News
The September 1999
LAGERS BREWER'S NOTEBOOK
"To Preserve and
Enhance Fine Brewing Traditions"
1999 KENTUCKY STATE FAIR HOMEBREW CONTEST
By: Bob Reed
From Georgetown Kentucky to Georgetown Indiana, from Florida to Ohio the homebrew beers came to the Kentucky State Fair Homebrew competition. Kentucky provided the majority of the entries but it is good to see homebrewers from across the region enters our contest.
We had 38 judges evaluate 114 homebrews. There were 31 different styles entered, ranging from Belgian wit to German schwarzbier. The pale ales were the largest style with 16 entries, followed closely by the stouts with 13 entries. We had barley wines, California and Kentucky common beers, hefewiezen and dopplebocks represented. A fine german bock made by Curt Woodson from Georgetown, Kentucky won the Best of Show this year. Congratulations to Curt!
I wish to thank all our judges and stewards for all their efforts, with a special thanks to the judges who came from out of town. You all did a fine job and I hope to see you next year. I also want to say a special thanks to Mike Wernert and Leah Dienes, my assistants, who put in a lot of work and helped make the contest a success. Once again Bill Krauth and Joe Magruder were excellent as the cellarmeisters. Jane Krauth and Pat Klein were indispensable, doing a great job of tabulating the scores.
The FOSSILS club gets a big thank you for once again staging the August meeting at the Kentucky State Fairgrounds. The FOSSILS not only provided a large number of judges and stewards for the contest but they also supplied the giant sub sandwich we enjoyed at intermission. This has become a tradition with the FOSSILS and I thank them a lot.
The LAGERS Homebrew club also provided a great deal of help. Not only during the competition but also in the booth for the eleven days that the State Fair runs. I feel very lucky to have the support from two great clubs.
The
LAGER Brewer's Notebook
is published monthly (well, almost
monthly) by the Louisville Area Grain and Extract Research Society (LAGERS).
Subscriptions are available with membership in the Society at
$15 per year,
$20 for family membership. Advertisers are welcome. All inquiries should be
sent
to P.O. Box 5384, Louisville, KY 40255-0384, or call (502) 329-3125 (work)
or
254-3734 (home).
PRESIDENT
Brian Kolb
367-7558
VICE-PRESIDENT
Rick Buckman
363-5304
SECRETARY
Chuck Harp
254-3734
TREASURER
Jane Krauth
267-8547
LIBRARIAN
Dan Flaherty
637-1197
PUBLISHED BY THE LAGERS, LTD. a Kentucky non-profit corporation
E-mail:
lagersclub@aol.com http://members.aol.com/Iagersclub
All opinions
expressed herein are those of the
authors
and do not necessarily
represent the opinion of the LAGERS.
August Minutes
There was no meeting held in August due to the amount of time that is required each year to staff both the contest and the state fair booth.
BREWING CLASS AND DEMONSTRATION:
There will be a brewing class and demonstration sponsored and presented by the Lagers on Sept 12 at 12:00 at the Bluegrass Brewing Company (BBC). Brian Kolb is coordinating this event, and is looking for members who want to be instructors at this class. The plan is for two or more members to make extract beers, so we can show anyone who is a potential homebrewer just how easy it is to make a batch. If you want to make a quick 5-gallon batch, talk with Brian Kolb. If you want to make an all-grain batch, talk with Brian (although with an all-grain, the class may last longer than planned). This will be our only activity for September, so come out and instruct, brew, or just enjoy your favorite BBC beverage on the deck!
EXTRA! EXTRA! SOME LAGERS ARE NOW INTO SWAPPING!
Last April, we
had our first Lagers swapping party. At the November meeting, we're going to go
at it again, only this time it will be bigger and wilder than ever! The
optional
swapping thrills will take place in the back room at the spring street meeting
house (out of the prying eyes of the general membership). Last time there were
seven of us, and we swapped 50 times! This time, let's get even more
participants so we can swap even more ... beers of course. (what else did you
think we were swapping?)
Upcoming Events:
September 12Brewing class and demo BBC
12:00
October 16fall event: Capshew party or Campout and fish fry
October
18Lagers meeting Spring Street Meeting House
November 15Lagers meeting Spring
Street Meeting House
Quotable Quotes
I would rather commit adultery than drink a glass of beer.
... Lady
Astor, Social reformer
Who wouldn't?
... A voice from the crowd
Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your drink.
... Lady Astor
to Winston Churchill
Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it.
...
Winston Churchill's reply
HOMBREW LABEL CONTEST RESULTS
By: Bob Reed
This year we had our first official Kentucky State Fair Homebrew label contest. Maureen Capshew, Christene Dresselhaus, Tom Pfannerstil, Eileen Dudley and Leah Dienes were instrumental in creating the rules and regulations guiding this new contest. I want to give a big thanks to these folks for all the work they put into this project. They established four novel and interesting classes for the label competition. The winners are as follows:
Hand Painted
1st Christina Wedding
2nd Doug Happel
3rd Dave
Metzmeir
Commercial looking label
1st Paul Nevitt
2nd Jeff Cummins
3rd Steve Hall
Series of three labels
1st James Hunt
2nd Curtis Meiners
3rd
Rick Sullivan
Humorous labels
1st Leah Dienes
2nd Paul Nevitt
3rd John
Diehl
I want to thank the sponsors of this new class for donating the cash that allowed us to buy the nice prizes that we awarded the winners. Some of the sponsors were Rich O's , the FOSSILS, the LAGERS and Mike and Eileen Dudley. The prizes were hand made plates created by a Kentucky potter. We plan to have a different potter make the prizes for all of the upcoming State Fair contests. I think the label contest adds a lot to the Homebrew Department and I hope everyone continues to support it.
We start preparing for the 2000 Kentucky State Fair in January 2000. I already have some new plans for next years fair and I hope to hear from you folks about any changes you would like to see.
BECOME A MEMBER OF THE LAGERS!
If you have never brewed a beer in your life, or are considered an expert brewer, we would like you to become a member of the Louisville Area Grain and Extract Research Society. We are a group of people like you dedicated to preserving and enhancing fine brewing traditions We talk about it, critique it, cook with it and have been known to drink a little of it in an informal manner. We would like to give you more information about our organization, including the date and location of our next gathering.
Send the information below to:
LAGERS, P.O. Box 5384, Louisville, KY 40225-0384. Hope to see you soonl
NamePhone
Street
CityStateZip
LAGERS
P.O. Box 5384
Louisville, KY 40255-0384