Feb. '10 Meeting

15 people showed up for this month's meeting.  Including a few new faces making their first appearance.  Vince and Brad came from Frankfort, looking to get the kettle boiling again after a few years of inactivity.  Ron is looking to get back to brewing now that his arm has healed.

A few facts about this blog.  In the last month there where 500 visits with 178 new visitors finding us for the first time.  We seem to be garnering interest worldwide as we had 9 visits from Israel and 8 each from the UK & Canada.  Back home, outside of Indiana, we've seen the most activity from New York with 10 visits, and 8 each from California, Texas & Virginia.

After a brief run around the table telling what each of us has been up to, we got down to the business of the bourbon barrel project.  We have the barrel safely stored in Brent's basement awaiting a stand to support it and a batch of beer to fill it.

How to Pour the Perfect Beer

Having the proper glassware to best accentuate the flavors, aromas and appearance of a particular style of beer is only the first step in serving the perfect beer. To get the full experience, it must be poured properly from the tap.
There are 9 steps for the perfect pour. They are;
1: THE PURIFICATION
The bartender selects the proper glass for the beer being poured. The glass must be "beer glass clean". It is then rinsed with cold water to chill the glass.

2: THE SACRIFICE
The tap is opened in one swift motion to let the first burst of foam flow away. It must never enter the glass, thus ensuring every drop of beer is fresh.

3: THE LIQUID ALCHEMY
Hold the glass at a 45-degree angle to create the perfect balance of liquid to foam.

4: THE HEAD
The head is created by straightening and lowering the glass. The head has double duty by being visually appealing and releases the beer's aroma.
5: THE REMOVAL
The bartender closes the tap in one quick action and moves the glass away from the faucet to ensure no drops spoil the perfect head.

6: THE BEHEADING
While the beer is flowing over the edge of the glass, the bartender cuts the head gently with a head cutter at a 45-degree angle. This eliminates the larger bubbles that burst easily and accelerate the dissipation of the head.

7: THE JUDGMENT
The bartender now stands in judgment. The beer's head should be two fingers thick.

8: THE CLEANSING
The bartender then rinses the bottom and sides of the glass. This keeps the glass clean and cool and makes it comfortable to hold.

9: THE BESTOWAL
The perfectly poured pint of beer is presented with the logos of the coaster and glass facing the customer.

Dry Hopping an IPA

It was time to transfer the IPA I'm doing for the March meeting to the secondary bucket for a little 'dry hopping".   I am using the homegrown cascade hops from the first year harvest of the bines.  I seperated some of the more defined cones and put them on the lid of the bucket to show their size.  This is after having been dehydrated, vacuum sealed and frozen.  Finding complete cones was not that easy, most had fallen apart in the bag.  Though there was some yellow lupulin in the bottom of the bag, and visible lupulin left in the cones & leaves, the aroma was not as "citrusy" as I was expecting.  It leaves me wondering if this will give me more of a grassy, leafy smell than what I am shooting for.  I'm guessing it could be a 1st year's growth effect, and more established plants will produce more aroma.

I used one of my favorite brewing tools for the hop bag.  A 1 gallon paint strainer bag (see my previous story on other uses for these bags).  I added some sanitized marbles as ballast, closed up the bag with one of those jagged edged plastic trash bag ties and put it in the bottom of the bucket with the racking cane placed in the middle of it to allow the beer to flow through it during transfer.  I'll check it in a week, maybe leave it another week if necessary, and we'll all find out how it turns out in March.