Podcast of Auburn Brew Club’s first meeting on 8-14-2007
Thanks so much to Stephen for putting together the Club’s first podcast. Likely, the Auburn Brew Club is the first homebrew club in the country to have each meeting recorded as a podcast from their very first meeting. Don’t let your expectations be too high though. This was our first shot at it. We intend to continue; and hopefully in time, the quality of these will get better and better. We also hope to become more efficient at getting the action recorded so that its no big deal to produce them, and we hope to improve the sound quality and the kind of information recorded. Who knows.
Another point to note is that Stephen trimmed this down to just under 90 minutes. The original was about 2.5 hours. He decided to cut everything after we started the judging out, and there’s at least a couple of good reasons for doing that. First, the judging process is kindof quiet and most listeners would get very bored listening to that. Second, the conversation tends to go downhill after the judging, with one side of the room talking about one thing, and another side of the room talking about something else. We continue to pass the beers one at a time, but it gets a little loud and rowdy.
Hopefully, you’ll enjoy listening to the podcast, which is a recording of the first part of our first meeting. It includes most of us who were present introducing ourselves, telling what we do and how we got into homebrewing, etc. We should have this available in the Itunes Store within the next few days.
[display_podcast]
Listed below are the homebrews we had available at the meeting:
- Belgian Blond Ale - A moderate-strength golden ale that has a subtle Belgian yeast complexity, slightly sweet flavor, and dry finish.
- Bavarian Hefeweizen - A pale, sometimes spicy (clove), sometimes fruity (banana), very refreshing wheat-based ale.
- Beire de Garde - A fairly strong, malty, lagered artisanal French farmhouse ale.
- Dark American Lager - A somewhat sweeter version of standard/premium American lager with a little more body and flavor and a darker color.
- Munich Dunkel - Characterized by depth and complexity of Munich malt and the accompanying melanoidins. Rich Munich flavors, but not as intense as a bock or as roasted as a schwarzbier.
- Blueberry Witbier - A refreshing, elegant, tasty, moderate-strength wheat-based Belgian ale accentuated with orange peel, coriander and blueberries.
- American Blond Ale – An easy-drinking, approachable, American craft beer with a slightly sweet malty aroma and flavor.
- Honey Weizen – A standard German Hefeweizen with Minnesota Clover Honey added to produce a light crisp flavor and add a bit of alcohol warmth.
- Eisbock - An extremely strong, full and malty dark lager.
- Organic California Common – A lightly fruity beer with firm, grainy maltiness, interesting toasty and caramel flavors, and showcasing a signature varietal hop character. This beer was made with all organic ingredients.
- Walmart Hard Cider – A hard apple cider produced exclusively from ingredients commonly available at Walmart.
- Summer Ale – A light, refreshing, experimental lawnmower beer carbonated three different ways to test the end result.
- Russian Imperial Stout - An intensely flavored, big, dark ale. Roasty, fruity, and bittersweet, with a noticeable alcohol presence. Dark fruit flavors meld with roasty, burnt, or almost tar-like sensations. Like a black barleywine with every dimension of flavor coming into play.
- English Sour Brown Ale – An experimental, refreshing, very drinkable English brown ale, balanced maltiness and hop bitterness, purposefully infused with Lactobacillus to produce a slightly sour character.
- Light American Lager – An extremely light, low-flavor, typical American lager beer that, over time, developed a diacetyl flaw. Used as an example of what diacetyl tastes like.
- Rauchbier – An Oktoberfest-style beer with a sweet, smoky aroma and flavor and a somewhat darker color.
- Belgian Golden Strong Ale - A golden, complex, effervescent, strong Belgian-style ale.
- Black Cherry Melomel – A sweet, strong mead fermented with lots of honey and black cherries.
- Strong Scotch Ale – A rich, malty, strong ale characterized by caramel aroma and deep, slightly-cooked, caramel malt flavor and possibly a bit of roasted or smoked flavor.
- Belgian Pale Ale - A slightly fruity, moderately malty, somewhat spicy, easy-drinking, copper-colored Belgian ale.