The WIZARDS Newsletter
April, 2006

WIZARD's Club News

Upcoming Club Meetings

Club meetings this quarter will be May 16 and June 20, all at Deja Brew in Shrewsbury. Check our web page, call Strange Brew or call Deja Brew for directions.

Club Meeting Minutes and Upcoming Events

The following are the minutes for the April 2006 club meeting:

Two new dues paying members signed up this week. Please join us in officials welcoming Vic and Mike to the club. These two are no strangers to the club - in fact they are a past Best-of-Show winner in our annual homebrew competition - but its not to see them both becoming active in the club!

National Homebrew Day - The club is planning a club brew day to coincide with National Homebrew Day on May 6th in the Strange Brew parking lot starting at 10:00 AM. We hope all club members can attend this event. Brewing is set to get underway at 10:00AM and expected to wrap-up in the mid-to-late afternoon. National Homebrew Day is a great chance to sign up new club members as there are always plenty of avid homebrewers in the crowd. We ask that all club members attend this event, talk up the club and encourage people to attend our May meeting.

With any luck, National Homebrew Day will find us new prospective members which is exactly why we need to put on a good show for the May meeting. Pale Ale is the beer style for the May meeting. All club members are encouraged to brew and bring a Pale Ale whether it be an American Pale Ale, an English Pale Ale or, if its all you have, an Imperial Pale Ale will probably do. As always, homebrews are preferred but commercial examples will do nicely. The May meeting will also give us a chance to have an adhoc discussion about brewing wheat beers - just in time to get them ready for our August meeting.

Greg took the action to develop an extract pale ale recipe to be made by whoever wants to help at National Homebrew Day.

Bill took the action to update the club's brochure for National Homebrew Day.

The club would like to ask their head brewer - Jeremy - if he can organize an extract 5 gallon wheat beer brew to be made at the June meeting and enjoyed at the August meeting.

The WIZARDS are pleased to announce our first ever dues amnesty program. Any active member who pays their 2006/2007 dues on time (by the June meeting) will have any past debts forgiven. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get caught up on back dues and help fund the club at the same time. Heck its only twelve bucks...

NERAX is May 3rd-6th. Details at http://www.nerax.org/home.htm. Send an email to the group if you're interested.

Upcoming club activities are always posted on the club's website at http://www.brewbeer.org/wizupcoming.htm. Additional details will be published in the newsletter as they become available and provided via email to the club's egroups email list.

Topics for the Club's Next Business Meeting
  1. None yet!
Dues

Dues for 2006/2007 are now due. Dues are still a bargain at $12/year and cover most, if not all, of our club activities. Dues pay our nominal expenses like buying the pretzels and cups for meetings. The biggest way your dues are spent is at club functions where the club finds some way to treat everyone in attendance like buying the pizza at our holiday party this past December or buying the appetizers on the annual pub crawl.

Newsletter

As always, articles and suggestions for the newsletter are both welcomed and encouraged and should be sent directly to Bill.

WIZARD's Recent Events

Boston Pub Crawl

On Saturday, April 8, the club tool to the streets of Boston for annual pub crawl. The pub crawl is another great way to benefit from your club dues and the colub's money making activites. This year the club bought T tokens for the day and appetizers for dinner! As always many thanks to Greg for compiling the the following notes of the day and to Deb for her new role as unofficial club photographer.


The club at John Harvards with our first sampler of the day!


Wizards and Hogtown Brewers Unite!!

The first stop of the day was at John Harvard’s in Cambridge where we all ordered the 5 beer sampler and stayed for lunch (www.johnharvards.com)

Colonial Gold OG = 1.041 BU = 18 ABV =4 %

John Harvard’s Pale Ale OG = 1.048 BU= 32 ABV = 4.7%

Wilson’s Pre Pro Lager OG 1.053 BU =35 ABV= 5.1%

Old Willy’s IPA OG= 1.061 BU= 59 ABV 6.2%

Newtowne Brown Ale OG = 1.048 BU =27 ABV= 4.7%

After the 5 beer sampler we ordered lunch and some pints. Bill and Greg ordered the Cask bitter. Greg felt it was a “butter bomb” way too much diacetyl, very unpleasant. Bill wrote “At first I thought Greg was being too harsh but alas, he is correct. Some hop bitterness no malt, past its prime?” Dave ordered the Oatmeal Stout. Dark brown in color, with a thick brown head. Chocolate / coffee flavor with well balanced bitterness but thin bodied.

We had a nice time at John Harvard’s overall the beers were Ok although it seems like the word thin appears in the notes with great regularity. I should also mention we met a home brewer from Florida who is active in a club called the Hogtown Brewers check them out at www.hogtownbrewers.org.

Our second stop of the day was Boston Beer Works (Garden).

We all ordered 4 beer sample racks but not everyone had the same beers so bear with me here (www.beerworks.net)

Handsome Devil Belgian style pale ale

Boston Garden Golden Ale

Back Bay IPA ABV 6.5%

Victory Red

Beantown Nut Brown ABV 5%

Buckeye Oatmeal Stout ABV 5%

The Fenway pale ale was the best beer in the place but Darja was the only one who had the foresight to order it as a part of their samples and no one was interested enough to spend any more time at this stop.


You've got to be kidding - Our stop at Boston Beer Works!


The second sampler of the day at Cambridge Brewing!

The third stop of the day was Cambridge Brewing Company (www.cambrew.com). Again we got 4 beer samples and again they were not all the same beers.

Vienna Gold OG 1.048 FG 1.013 ABV 4.6%

L’a more Du jour No Specs available

Tall Tale Pale Ale OG 1.058 FG 1.013 ABV 5.9%

Tiger Bite OG 1.048 FG 1.008 ABV 4.75%

Cambridge Amber OG 1.048 FG 1.012 ABV 4.7%

Charles River Porter OG 1.060 FG1.014 ABV 6.0%

We all agreed that overall the beer here was the best of the three stops but there were no real showstoppers.

Our last stop was at Redbones in Davis square for dinner (www.redbonesbbq.com). The food was excellent as always and the beer selection, broad and interesting PBR to Bigfoot and lots of stuff in between.

As usual a good time was had by all if you didn’t make it this year you missed a good outing.


Everyone liked dinner at Redbones - especially Audrey!


Time to head home after a tough day out!


Comments, questions or information on the WIZARD's to Bill