The Enthusiast Beer Taste Troubleshooting Kit

January 31, 2009 · Posted in Meetings · 1 Comment 

By John Chubick, Club Member

The ABNormal Brewers Club has kicked off its 20th anniversary year with an emphasis on helping members improve upon the already excellent beers we brew. In our January meeting Don primed us for a series of upcoming presentations using The Enthusiast Beer Taste Troubleshooting Kit. Don’s Taste Profiling presentation educated us on the importance of the sense of smell in tasting and which areas of the tongue are responsible for sensing various flavor components.

Beginning with our February meeting we will build upon the foundation Don has laid as we start a series of monthly presentations using The Enthusiast Beer Taste Troubleshooting Kit from FlavorActiv. This kit was engineered to help brewers identify flavor faults by actually tasting samples of eight different off-flavors commonly found in beer.  Along with providing us with the ability to recognize these flavor faults this series of presentations will educate the club on what can cause them and how they can be prevented.

You may wish to review Don’s handouts from our January meeting and bring a copy to upcoming meetings for reference. If you wish to listen to an audio podcast of a group of home brewers’ first-hand experience with the FlavorActiv kit visit the Basic Brewing Radio web site at 01-26-06 Basic Brewing Radio - Bad Beer Tasting - Pt. 1 and 02-16-06 Basic Brewing Radio - Bad Beer Tasting - Pt. 2.

This series of presentations promises to be very informative. So, mark your calendar now. You won’t want to miss them!

Read the rest of the article for the recommended steps from the FlavorActiv web site for using the kit.

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Beer Styles of the Month 2009

January 10, 2009 · Posted in Meetings · 3 Comments 

The following Beer Styles of the Month will be topics of our regular Club Meetings in 2009. These styles are also documented for each meeting on the calendar. By announcing the styles in advance, we hope to encourage members to experiment in brewing to a particular style. We also hope to rekindle our club’s affiliation with the AHA and thus, be eligible to participate in their “club only” competitions. Please contact an officer to present on a style at our meetings or use the Contact Us form. Beer of any style is always welcome at all meetings.

  • January - Belgian and French Ales*
  • February - Brown Ale
  • March - High Gravity Beers (1.080+ OG)*
  • April - Extract Home Brew*
  • May - Lawnmower Beers
  • June - Session Beers
  • July - Hybrid Amber*
  • August - Mead
  • September - European Amber Lager*
  • October -Cider
  • November - Belgian Strong Ale*
  • December - Home Brew/Holiday or Spiced Beers

*AHA Club-Only Competitions

Happy Brew Year 2009

January 4, 2009 · Posted in Annoucements · Comment 

Hopefully everyone wrapped up the holiday season by spending time with friends, family, or doing something that you enjoy - like brewing beer. As our club enters its 20th anniversary year, we are hoping to increase participation by providing new and challenging opportunities for members to get involved. If you’re reading this article, please consider writing one of your own. We would like to increase the amount of original content on our website.

  • Maybe you have a brewing experience that you’d like to share?
  • Perhaps you have a special interest in a certain beer style?
  • Have you been to any good brew pubs lately?

Some articles will likely be republished in the quarterly newsletter.

Please contact us if you’re interested.