2006 Craft Brewers Conference 2006

[jefrey3]

I just returned from Seattle, WA. It didn't rain too much. Next meeting, I'll have goodies from the expo, beer, glasses, hops, hats & keychains. I hope I have something for everyone. Last year we drew names for the picking order & that seemed to work ok.

I also picked up a pure hop aroma oil kit. The kit contains 6 oils. At a future meeting, we can add PHA to sample beers & see the effects. The problems will be proportioning 12 oz bottles. The oil needs to be added at about 100 parts per million.

Yakima Chief Hops now has hop aroma pellets that look interesting. They are about the size of a quarter. It sounds like it takes about 2 to 4 per barrel. I have some samples to play with. They will be a lot easier to use than the oils, but they only have generic and cascade pellets. I know a brewer in Colorado Spring who likes them.

There is a company making mylar beer pouches, 12oz -> 64oz. The filled 12oz will fit in a sixpack carton. The 64oz would replace a growler.

4 Belgium Brewers, Westmalle, Duvel, Orval & Sint Bernardus, participated in a panel discussion. All four are modern state-of-the-art breweries. Some Belgium breweries may be centuries-old, but their brewhouses are not. All four bottle condition with the same yeast they use for fermentation. They filter out the fermentation yeast before repitching conditioning yeast to insure proper pitching rates. Their comments on US belgium beers were interesting. They thought most of the beers they tasted were good, but should be classified as American-style Belgian beer. Their opinion was that most use too much spice. They also think beer should be served in the proper glass.

[Chris Norrick]

There was a discussion on a backpackers forum a couple of years ago about beer in a pouch. I sort of forgot about it and don't remember the brewery. It's great for that sort of activity especially. Low weight and easy to pack with no worries about breakage.