First Round Wallops NASA ICC Winners!

Congratulations to the winners of the 2016 Wallops First Round NASA Inter-Center Competition (ICC)! And thanks to all who came out to help judge and enjoy the beers! We had a total of 13 entries this year split between the two categories. Style #19 - American IPA: 1st Place: Gabe Garde 2nd Place: Ernie Bowden Style #21 - American Amber and Brown Ale: 1st Place: Nick Wroblewski 2nd Place: Justin Babcock These beers now advance to the final round national competition at JPL next Saturday. Good luck brewers!

WFF ICC-10 Competition on April 6th

Brewers!

For those who haven't heard, the B.I.E.R. club will be hosting a local homebrew competition, as a first round selection for the larger, NASA ICC-10 competition.  Please RSVP your entries by April 1st by emailing us at bier.homebrew.club@gmail.com (thanks to those who have already done so!).

The details:

• Who:  Any local homebrewers (B.I.E.R. and/or Wallops affiliated in any way)
• When:  April 6th, 2016 at 6:00 PM
• Where:  Captain's Cove, email for directions
• Categories:
• BJCP 2015 #19 - American Amber and Brown Ale
• BJCP 2015 #21 - American IPA
• What:
• We need TWO brown, un-marked bottles per entry.  If you're entry moves on to JPL, we'll need another two bottles.  If you want to just submit 4, we can handle getting the winners shipped.
• While we're not requiring any money, a $2 donation per entry is requested, to help us pay for shipment of the winners to JPL for the final round.
• Prizes:
• There will be prizes for first and second place of each category, AND they will be featured/announced at the spring Wallops Craft Beer Night as the WFF ICC-10 Winners (if you want to bring more to share there, that's cool too).
• Judging:
• Will be conducted by your fellow homebrewers and craft beer aficionados, to the standard BJCP 2015 guidelines.  This will be very similar to last year.

The flyer is attached, print it out and circulate around the base as you see fit!

Cheers,

B.I.E.R

AHA Rally at DuClaw, Feb 20 2016

Greeting fellow homebrewers and homebrewing enthusiasts! Several members of the club will be heading up to Baltimore, MD on February 20th to attend the AHA Rally at DuClaw Brewing Company. It is scheduled to run from 1 pm until 4 pm. What is an AHA Rally you ask?  It's basically a chance for homebrewers to come together and hangout at a commercial brewery and have a great time. Free samples, free gifts, VIP tour, and networking opportunities!

We'd suggest grabbing a hotel in Baltimore so that you can go check out some beer after the Rally is over like we will be doing! Feel free to drop us an email via our contact us page if you want to meet up with some of us on the 20th! Hope to see some fellow B.I.E.R. club homebrewers at DuClaw!

December Meeting Recap and Home Made Root Beer Recipe

From our December meeting at Ralph's house, we had a soda making demonstration and tasting.  It was pretty easy, and came out great!  This root beer is more similar to a "Barq's" than "Mug", but neither of these descriptions really do it justice.  Below is the recipe and general brewing instructions.  This is to make 2 liters, basically to put into an empty 2 liter soda bottle.  Naturally carbonated from the yeast.

Ralph also showed off his homebrew setup and wine cellar, which were pretty awesome.  Hope to get back and check out his setup in action soon!

Root Beer Recipe by Ralph Bucca (world famous homebrewer, and new member of the B.I.E.R. club!)

Ingredients: (for 2 liters Root Beer)
All are 1/2 tablespoon, except as noted.  Brew and try, adjust to your personal taste
licorice
anise
sassafras
vanilla bean
burdock
molasses
(1 whole) cinnamon stick

(1 cup) of sugar
(1/8 tsp) of dry yeast (bakers is just fine)

Directions:
Steep all the spices (licorice, anise, sassafras, vanilla bean, burdock, cinnamon, and molasses) in a pint or two of water for about 30 minutes at a hot temperature, just under boiling.  Something like you would use for your specialty grains, so, say, 150-160 degrees.

Add (1) cup of sugar (whatever kind you like, regular table sugar is just fine).  And strain (if you like) the liquid into an empty 2 liter soda bottle.  Top up the rest with cold water.

Pitch (1/8 tsp) of regular bakers yeast (or you could use actual brewers yeast if you wanted I guess) when the temperature of the brew is at room temp.

"Ferment" in a dark spot for about two days, or whenever the bottle is about as turgid as it would be if you bought it from the store.  If you let it go too long, there's a good chance the bottle will explode.  If it's summer time, it might take a little over a day (hotter, yeast work quicker), in the winter, it might take a few days.  Just keep an eye on it.

When it's done "carbonating", stick it in the fridge to crash out the yeast and chill it.  After you open it, you'll want to keep it in the fridge just like you would with any regular soda bottle.  The bottom of the bottle will have the yeast and whatever else crashes out, just like a bottle conditioned beer.

References:
All ingredients came from Glut (specialty shop) in Mt Rainer, MD

Homemade Root Beer Soda & Pop, Cresswell, Stephen Storey Books

Ayinger Brewery tour slideshow

At our most recent club meeting, member Justin Babcock presented a slideshow showcasing a tour of the Ayinger Brewery that he took during his December to Germany. Much of the information contained in the presentation is based on signs, written in German, that are displayed throughout the brewery. The translation was accomplished using Google translate and other methods. If anyone loves translating German, please feel free to to check out this document containing the original German words here. We will gladly incorporate the translation into an updated version of the presentation. The presentation can be found here: goo.gl/fKYdxg

Novembrewfest II:

Craft Beer Night and Homebrew Competition at WFF Rocket Club

November 19th, 5:00 PM

Wallops will be hosting another Craft Brew Night and homebrew competition this month.  Tasting tickets are $5 which covers unlimited tastings and food. There will be a "Fall Classics" homebrew competition as well.  Prizes for first, second, and third places will be awarded, as well as a people's choice award for homebrew and professionally made brew.  Multiple local breweries will be represented.  Email us for more info or to enter the competition.

Delmarva Now Article

For those not in the know, or who haven't seen it shared on Facebook yet, Malissa Watterson from the Eastern Shore News wrote up an excellent article about the club.  Check it out!

http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/virginia/2015/10/16/bier-homebrew-club/73984232/