clubs’ Hospitality Suites ( Kegs and Kegs of Beer) After a fair amount of sampling, I get concerned for my health and beauty and so decide to turn in... Thursday morn I note the rollaway is unkempt, the sink mirror is splattered, there’s strange luggage about ,so I assume Mr. Westman arrived safely sometime during the night. I do all my morning stuff then charge off to the seminars. The first was "Altbiers" by Horst Dornbusch who rambled a bit initially, but then settled into a really informative presentation. The next was "Culturing Yeast from Commercial Bottles". I don’t plan on actually doing that, lazy as I am, but it don’t hurt to know how. After lunch it was "New Hop Varieties and How to Use Them". Care to get bedazzled, this will do it. There seems to be almost as many hop varieties as there are beer styles.. With alpha and beta acids zinging around my skull I step into the next presentation. "Matching the Worlds Classic Brewing Waters". "Yo chemistry majors", this is the one for you, very detailed, very thorough. I got handouts I will be puzzling over for weeks... After this I whip into "Converting All Grain Recipes to Extract/Partial Mash Recipes". This was really neat and I will probably play around some with this one...Lastly was "Common Mistakes Judges Find in Your Beers". A real Blue Ribbon batch of judges had some very robust round table discussions here.. Enough already, now for the Banquet. It is held at the Riverfront Park where the Oregon Brewers Festival begins tomorrow. Getting there involves riding the Max, a sort of street train. Kinda spooky, it has at every station a sort of ATM ticket selling machine. You punch a bunch of buttons, put your money in, and a ticket comes out. You ride the train and nobody ever collects or even looks at your ticket. It got us there.. (by now I’ve met my Bunky Gary, and some of his friends from the Snow Country) Banquet entry covers the dinner (all cooked outside), a souvenir glass, a string of beer tickets for full or half pints which after a while got to be neglected. There is a live band , perfect 75 degree weather, beautiful tree lined grassy park on the river, and more than enough good beer. I heard they intended to announce the competition winners there, but with everyone milling around like a tank full of guppies and the band not wanting to give up the microphone, the staff said let’s think about it for tomorrow... I got to thinking about heading back to the hotel while I still knew what train to catch and how to work that goofy ticket machine. So back I went, and Shazam, the Hospitality Suites are still in full swing. A bit of relaxation there was certainly in order, and then the day was done. Friday got started with an AHA Members Open Forum. It’s more or less a bitch if you wish session, then Papazian’s "Off Flavors Workshop". The afternoon was devoted to the Homebrewers Festival and Expo. That’s a big hall full of brewing products, stuff, gadgets and paraphernalia, and loads of beers to sample . By 4:00 p.m. we fairly well covered it all so Gary, some of his friends and I went to a baseball game. It was a fun thing. Then we went to a brewpub where after only two brews they started sweeping around us so we left.. Back to the hotel where the bartender agreed to serve us one beer then he was out the door. Saturday and I’m all done, even though the Oregon Brewers Festival will be going on at Riverfront Park for the rest of the week, and I really hadn’t got to hardly any brewpubs, but there’s always next time.....

BEER AT MCDONALDS?

BELGIANS INVADE VEGAS

Phil and Sara joined SNAFU in August after relocating from Georgia where they published Southern Draft Brew News, a brewspaper covering the southern U.S., for 5 years until they sold it in June. Phil is a BJCP Certified beer judge and will be judging again this year at the GABF.

On Tuesday, August 18th, my wife Sara and I attended a five-course Belgian beer dinner at Bix's restaurant. It was so delightful that I wanted to share with you what you missed. Bix's is a new restaurant on the west side of Las Vegas. They not only serve incredible gourmet meals at reasonable prices, but also offer a great bottled-beer list, single malt scotch menu, specialty martinis, a wine bar and a cigar parlor dubbed Phil's (how could I not like this place). The evening began in the wine bar area with hors d'oeuvres featuring such delicacies as tuna tarter and caviar. They were paired with Mort Subite lambic Framboise (raspberry) and Cassise (black currant) from the Brewery De Keersmaeker in Flanders. After several glasses of these excellent 4.0% abv beers, we moved into the dining area to begin our meal. The first course was Caribbean coconut shrimp on a bed of sesame rice and vegetable curry sauce This was paired with Piraat (pronounced Peer-At) Beer, a 10.5% abv triple brewed by Brewery Van Steenberge in Flanders, as were all the beers we sampled this evening except the Mort Subite. The assertive character of Piraat stood up well to the spicy curry sauce. The second course was soft-shell crab with crab cakes, smoked corn salsa and a cilantro-pablano sauce. Paired with Bruegel Beer, a 5.2% abv amber ale, this was the least complex beer, but the crab and salsa were to die for and the pairing worked. The third course was skillet-seared kangaroo tenderloin with sweet potato and spicy-sweet glaze. Yes, we ate some joey. I really enjoyed it - lean and tender and very rare. This course was paired with the 8.0% abv Borhem Double Beer, a nice example of the Belgian double style. The fourth course was filet mignon with a truffle and port wine sauce, paired with the 10.5% abv Gulden Draak triple. Wow! We could cut our steaks with a fork. And the sauce - perfect, the triple was another well matched companion, cutting through the intense flavors of the meat and sauce and proving to be a refreshingly complex palate cleanser. The fifth and final course was a chocolate raspberry souffle paired with the Mort Subite Framboise. Sara described these individual souffles as the lightest and finest she has ever tasted. The beer was also a refreshing accompaniment. To top off this incredible evening, beery prizes were dolled out to the lucky attendees, including Sara, who found cocktail straws placed under their chairs. The servers at Bix's are outstanding and displayed a lot of pride in their performance. They were so good that I almost felt embarrassed giving them a 20% tip - 25-30% seemed more appropriate. They genuinely cared about making our dining experience as pleasurable as possible. The bottom line for this fabulous meal was $50 per person. I have attended dozens of beer dinners, and I have organized and sponsored some beer dinners as well (including one with Michael Jackson as the featured guest.) None of them could compare to this event. I strongly urge you to attend the next time Bix's stages one. The chef at Bix's is the incredibly talented Chef Steven. Not yet 30 years old, he changes his menu monthly to keep you coming back again and again. He features monthly wine dinners and offers beer dinners similar to this one a few times each year. He also offers cooking classes at Bix's the last Saturday afternoon of each month. As a gesture of his love for good beer and his enjoyment of the evening, Chef Steven had a magnum of Augustijn Abbey Ale, 8.0% abv, poured for all those in attendance before our fourth course. It is a marvelous beer that is worth seeking out. To describe the beers and to educate the diners about Belgium, the importers were on hand. The husband and wife team of Johnny Fincioen and Claudine Van Massenhove from Global Beer Network (http://www.globalbeer.com) enthusiastically entertained us with their knowledge and wit. They are transplanted Belgians who moved to California a couple of years ago with plans to sell great Belgian beers in the United States. They quickly learned that the "United" States does not apply to alcohol laws, as every state and county seems to have its own set of laws, procedures and fees. They are very warm people who have a genuine love for Belgian beers. Bix's is located at 4495 S Buffalo Dr, between Flamingo and Tropicana Avenues. The telephone number is 889-0800. Their hours are 11 am - 6 am seven days a week. A limited menu is available from 2 am - 6 am.

RECIPE OF THE MONTH

It’s only fitting that our recipe of the month should be one of Sheldon Jackson’s. This was truly one of the best beers I’ve ever had the pleasure to taste. No wonder it was the Best of Show winner in our 1997 Winterfest which had over 300 entries. This will be the recipe used for our next brew class.

PATRICK HENRY ALE

MEMBERSHIP LISTING FOR ALL MEMBERS

I’ve had the thought that it would be a nice thing for all the club members to have a readily-available listing of all the SNAFU members. There are several reasons I think this is a good idea, chief among them is to contact someone to get some brewing advice, or to borrow a gadget or supplies that you’re lacking. Another good reason to have a club list is to help you find someone who lives in your part of town to arrange a carpool to meetings, picnics, et. That way only one of you has to worry about a DUI on the way home. I know that a number of you won’t want to have your home phones or home addresses known to just anybody. For that reason, before I make the members’ list available, I need to hear from everybody in the club to let me know if you want to be included. I can publish only that info that you wish, such as address but no phone, (or vice-versa) no info at all, or just your name if you wish. I won’t publish any of your info. unless I get your permission, but I need to hear from everybody on a timely basis so I can get these printed and sent out. That means contact me within the next month, please. You can reach me a number of ways. My home phone is 243-7668, and my work phone is 229-6161. Both phones have answering machines, so please leave a message if I’m not there. If you’re telephonically impaired, I can be reached by e-mail at GAJOE@AOL.com. If you’re REALLY old-fashioned, you can mail me your preference at: 3508 Bogside Way, Las Vegas, NV 89129. By the way, I don’t pretend to be intimately familiar with everybody’s voice, so when you call, be sure to state your name. Don’t just say, "Yo, it’s me." Likewise with e-mail, please put your real name in your message somewhere, since your screen name is probably vastly different, and I might not have it listed in the member database yet, anyway.

AN INTERVIEW WITH JEFF CHRISMAN

I recently met with Jeff Chrisman, the new owner and proprietor of Beer and Brew Gear (formerly Mr. Radz). Jeff would like to thank everyone who came to the last meeting to welcome him. As soon as you walk into the store you’ll notice the store has a totally different look to it and is set up quite differently from Mr. Radz. The whole layout is different and you’ll find some new product available as well. The most exciting new product I found was White Labs liquid yeast. I know most of us are used to buying Wyeast, but Jeff educated me on several advantages White Labs have over Wyeast. The big one is that White Labs have 35,000 yeast cells compared to Wyeast’s measly 3,000. And, unlike Wyeast, White Labs yeast can be used immediately-just bring to room temperature and shake. With Wyeast you have to smack the pack anywhere from 1 to 3 days in advance. I asked Jeff how long the White Labs yeast lasts and he informed me that after 60 days there would be half the cells remaining and after 90 days half again would be lost. However, even after 90 days you still would have more than triple the yeast cells than in a brand new fresh pack of Wyeast. White Labs sell for $5.25 but are on sale during the month of Sept. for $4.50 which is the same price as Wyeast. White Labs also supply yeast for many of the major microbrews so you can use the same yeast the big boys are. California Ale is the one used by Sierra Nevada, East Coast Ale is used by Sam Adams, and San Francisco Lager is Anchor’s. The price of grain has been drastically reduced. Specialty grains are now only .45 cents a pound and for you all grain brewers a 50 lb. bag is only $35 ($33 with your SNAFU discount). Jeff will continue to sell bulk malt extract if you bring in a container to put it in. It comes in Pale, Amber, or Dark and sells for $2.50 a pound. Lastly, Jeff will only honor any Mr. Radz coupons until the end of September. After that they are null and void. I encourage you to stop in and see what Jeff has done. I think you’ll be impressed as well as pleased with his prices.