CCHBS News for August 2003
- August Recipe Specials
- Club Discount to be Reduced September 1st
- Bulk Card Program Continues
- Golden Promise Malt in Stock!
- Crisp Clarity Malt in Stock
- Zymico Products Available at CCHBS
- Spotlight on Grain - Crisp Clarity Malt
August Recipe Specials
The Pacific Gravity October style of the month is Stouts and Porters so we're featuring those styles this month. Also, since we're having a long, hot summer, we're continuing with a special on wheat beers. The recipes we're featuring are Culver City Stout, Playa Porter, Yellow Brick Road Wheat Beer and King Kong Porter. The first three are on sale for $22.00, and the fourth will cost you $30.00.
Culver City Stout is our version of the classic Irish Dry Stout. The best known example of this style is Guiness, but Murphy's and Beamish are also widely available. Ours is an excellent choice, whether you're a beginning or experienced brewer. $22.00
Playa Porter is an example of a Brown Porter. These easy drinking dark brown ales are a great choice at any time of year. If you're looking for an award winning recipe that's still easy to make, you can't beat this one. $22.00
Yellow Brick Road Wheat used to be known as Westside Wheat and is very versatile. Ferment it with an ale yeast and you've got an American-style wheat beer. If you want a Hefeweizen, use one of the many German wheat beer yeasts. Add some fruit extract and you've got a fruit beer. Just let us know the style you want and we'll package it for you. (Fruit extracts not included in the kit price.) $22.00
Finally, we have King Kong Porter. This beer falls into the Robust Porter category, and well it should. 9 lbs. of malt extract give it enough gravity to bring it close to 7% alcohol. Add plenty of dark grains and hops and you've got the kind of beer serious beer drinkers always love. $30.00
Club Discount to be Reduced September 1st
After much soul searching, we've decided that we have no option but to reduce the club discount to 5%, effective September 1st. This wasn't an easy decision, but it's necessary to ensure our long-term viability. In the meantime, we suggest that you take advantage of the 10% discount during August and think of it as a 5% off sale! Or, for even bigger savings, take a look at our Bulk Card program
Bulk Card Program Continues
If saving money brewing is really important to you, you should really be using our bulk cards. Discounts of 25% and more are possible, simply by taking advantage of this program. The way it works is simple - you pay for base malts, specialty grains or hops in advance and we give you a big discount! Once you have the card, you can pick up your supplies as you need them and we'll mark them off your card. Think of it as buying by the sack, only we handle the storage for you!
Golden Promise in Stock!
This near-legendary malt is getting harder to find as Scottish farmers switch to varieties that give higher yields per acre. We were able to score 4 bags from one of our suppliers and have no idea when we might be able to get more. So move fast, it won't last long.
Crisp Clarity Malt in Stock
We bought a bag of this new malt earlier this year to see if it really did reduce chill haze, while not harming body or flavor. The result of our test brew was a resounding "Yes!", so we ordered more. It's in stock now and would be a great choice for almost any kind of beer, although it's so malty you might want to combine it with domestic 2-row or use a partial mash for the lightest-bodied styles. If you want to know more about Clarity Malt, see the spotlight article below.
Zymico Products Available at CCHBS!
On a trial basis, we're going to be stocking some of the Zymico line of brewing products. Best known for their Weld-B-Gone line of weldless ball-valves for brewing kettles, they have a full line of accessories for kettles, mashtuns and stainless steel conical fermenters. We won't be carrying everything they make, but we'll have the items we think will be the most popular and can certainly order any of their products by request. You can view the entire product line at http://www.zymico.com
Spotlight on Grain - Crisp Clarity Malt
Crisp Clarity Malt is made from a new strain of brewing barley developed by Crisp Maltings and Carlsberg Breweries. Unlike most new strains of barley, the intent was to provide a better product for brewers by developing a malt that greatly reduces the polyphenol-protein complexes which cause chill haze. While homebrewers are generally resigned to seeing a little haze when beer first comes out of the refrigerator, the general public is not. So most commercial beers are stringently filtered to eliminate the polyphenols - which also reduces flavor and body. Credit must be given to Carlsberg Breweries of Denmark for deciding to fund a research project by Crisp Maltings to develop a barley which required less filtering, in favor of flavor. Selective breeding began in the early-mid 1990s using strains of barley, like Maris Otter, which are naturally low in the chill haze causing polyphenols.&nbs p; Finally, the end result of this breeding process was released as Crisp's Clarity Malt. If you were at the June Pacific Gravity club meeting, you may remember the English Summer Ale that Greg made using Clarity. Based on the number of requests we've had for the recipe, we thought it would be a good idea to order more so everyone can try this outstanding new malt.