The next meeting of the Heart River Home Brewers (AHA Club Number: 000163851) is scheduled for January 26th, 2012 at Custom Data World Headquarters 677 10th Street  Dickinson, North Dakota at 7:30 PM.

Present: Jerry Ford, Alan Church, Craig Tessier, Ryan Jilek, Jeremiah Thorpe, Michael Kreitinger and Jon Stika.

Beer of the Month from Town & Country Liquors was LaBatt Blue Light Lime.  Blue Light Lime was a very clear straw color with a very prominent lime aroma.  The beer had a flavor of lime and candy-like fruitiness reminiscent of Necco wafers & Dots with a slightly malty dry finish.

Discussed the invitation from the Institute of Barley and Malt Sciences of Fargo, ND for the club to participate in the Best of the Best Wheat and Barley Research Update scheduled for February 7, 2012 in Dickinson, ND.  Discussed wort aeration and yeast pitching rates for successful fermentation.  Mentioned that Dale will be heading to Minneapolis on the weekend and will pick up any requested brewing supplies for club members at Midwest Brewing Supplies.

Ryan brought a Hefeweizen and an IPA made with New Zealand hop varieties.  Jon brought an Ordinary Bitter made from the left over Midwest kit.  Alan brought an Ordinary Bitter brewed with unknown hops grown in his yard and an English Barleywine.  Craig brought an Autumn Amber Ale.  Mike brought an Oatmeal Stout.  Jerry brought a Belgian quad and hard cider.  Jeremiah brought an English Barleywine.

Jerry, Jon, Alan, Ryan, Mike and Jeremiah paid 2012 dues.  Jerry paid for his own BYO renewal and that of one friend, Alan paid for his own BYO renewal and that of one friend.  Jon, Ryan, Mike, Craig and Jeremiah paid for BYO renewals.

A drawing was held, won by Jerry, for a bottle of mead and bag of coffee made by Ryan.

Jon Stika
Secretary

Hopunion does hop and beer testing for affordable rates in case anyone is interested in having some homegrown hops tested for alpha acid or beer tested for bitterness, etc.  The only drawback I see is they require a 7 ounce sample of hops to do the alpha acid test.  Check it out at:

http://www.hopunion.com/27_HopTesting.cfm?p5=open

In the December 2011 issue of Brew Your Own, Brooklyn Brewmaster Garrett Oliver points out that; “… lots of homebrewers don’t begin with nearly enough of a healthy population of yeast to properly start fermentation.  And when the yeast is struggling, it gives off a lot of estery [fruity] profiles, which is a common flaw in homebrews.  I would say that the number one fault in homebrews is poor fermentation…”  The article mentions that Oliver has tasted and judged many, many homebrews.  “If you pitch your yeast and don’t see any signs of fermentation until 24 hours later, you haven’t pitched enough yeast, or it’s not as healthy as it should be.”  The article goes on to state that; “Oliver advocates making a yeast starter the day before brewing, which can easily provide double the yeast population, or harvesting yeast from a batch of homebrew.”  An inadequate pitching rate of yeast can also result in an incomplete fermentation, leaving that “malt extract” flavor finish in a batch of beer.

Present: Jeremiah Thorpe, Craig Tessier, Doug Fettig, Ryan Jilek, Jerry Ford, Rocky Stoltz, Paul Ellerkamp and Jon Stika.

Several beers, one cider, one mead and one wine were brought and shared at the meeting.  Several beers were judged and the brewers were given the score sheets and feedback on how to improve on their brewing techniques.  Yeast starters and measurement of original gravity were discussed.  Craig Tessier and Doug Fettig paid 2012 dues of $25 each.

Jon Stika
Secretary

Following our discussions last evening regarding yeast starters I thought it would be beneficial to dig up a little information and get it out to those interested.  I will also post in on our website too.

Here is a PDF from Northern Brewer that is pretty close to the process that I’ve been using for several years.  I however use a airlock and stopper rather than the foam stopper they list. http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/YeastStarter.pdf

In addition to this I put mine on a stir plate to continuously agitate the yeast in the starter.  If I really want big happy yeast volumes I will attach my aquarium pump to the stopper with two holes so I can continually aerate the starter.  So in that case the stir plate is continuously agitating the starter and allowing oxygen to be dissolved into beer and feed the yeast.  The system would look basically like this and I wouldn’t go this far all the time.

You do not need to purchase a commercial stir plate and can easily make one with an old computer fan and some miscellaneous parts from Radio Shack:  http://www.instructables.com/id/Cigar-Box-Stir-Plate/

Here is a nice video showing a similar process from BYO magazine and Basic Brewing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAssRh_O6fs&feature=related

Also, this link is a reference I use to determine how much yeast ‘should’ be pitched into a beer depending on its starting gravity. http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

Ok I hope that helps!

Present: Ryan Jilek, Michael Kreitinger, Alan Church, Jerry Ford, Rocky Stoltz, Paul Ellerkamp, Dale Sattler, Doug Fettig, Craig Tessier, Jon Stika.

Beer of the Month from Town and Country Liquors was Spoetzl Brewery Shiner Oktoberfest.  Spoetzl’s interpretation of the Oktoberfest style has all the elements of the style, but comes up a bit short in color, flavor and mouthfeel.  A clean, very drinkable beer with no brewing flaws.  Simply a lighter, more bitter version of a true Oktoberfest.

Discussed the leftover English Bitter kit the club had purchased to brew at the K of C event earlier this month.  Jon offered to brew the kit and bottle it so it would be available for future meetings or club events (Jon brewed the beer on October 29th).  Discussed the remaining Barleywine kit left from the brewing session at Hawk’s Point earlier this year.  Ryan will follow up with AJ at Hawk’s Point to see if they would like the club to assist them with brewing the beer.  Ryan invited anyone interested to his place on the 29th to brew together (Rocky and Jon participated in the big brew day on the 29th).

Ryan brought some of his Chokecherry Stout and two-year old hard cider.  Jon brought some of Crow Peak brewery of Rapid City, SD Pile-O-Dirt Porter.  Alan brought three Saisons; a straight Saison, an apple-cinnamon Saison and a peanut butter Saison.  Rocky brought a Maple Brown Ale.  Paul brought a Czech Pils.  Dale brought some spearmint wine.  Doug brought some Hefe-Weizen.

Jon Stika
Secretary

Big brew day for the Heart River Homebrewers.  Jon brewed up the extra bitter extract kit the club had and helped Ryan with one of his beers.  Rocky brewed a chokecherry stout.  Ryan brewed a parti-gyle brew with first runnings making a english barley wine, second runnings making an IPA and third runnings making a British bitter. Overall we put about 25 gallons into fermenters and had a lot of fun.

This past August, Ryan, Rocky and Jon paddled along the Heart River in Dickinson in search of wild hops.  We found several plants and harvested several ounces of flowers.  The hop had a green snap bean and mint aroma, so we’re not sure if it will be a keeper.  Some will be used in a test brew or two this winter.

Present: Jerry Ford, Michael Kreitinger, Rocky Stoltz, Ryan Jilek, Jeremiah Thorpe, Paul Ellerkamp and Jon Stika.

Discussed the Beer Judge Certification Program exam that Jon completed on 9/17/11.  Jon brought a sample of English Bitter dry-hopped with the Heart River wild hops that Rocky, Ryan and Jon collected earlier this month.  The hops produced a minty-green bean-dill type of flavor in the beer.  Discussed brewing a test batch of beer and using the wild hops for bittering to see what type of bitterness profile would result.  Discussed processing apples this weekend with Jon’s fruit press to make some hard cider.  Rocky, Ryan and Jon will plan to do this on the 24th.  Discussed the upcoming Knights of Columbus beer event.  Jon and Ryan will not be able to attend, so the brewing demonstration was cancelled.  Jon will keg the English Bitter he brewed from the Midwest Brewing kit and give it to Rocky to serve at the event.  No beer of the month.  Rocky brought a Czech Pils he brewed, Jerry brought Phin and Matt’s Southern Tier Ale, Jon brought Abita Turbodog Ale, Mike brought a Peach Wheat Ale he brewed, Ryan brought a barleywine he brewed and a bottle of Shipyard Brewing’s barleywine.

Jon Stika
Secretary

Present: Rocky Stoltz, Jerry Ford, Alan Church, Ryan Jilek and Jon Stika.

Beer of the Month from Town & Country Liquors was Shiner Bohemian Black Lager.  This beer was a very clean, dry, malty, dark example of the Schwarzbier style of European lagers.  The beer was well balanced to the malt side with supporting noble hops bitterness with a soft toasted malt finish.

Jerry brought some Long Strange Tripel which was very spicy, fruity and dry… an excellent example of the triple style.  Alan brought some Berliner Weisse and some mead.  The Berliner Weisse was served with raspberry syrup and was nice and clean and sour.  Ryan brought some Hefe Weizen with good banana esters.  Jon brought some Tyskie Polish Pilsner.

The group discussed locating and harvesting wild hops found growing along the Heart River in Dickinson.  A canoe excursion will be planned soon to pick some of the hops.

The group concluded the meeting at a brewing session conducted by the K of C group led by Paul Ellerkamp and Michael Kreitinger.  The group was brewing beers for the K of C event scheduled for October 6th at the Badlands Activity Center.

Jon Stika
Secretary