CAMRA Meeting 4/1/08 – Homebrew Club for Charlottesville and Central Virginia
CAMRA Club Meeting – April 1, 2008
CAMRA had its third group meeting on 4/1/08 at the Court Square Tavern. It was another great turnout as we had around 20 members and guests attend. Some of the topics we covered during the meeting were:
1) Meeting place discussion – We discussed that finding a more permanent home for the club is still being actively pursued. We are looking at a few restaurants around town, but the two biggest obstacles are beer selection and affordability. The great thing about Court Square is that they have a fantastic selection of beers and styles. Some of the places we are looking at, well, have terrible macro beers and, therefore, are immediately out of the running. Other places have better a selection, but might require a room rental fee which might be a deal-breaker. We would hope that a large group coming in on a normally dead Tuesday night would be reason enough to waive a fee.
Since the meeting, Wahoo has found some very interesting possibilities on grounds at UVa. For the latest on these things, you can check out the forum thread here.
2) Discussion of American India Pale Ale style – The style for this meeting was the American IPA. It is a very popular style in U.S. and with homebrewers. They can really be a showcase for high alpha, citrusy American hops, and they are much bolder and more bitter than the English IPAs.
We wanted to cover this style because it can be relatively easy for a novice brewer to make with extract, and the strong character of the hops can cover up a lot of errors and mistakes than would certainly be more apparent in more subtle styles.
In addition we discussed, since the hop character is crucial aspect of the style, possible hop substitutions while we are experiencing a hop shortage. Glacier hops seem to do well in place of the expensive, or non-existent, “C” hops,but mention was made that Argentinean cascade hops are nothing at all like American cascade hops and are not a good substitute.
3) Growing Hops – There was discussion about growing your own hops and how to do so successfully. This is the time of year where you need to have already ordered your rhizomes and many had already received them. Several members talked about how to treat the soil (lots of aerated dirt, compost or manure with the ability to drain away excess water) and the importance of placement (lots of sun) and a trellis system (the hops will climb and they need somewhere to go).
Further information can be found on sites like Freshops.com and RateBeer.
Was that it? - No, not by at long shot. There were discussions about possible activities for the club outside on the monthly meetings, tweaking all grain bills, why farmers are planting higher alpha acid hop crops over the milder, European ones, and a tangent about first wort hopping (FWH). One member even brought in his homemade stir plate (thanks Greg) for show and tell, too. (Thank you to Tom for bringing his in the previous month.)There was hearty discussion of lots of brewing things, and if you missed you’ll have to make next month’s meeting on Tuesday, May 6th and take part in the sharing.Jamey