The Knights of the Brown Bottle
Your Monthly Newsletter
January 2002
SERVING THE DALLAS - FORT WORTH
HOME BREWING COMMUNITY Vol. 6 Issue 1
Club officers for the Knights are:
President:
Tom Brooks
Vice-President:
J.B. Flowers
Competition Chairman:
Jeff Erwin
Treasurer:
Lane Kleinpeter
Secretary:
Larry Land
Newsletter Editor
Byron Eastwood
Webmaster:
Joel Henderson
2002 Bluebonnet Brew-Off News
KOBB,
The Bluebonnet is getting closer. There are
a few things that we can do as a group to
ease the load for several tasks. One of which
is preparing the mailer. This is sent to all
previous entrants, and most brew clubs in
the country. If things go according to plan, I
should have the printed mailer (by the
hundreds), ready for stamps and address
labels. Tom will be printing out the labels
for us, what I am hoping for is half a dozen
members or so to assist in an assembly line
of stamping and labeling the mailers so I
can get them posted. I am trying to get these
for our next meeting. With many hands
perhaps this will only take an hour or so. I
will inform everyone as to how this is
shaping up...
Prost !
Steve
2
The Knights of the Brown Bottle Newsletter
KOBB Christmas Party 2001
Submitted by Joel Henderson
What a party! We had more food and brew
than you could shake a stick at. I think we
could've fed another 25 more people with
what we had left over. Where were YOU?
Thanks to Larry and Helen Land for inviting
us to their home for the festivities. A
special thanks to Brett Spangler and Larry
Land for providing these pictures from our
Christmas Party.
Steve said: ‘Who needs a “Sleep Comfort”
mattress?
J.B. said: ‘That makes me all warm and tingly!
Don’t stop!’
Joel said: ‘Is that a bratwurst that somebody
dropped on the floor?’
Check out all of the pictures at our KOBB Website
http://hbd.org/kobb/Xmas01.html
Check out the Editor’s interpretation of the pictures
below.
‘See, that’s the trouble with these things, you gotta
keep your eye on’em all the time.’
‘OK… Who farted?’
3
‘These people are F*#@ing crazy. Let’s get the Hell
out of here!’
The Knights of the Brown Bottle Newsletter
‘OK, we admit it! We’re joining the Hair Club for
Men!’
‘Yeah, I farted, but they’ll never catch me! I told
them that it was Karl.’
The Brew Stash!
Here’s a listing of the
wonderful work that Joel Henderson has
compiled to offer members on our web page.
Thanks for all of your hard work Joel!!!!
Texas Brew Clubs
Ale-ian Society - Abilene, Texas
North Texas Homebrewers Association -
Dallas, Texas
NET Hoppers Homebrew Club - North
Tarrant County, Texas
Denton Fermented Brewers Society - Denton,
4
The Knights of the Brown Bottle Newsletter
Texas
Kuykendahl Gran Brewers' Homebrew Club -
Houston, Texas
Brew Bayou - Clute, Texas (Brazosport Area
Club)
Bible Belt Brewers - Abilene, Texas
Other Brew Clubs
Central Florida Home Brewers Club
- Orlando,
Florida
The Crescent City Homebrewers
- New Orleans,
Louisiana
Baton Rouge Enzyme Wrights
- Baton Rouge,
Louisiana
Dukes of Ale - Albuquerque, New Mexico
Los Alamos Atom Mashers - Los Alamos,
New
Mexico
Homebrew Stores
Dr. Jeckyll's Beer Lab - located in Arlington,
Texas
The Homebrew Shop - located in Arlington
Texas
Flying Saucer located in Arlington at I-30 &
Collins in Lincoln Square - Phone: (817) 299-0795
Flying Saucer Draught Emporium located in
Dallas at - 1520 Greenville Ave. - 96 taps Phone: (214) 824-7468
Flying Saucer Draught Emporium located in
Ft. Worth in Sundance Square - 76 taps Phone: (817) 336-7468
Humperdinks - locations in Addison,
Arlington, Dallas
Humperdinks Big Horn Brewing Co. - located
in Dallas at 6050 Greenville Ave - Phone: (214)
368-1203
Humperdinks Big Horn Brewing Co. - located
in Dallas at 2208 W. Northwest Highway Phone: (214) 358-4159
Humperdinks Big Horn Brewing Co. - located
in Addison at 3820 Belt Line Rd. - Phone: (972)
484-3051
Humperdinks Big Horn Brewing Co. - located
in Arlington at 705 Six Flags Dr. - Phone: (817)
640-8553
Two Rows Restaurant and Brewery - located
The Winemaker Shop - located in Fort Worth,
in Dallas at 5500 Greenville Ave, Ste. 1300 Phone: (214) 696-2739
Homebrew Headquarters - located in Dallas,
Copper Tank Brewing - located in Dallas at
Texas
Texas
St. Patrick's of Texas - located in Austin, Texas
Foreman's The Home Brewery - located in
Colleyville, Texas
Jack's Homebrew Supply Of Dallas - located in
Dallas, Texas
The Brew Shop - located in Oklahoma City, OK
2600 Main St - Phone: (214) 744-3114
Big Buck Brewery - located in Grapevine at
2501 Bass Pro Drive #100 - Phone: (214) 513-2337
Pubs & Taverns
The Gingerman - located in Dallas at 2718 Boll
St. - 70 taps - Phone: (214) 754-8771
Dallas Area Brew Pubs, Pubs, Taverns, &
Breweries
Brew Pubs
The Old Monk - located in Dallas at 2847
Henderson Ave. - Phone: (214)821-1880
Barley House - located in Dallas at 2916 N.
The Flying Saucer - locations in Addison,
Henderson Ave. - 26 taps - Phone: (214) 8240306
Flying Saucer Draught Emporium located in
Addison at - 14994 Montfort - 114 taps - Phone:
(972) 991-7093
Stan's Blue Note - located in Dallas at 2908
Arlington, Dallas, & Fort Worth
Greenville Ave. - 50 taps - Phone: (214) 824-9653
5
The Knights of the Brown Bottle Newsletter
Dubliner- located in Dallas at 2818 Greenville
Miller Brewing Co. - located in Ft. Worth at
The Tipperary Inn - located in Dallas at 5815
Check out the cool Brewing software downloads at:
Ave - Irish style pub - Phone: (214) 818-0911
7001 S Freeway - Phone: (817) 551-3300
Live Oak - Irish style pub - 25 taps - Phone: (214)
823-7167
http://www.brewery.org/brewery/Software.html
Fox & Hound - located in Dallas at 18919
Recipe of the Month
Midway Road - British style pub - Phone: (972)
732-0804
From the crusty archives of Byron Eastwood
Henk's European Deli - located in Dallas at
5811 Blackwell St. - German style tavern Phone:
(214) 987-9090
& Black Forest Bakery
Ben's Half-yard House - located in Dallas at
7102 Greenville Ave. - Phone: (214) 363-1118
Old Chicago - located in Addison at 4060
Beltline Road - 30 taps - Phone: (972) 490-3900
J. Gilligan's Bar & Grill - located in Arlington
Old Peculiar
J.R. Bentley's - located in Arlington at 406 W.
This recipe is for one of my favorite old ales. It’s really easy to
make but takes patience to wait for the final result. Wait about
six months after bottling before you enjoy one and you’ll be
rewarded!
at 400 E. Abram St. - Phone: (817) 274-8561
Abrams - Phone: (817) 261-7351
Fox and Hound English Pub & Grille - located
in Arlington at 1001 NE Green Oaks Blvd. Phone: (817) 277-3591
Pig And Whistle - located in Ft. Worth 5731
Locke Ave. - British style pub - Phone: (817) 5511143
The Blarney Stone - located in Ft. Worth at
903 Throckmorton - Irish style pub - Phone:
(817) 332-4747
Breweries
Great Grains Brewery - located in Dallas at
2650 Lombardy Lane, Suite O
tours available by
appointment - Phone: (214) 654-9010
Texas Beer Company - located in Ft. Worth at
501 N.Main St. - 817-878-2739
Ingredients:

8 pounds, dark malt extract

1/2 pound, roast barley

1/2 pound, crystal malt

2 pounds, dark brown sugar

2 ounces, Fuggles hops

Wyeast 1098 "English" (Whitbread) ale yeast
Procedure:
For a five gallon batch:
Steep the grains in one gallon of 128-degree water while you
bring three gallons of water to a boil in another pot. Remove
the three gallons of water from the heat and stir in the extract
and the brown sugar.
After the extract and sugar are dissolved, pour the steeping
from the grain into the pot. (Obviously you’ll need a 5 gallon
6
pot or larger.) Begin the boil. When boil commences, add 1
ounce of the Fuggles hops and boil for one hour. Add the other
ounce of Fuggles hops in the last 10 minutes of the boil. Chill
the wort and ferment for fourteen days with the 1098 yeast
until activity subsides. Rack to secondary fermenter and allow
to clear for two weeks. Prime with 1 and ½ cups of dark malt
extract and bottle. DRINK SOMETHING ELSE! WAIT FOR
AT LEAST SIX MONTHS BEFORE YOU OPEN ONE!
YOU CAN DO IT! BREW A DIFFERENT BATCH! The wait
will be well worth it.
Byron
The Knights of the Brown Bottle Newsletter
OG of medieval beers would have been at least 1.070 to insure
a reasonable shelf life. Spoilage was delayed by the higher
alcoholic content. FG could not have been much higher than
what we would have today from such a beer, or the
preservation effect would have been nullified. Please note that
guidelines for a number of today's brews (barley wine, English
old ale, Scotch ale, imperial stout, several Belgian ales, bock,
doppelbock) may have an OG which exceeds that of the
medieval brews.
As for flavors, the medieval brewer did not have any black
malts or crystal malts. The black malts were not available
before 1817. Colored malts resulted from uneven heat control,
which would have produced pale, amber and brown malts in
the same batch, and likely in random distributions. Brown malt
was also intentionally produced to reclaim slack malt.
Whether the Medieval beers were cloudy is open for debate.
Young beers would have had a higher degree of cloudiness
than beers, which had been aged, just as today. Aged ale
commanded a higher price during the middle ages. By the
standards of AB (St. Louis, MO) probably most real ales are
cloudy. Try to pour a crystal clear glass of Thomas Hardy ale.
Not until glass became the common drinking vessel did beer
clarity become much of an issue.
Medieval English Brewing
By Fred Hardy
Carl Etnier posted Jeff Renner's comments on his (Jeff's)
impression of what English Beer must have been like at the
time of Henry VIII. IHO, "English ale back then was typically
much stronger in OG than now (>1.080), probably cloudy with
yeast and suspended starch and protein from poor mashing and
sparging techniques, sweeter (higher FG) and un-hopped.
Carl goes on to add "and flat". Carl posts that he didn't know
when pressure vessels and thereby the possibility for
carbonation were introduced for beer, but he suspects they
didn't exist then.
Perhaps I can shed some light on several of these areas. As for
carbonation, the Celts and Brits had the same pressure vessels,
as did the Burton brewers who shipped IPA around the world.
They are called "Barrels", and the coopers' art was well
established in the British Isles before the Roman Invasion.
It had not been forgotten during Henry's time (The
Renaissance), since it was the vessel of choice of both the
Burton brewers of IPA as well as the modern day Real Ale
advocates of CAMRA. The carbonation was less than Bud, but
equal to today's real ale served in England. For a killer head
the Norse (and probably more than a few Brits and Celts)
would plunge a hot poker into the mug to release dissolved
CO2 and produce accompanying foam. At a time when central
heating was unknown, the alcohol and actual warmth of the
drink were probably welcomed.
Most English ales brewed before the 16th century would have
been un-hopped. It is hard to say with any certainty that none
were. The Romans who valued them as food introduced hops
into England. Since all manners of herbs and spices have
found their way into beer, who can say that someone in
Medieval England did not use hops in theirs? Documentation
identifies sweet gale, marsh rosemary and mill-foil as herbs
used as gruit in medieval beer. That is about as complete as
saying only pale barley malt, ale yeast, Cascade hops and
water are used in modern beer.
Certainly ginger, cloves, cinnamon, ground ivy, nutmeg, mace,
honey, fennel, mint and a host of other additives were
available to the medieval brewer. They ranged from common
to rare and expensive. Some imported ingredients were
probably unknown in areas of the English countryside, but
available in coastal cities.
Every age is arrogant, and we are no different. We assume that
no one before ourselves knew how to do anything well. In fact,
brewers throughout the middle Ages produced excellent beer.
During the high Middle Ages (1000-1400) English beer was
widely exported and said to rival wine in clarity, color and
strength. It was even presented to foreign kings as a prized
gift.
Sparging did not even become feasible until the introduction of
hops. We use sparging to extract the last bit of sugar because
we want to emulate Bud,Mil,Coors. It is about economics, not
necessarily about good beer. Try doing a medieval style
double mash (mash, draw off the liquid, mash again and draw
7
The Knights of the Brown Bottle Newsletter
of the liquid) and you will get two brews. One, a strong ale
with OG around 1.075, and a small beer with OG in the mid to
upper 1.030s.
It is likely that the medieval brewer would have spiced both.
The strong ale could be stored and the small beer was for
everyday family use. Today we put hops in the small beer and
call it English ordinary. We sparge so we can use minimal
ingredients and get the same effect as our ancestors got from a
second running of their mash.
Reproducing medieval beers is both fascinating and rewarding.
I particularly like my first running strong ale from pale and
amber malts and spiced with ginger, toasted rosemary and
fennel. I also treat the second running as medieval brewers
often did - I add honey to raise OG to over 1.070 and produce
braggot. BTW, Wyeast No. 1728 (Scottish ale) works well
with both. Yield is about 3 gallons each of two very different
beverages from a single mash of 12 pounds of grain.
Let your imagination dictate the herbs, methods and uses for
your medieval beers. Our ancestors did.
Local ads stir up Utah controversy
Wasatch founder Greg Schirf calls the ads "humorous and
good-natured." But not everyone's laughing. A local
billboard company declined to rent space for some of the
Polygamy Porter ads. Dewey Reagan, president of Reagan
Outdoor Advertising, says he doesn't feel the illegal
practice of polygamy "is something that should be
portrayed in a humorous light."
His company has received letters for and against its stand.
Most are supportive, Reagan says. Consumers have also
written letters to local newspapers complaining about the
Wasatch ads.
• Brighton Ski Resort has billboard and print ads
promoting the resort's four-person lifts: "Wife. Wife. Wife.
Husband. High-Speed Quads."
By Michael McCarthy,
USA TODAY
NEW YORK — The
2002 Winter Olympics
are still more than a
month away. But there's
already fierce
competition over the
image that squeaky-clean
Salt Lake City wants to
project to visitors and the
world during the
festivities.
The brewer also
ran an ad for a
brew called St.
Provo Girl that
lampooned a
Brouhaha: Some billboard companies are
local habit of
refusing to run these ads by Wasatch Beers
church members
to use the
expression, "Oh my heck," instead of swearing. "If you just
said, 'Oh my heck,' it's probably not for you," the ad says.
"We hope people will take them in a positive, humorous
light as they come into town for the Olympics," says Dan
Malstrom, marketing and sales director. Reagan also
declined to take Brighton's billboards. So the resort
switched companies and has five "Wife" billboards up until
March.
Brouhaha: Polygamy Porter beer ads
use the slogan "Why have just one."
Several local brewing
companies and ski resorts are causing controversy with
cheeky ad campaigns poking fun at polygamy in the
Mormon-dominated state.
Over 70% of Utah's 2.1 million residents belong to The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church
shuns alcohol. And it renounced plural marriage in 1890,
though pockets of polygamy still survive in the state.
Among the ads and promotions causing a commotion:
• Wasatch Beers has caused a brouhaha with a new beer
called Polygamy Porter. As if the name weren't enough, the
Utah brewer is promoting it with ads that say "Why Have
Just One?" and "Take Some Home for the Wives."
Brighton has received a dozen consumer complaints. "They
say we make the state look bad, make it look like it's all
polygamy in Utah. But you really have to work hard to find
any polygamists here. They hide really well," Malstrom
says.
The resort also lampooned Mormon patriarch Brigham
Young. An ad for the resort's offer of free skiing for kids
under age 10 used the slogan "Bring 'Em Young."
• Several local nightclubs, including the Dead Goat
Saloon, are banding together for a Web campaign urging
Olympic visitors to buy club "memberships" in advance.
State liquor laws require people who wish to drink to join
"private clubs" for a fee.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not
taken a public position on any of these ad campaigns,
spokesman Dale Bills says.
8
"However, we have long-standing concerns about the
public health and social costs of alcohol, especially the
often devastating consequences of underage drinking," he
says.
The Knights of the Brown Bottle Newsletter
Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants to see us
happy.
-Benjamin Franklin
This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the
Lord has intended a more divine form of consumption. Let
us give praise to our maker and glory to His bounty be
learning about beer.
-Friar Tuck
From man’s sweat and God’s love, beer came into the
world.
-Saint Arnold of Metz, The patron Saint of Brewers
Famous Beer Quotes
Do not cease to drink beer, to eat, to intoxicate thyself, to
make love, and celebrate the good days.
-Ancient Egypt
This beer is good for you. This is draft beer. Stick with the
beer. Let’s go and beat this guy up and come back and
drink some more beer.
-Ernest Hemingway
But if at church they would give some ale
And a pleasant fire our souls to regale.
We’d sing and we’d pray all the live long day,
Nor ever once from the church to stray.
-William Blake
We brewers don’t make beer, we just get all the
ingredients together and the beer makes itself.
-Fritz Maytag, President Anchor Brewing
You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no
matter how rich you are.
-Colonel Adolphus Busch
I work until beer o’clock.
-Steven King
Keep your libraries, your penal institutions, your insane
asylums...give me beer. You think man needs rule, he needs
beer. The world does not need morals, it needs beer... The
souls of men have been fed with indigestibles, but the soul
could make use of beer.
-Henry Miller
In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only
there for the beer.
-A.J.P. Taylor, British historian
What two ideas are more inseparable than beer and
Britannia?
-Sydney Smith, English clergyman, writer.
From the Editor
Fermentation may have been a greater discovery than fire.
-David Rains Wallace
Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers
nourished on beer.
-Frederick the Great
I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer.
-Homer Simpson
I recommend, bread, meat, vegetables, and beer.
-Sophocles
It is disgusting to note the increase in the quantity of coffee
used by my subjects and the amount of money that goes
out of the country in consequence. Everybody is using
coffee. If possible, this must be prevented. My people must
drink beer. -Frederick the Great
Knights,
I can’t remember a more eventful year. The world is spinning a
little faster than it used to. With all of the events of the past year
behind us, I hope that we will all have a prosperous and happy
new year and a great time in our lives. I continue to look forward
to all of the wonderful times that will transpire over the 2002
seasons. There are a lot of cool events in our future and a lot of
brews to tend to. We have the beginning of Club Competitions,
the Bluebonnet (to say a mouthful), the annual election of
Officers and the Celtic Brew-Off all in our sights before we
9
culminate for our annual summer party at the Texas Scottish
Festival. I look forward to these times every year. For a chance to
share a savored Ale with old friends, and a chance to meet some
new ones. Let’s hope that 2002 will be our shining hour!
Byron
Email: Eastwoodthree@aol.com
Phone: 972-318-3777
Address: 938 Southwood Dr.
Highland Village, Texas 75077
The Knights of the Brown Bottle Newsletter