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As it is every year, the end of summer was marked by Phil & Katie's Octoberfest. Our hosts put on quite a spread this year with not one, but five different beers on tap! This year the feature selections were Terrapin Oktoberfest, Continental Pilsner, Olde No. 3 Porter, Strawberry Blonde Ale and Red Rooster ESB, and of course, all were brewed by Phil. To help all those beer neophytes out, Phil even provided some tasting notes for each selection. While I did have the opportunity to sample each of the choices, I found the Porter and the Oktoberfest to be the best selections on tap! Rumor has it the Strawberry Blonde was the hit of the party and the first keg to kick. As if the beers weren't enough, the homemade sausages certainly made the day. I'm already looking forward to the big yellow tent and next year's event.

Like we said in the last newsletter, summer is the slow time for the club. Without any formal activities planned, we had to be content with a number of samplings at our regular club meetings. The single biggest recurring theme at the summer meetings has to be the Collaborator Milk Stout from National Homebrew Day. It seems like somebody is always pulling one of these out of the closest on beer night. But what else have we seen? Greg brought us a mild, Rich brought a Weizenbier (or was it an American steam?), Bill brought his southern brown, Phil brought the Octoberfest and barleywine, Chuck brought Chuck's beer and then there were all the other homebrewed and commercial selections I just can't remember. We also had the opportunity to finish off the Club Red III, which got the same mixed reviews as always. Some liked it, some hated it, all we know for sure is its gone!

The Other Stuff - Hints & Ideas

There are no oysters in Oyster Stout. The name dates back to the Victorian era, when oysters were so abundant and inexpensive that working-class families often made a simple, filling meal of oysters and stouts. Quoted from the 365 Bottles of Beer Calendar.

Have you given up bottling your homebrews and moved into kegs? If so, have you ever wondered how to fill bottles directly from your keg so you can take them on the road (to club meetings for instance)? Hopefully this article will provide some insight into how this can be done easily and effectively.

One of the most common ways of bottling from the keg is to use a counter pressure bottle filler. There are many of these on the market and numerous articles have already been written on them so we won't go into details (see Zymurgy xxx, 1999 for details). Most of them work fairly well but they can be real a pain, especially when you only want to fill a few quick bottles.

One popular approach if to fill your bottles directly from the tap. This is the way many of our club members bring their kegged beer to our meetings. This article will discuss some of the various approaches used along with the pros and cons of bottling this way.

One of the biggest drawbacks of bottling from the keg tap is that the beer ought to be consumed quickly. Bottling in this fashion tends to lose some of the carbonation in the beer and I've found after time the bottled beers tend to get a little flat. In general, I've found beer bottled this way will last up to a week but is best when consumed within a day or two.

By far the most popular approach is to attach an eight inch piece of vinyl tubing to the end of the tap. The small size tubing (Brian - which size it is?) will easily slide onto the end of the black plastic tap faucets. The tubing should reach the bottom of the bottle and will help to prevent excess foaming. The procedure is simple - insert the tubing into the bottle and slowly release the tap to fill it up. Some foaming may occur, which I usually let overflow out of the bottle until the liquid level is right at the top of the bottle rim. When the hose is removed, the level should flow down to a reasonable level - about ½ inch from the top. If you find it too low, simply continue filling the bottle as the tube is being withdrawn from the bottle. Then cap or seal the bottle immediately.

Here are some additional hints, which should make the process go smoother.

• First and foremost, cold beer under very little pressure produces the least foaming. When the breweries bottle in this fashion, they get the beer much colder than possible for most home-brewers. I seem to recall Smuttynose telling us they bottle just above freezing.
• Gently let most of the pressure off of the keg before bottling to reduce foaming. You may, however, have to re-pressurize the keg every few bottles.
• Since colder temperatures favor less foaming, one of our members goes as far as chilling his faucet under cold running water before bottling. Keeping the tap in the refrigerator with the keg is another good way of solving this problem.
• Start the flow through the faucet very slowly and don't reach full steam until the bottom of the tube is completely submersed in liquid.
• Cold bottles also have also been rumored to help but no-one in the club has any experience with this. Try keeping bottles in the refrigerator for a couple hours before bottling and see if this helps. Should anyone try this, be sure to let us know how it turns out!
• Bottles should be cleaned before filling. Most literature would have us believe they should also be sanitized, however, I have filled many clean bottles without sanitizing and not suffered any ill effects. I am assuming when consumed without a few hours there isn't enough time for contaminants to affect the beer. In any case, if you're concerned about contamination you should sanitize as usual.
• Finally, some beers foam more than others. This is life. Don't worry about it. Just let the foam flow out of the bottle and cap when the liquid reaches the right level.

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