For those of you who either don't receive club e-mails or have been out of the country for the past month, it's an honor for me to officially announce that the Urban Knaves of Grain received the AHA Club of the Year award for 1999. Although we can't lay total claim to the award (we were co-winners with the Oregon Brew Crew - a club with over a hundred members), this is well deserved recognition for a club loaded with brewing talent.
The criteria for earning club-of-the-year honors is based on the total points accumulated by club members for beers submitted to the AHA National competition as well as beers submitted for the six annual club-only competitions. The winning score this year was 77 points. Club members who contributed to this effort were: Marc Kullberg and Rich Janevicius - 3 points each, Kevin Spealman - 4 points, Phil Gravel and Jay Kash - 6 points each, Mike Uchima - 7 points, Shane Coombs and Joe Formanek - 13 points each, and Steve McKenna - 22 points (almost equaling Shane and Joe's combined total on his own!). It's worth highlighting here that Jay's 6 points came as a result of him winning the latest club-only competition for bocks (thanks, Jay, for putting us over the top). Also notable were the individual medals won by Joe (Silver for his IPA), Kevin (Silver for his Robust Porter), and Shane (Bronze for his Berliner Weiss).
This is a great honor and I hope you will all take pride in sharing it. The club-of-the-year trophy will be on display at future club meetings.
Actually, the first official club function at which the trophy was unveiled was the club picnic at John Mains' house on July 17th. I would like to personally thank, once again, John and Lori for hosting this very enjoyable event. Although skies threatened and an occassional sprinkle passed over, a great time was had by the many members, guests, and family members that attended. There was a large variety of homebrewed selections available including some very flavorfull and refreshing cream ales, Steve's award-winning mild, and a couple of tasty porters that I hope to see at the upcoming in-house judging for our club-only porter entry. Thanks also to Shane and Laurel Coombs for providing the congratulatory cake which helped top off a great day of eating, socializing, and talk of defending our club-of-the-year honor in the upcoming year.
Hopefully, you have all marked your calendar for the second Saturday in September for the previously announced pub crawl in St. Charles. I would like to thank Curt Czapski and Chris Campanelli (the 4 Cs) for organizing this event which will include a number of stops at a variety of pubs and other drinking establishments along the Fox River. See the schedule published in this newsletter for the times and locations of the crawl stops. If you can't make it for the beginning, hopefully you can join us in progress.
Finally, as we approach Fall, it's time to start getting organized for the Second Annual Drunk Monk Challenge. It may seem too early but not if you consider the advance notice that needs to be given to various brewing related publications as well as contacting vendors and suppliers for door prizes and judge gifts. This competition affords all members an opportunity to contribute to the longevitiy and viability of the club. Not to mention that judges and entrants will have high expectations for a competition organized by the 1999 co-club of the year ! Please contact me if you can chair one of the various committees as we put the pieces in place for DMC 2000.
Once again, congratulations to you all on achieving a major milestone for the Knaves !
Circle the 11th of September on your calendar and make plans to join your fellow knaves on a Pub Walk/Crawl maybe even stumble through St. Charles. If you've never taken the time to notice, St. Charles has quite a few nice watering holes in their downtown area, and this will be a good chance for you to discover them. And because of their relative proximity, you can walk from one to the other without breaking a sweat. We'll get started at 3pm at Erik & Me's, 1 W. Illinois St. and keep going until we end up at Danny's Corner Pocket, 106 S. 1st Ave. later that night. This will also be the UKG Social Night get together for September, so even if you can't make it for the entire walk, join in somewhere along the way and say Hi! Here is the schedule for the PubWalk.
| 3:00 - 4:30pm | Erik & Me's | 1 W. Illinois St. | 377-9222 |
| 4:45 - 6:15pm | McNally's | 201 E. Main (at 2nd St.) | 513-6300 |
| 6:30 - 8:00pm | Billy Biru's | 312 W. Main | 587-4251 |
| 8:15 - 10:45pm | Danny's Corner Pocket | 106 S. 1st Ave. | 443-1150 |
A study done in Finland on 27,000 Finnish men between the ages of 50 and 69, has shown the risk of developing kidney stones decreases with each and every bottle of beer you drink. As reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the study linked each bottle of beer consumed daily by middle-aged men to a 40% lower risk of the painful stones. It is unclear which beer ingredient reduces the risk. Water, alcohol, or compounds found in hops may be responsible for the protective effect of beer, suggest Finnish and US researchers led by Dr. Tero Hirvonen of the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland. But I say, What does it matter? Cheers!
How many days start with snow at 7am only to give way to 95+ degree heat by noon? It started in March at the DMC, when Mark Knoebel suggested to a few Knaves that it might be a cool idea to make a tour in the summer of a few south-central Wisconsin breweries. As Mark now works at New Glarus Brewery, he naturally thought that it should be included, along with Huber Brewing in nearby Monroe, and Capital Brewery in Middleton, just outside of Madison. The seed of Mark's idea found fertile ground with Shane Coombs and he started organizing the event around the beginning of July for a trip on the 24th. At the last minute I decided to tag along as D.D. so at 7:30 on the morning of the 24th I met Shane, Don Alton and J.J. Hantsch at the Rock Bottom Brewery in Warrenville and we set out for Monroe WI.
It was already well into the 90's by the time we got to Baumgardner's, a bar/eatery in downtown Monroe. There we met up with a couple of CBS members, and four or five members of the club Mark Knoebel started, M.A.L.T. The Huber Brewing Co. was a short two block walk from Baumgardner's. Outside the dock door waiting for us was our guide, Hans Kestler. If you listen to the radio much, you've probably heard Hans' voice. With his German accent dripping from each word like foam down the side of a freshly filled stein, he extols the virtue of Berghoff's beer with a quaintness that borders on the satiric. A better tour guide though, could not be wished for. Hans led us through the plant from the mashtun to the bottling line, discoursing on subjects as varied as the making of lemonade to beer salesmen without a clue. And lemonade is something Hans must know a lot about as Huber has taken on the manufacturing of Hooper's Hooch, an alcoholic bottled drink coming in lemon and orange varieties. Without the sales of this non-beer product (although the alcohol is derived from an all-malt process) it is doubtful that Huber could stay in business very much longer. Hans was almost wistful in his manner, but never sentimental. He recalled with pride the days when Huber pushed about 300,000 barrels of beer through the plant each year, employing 55 brewery workers. Now that volume is down around 80,000 barrels and there are only 19 brewery employees. Hans not only knows the ins and outs of making beer, but he is also keenly aware of the business side also. When he looks at any facet of his operation he looks first at the price tag. He knows only too well, that his limited funding allows him to do only so much. It's not just equipment or materials that must be paid for and considered but almost as important are energy costs and consumer habits. Mr. Kestler knows his job from the front door to the back, and down the street and around the corner.
Hans joined us for lunch back at Baumgardner's, before we headed on to New Glarus. It was just a 20-30 minute ride, and our group was now down to the 4 knaves and the 2 CBS guys and Mark Knoebel, our guide. The recently added copper mash tun and brewkettle are immediately visible through a window to the room behind the gift shop where you enter the building. As nice as it looked, Mark noted that with the recent heat wave, the temperature in the room would reach 120 on a brew day. The tour here was thorough and enjoyable, followed by, like at Huber's, a tasting of various brewery products. This Designated Driver duty I was finding has its drawbacks.
It was now after 4:30pm and we were heading on to Capital. Mark gave us directions to get there and wished us well. When we arrived there, we found out someone had forgot to notify Capital that we were coming. Ooops....looks like no tour. It was still hot and steamy so the beer garden was bypassed for a seat inside at their new bar. Jeff Sparrow from CBS said he knew the brewer here, a guy named Kirby and would give him a call. It didn't sound encouraging when Jeff reported back that Kirby said, "When was I drunk enough to give YOU my home phone number?!". However, Kirby said he was coming down any how and would see what he could do. Kirby managed to take us back to the brewing area and finishing tanks where we sampled a new Capital product, "Autumnal Fire" an Octoberfest-style beer and discussed this and that about his job. Kirby was gracious but short of time, so he took us back to the bar area, got us a couple of pitchers (damn this DD thing anyhow) and said farewell. With the brew now gone we headed back to Chicago - all in all a very good day, designated driving or not.
There is still time to jump on the Russian beerwagon. Despite an economic crisis that has sent consumer spending plummeting, sales of Russian beers increased 20 percent in the first quarter of 1999. Beer production is by far the single fastest growing consumer industry in Russia, where per capita beer consumption is still one-third of that in the rest of Europe. A decade ago, just one brand of beer could be found on the market. But at a recent beer festival in Moscow more than 25 brands were available to thirsty Muscovites.
Miller Brewing Co. got cold feet at the last minute, and decided not to air a Genuine Draft ad aimed at San Francisco's gay market. The commercial featured the "Barechest Men" - male models from a popular Bay Area calendar - frolicking by a pool, playing volleyball and chugging MGD. It was supposed to debut on a San Francisco based gay cable show, "QTV's Xposure Program." Miller insiders told Advertising Age magazine the commercial was slated to run for at least a month, and possible till the end of the year, but a frosty corporate mouthpiece later insisted the ad had never been officially approved. The Milwaukee brewer has sponsored sports events for gays, has contributed to local gay festivals and has advertised in gay-oriented publications. A beer television commercial however would have been a first.
Things sure do change quickly. It only seemed like a few years ago, kids went to college to learn about calculus, and quantum mechanics and other subjects of an esoteric nature. Now they're learning how to make beer faster! That's right, a group of three students (Gil Schroeder, John Davis and Tasos Tsangarides)has been picked as on of about 30 student teams for the NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program. The trio will venture in August to Houston's Johnson Space Center. There, they will conduct their experiments aboard a KC-135A reduced-gravity aircraft - dubbed the "Vomit Comet" by astronauts who have trained onboard the airplane for space missions. Vinay Pai, one of the students' faculty supervisors, said the airplane provides a roller-coaster effect - on the ascent, passengers go at twice the gravity level experienced on the Earth's surface; on the descent, the plane dives, creating the weightless conditions of space for about 20 seconds. The cycle continues about 40 times. Schroeder, the team leader, said his team has recorded the fermentation rate by measuring the emissions of carbon dioxide, which is released as yeast ferments. Students have also been recording the effects of magnets on their fermenting samples. So far, Schroeder said, the team has found that magnetic fields accelerate fermentation - increasing carbon dioxide emissions by 75 percent. The NASA adventure will allow the research team to take their experiments a step further. They will measure carbon dioxide emissions from 20 yeast samples - 10 with magnets and 10 without - while experiencing increased gravity, then no gravity at all.
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Last modified 9/27/99.