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Hello All!

Lots of little updates and notes. The Fall brewing season seems
well under way, though the weather has yet to get normal. Home Brew Mart turns 5 years old in October and Ballast Point celebrates its first
anniversary. The new celebrator beer news just came in today. 1 month
left until Halloween (pumpkin spice beers) and spiced beer season for the holidays. Brew that Christmas barleywine now! And remember to back stock beer for new year's eve. So much brewing to do, so few open fermentors!

Cheers,

Tom

CONTENTS:

BALLAST POINT
FOR SALE
FOR HIRE
PITCHABLE YEASTS
COMPETITION
CIDER RUN
GRAPE RUN
PUB UPDATES
CLASS SCHEDULE
RECIPES

BALLAST POINT

Lots of news for Ballast Point. This weekend is the big Great
American Beer Festival in Denver. We entered four beers including our Copper (ESB), White (Belgian Ale --White), Porter (Robust Porter) and Kolsch (German Ale--Kolsch). Hopefully Jack and Pete will bring home a medal!

Tons of new accounts out there, especially in North County. Check
out the new tap lists for all the updates. We currently have the Copper, Porter, Kolsch and White on tap at the tasting bar. And the much awaited British Beer Engine will be on-line very soon. Cask Ale all the time!

Interested in brewing with our master-brewer on the 15bbl Ballast Point brew system? Be a "brewery slave for a day" with Pete! Must be able to come in M-F and be willing to sweat without pay. Contact Pete at the brewery at 298-2337.

FOR SALE

I have a dorm-size keg fridge for sale that fits 1 coke keg and a CO2 tank in it. I am selling the fridge complete with the keg system for $250. If you are interested, email me or leave a message at 583-1314.

FOR HIRE

We are looking for someone willing to work part-time in the store to help out during the busy Christmas season with possible permanent employment after x-mass. Hours would be flexible and the pay is about $6/hr. Duties would include packaging, cleaning, helping customers and shipping/receiving. Ideally we are looking for a knowledgeable homebrewer (21 and over a plus) who wants to learn more and will bring enthusiasm for the hobby to the job. Drop off a resume outlining job and brewing history to Jack or Tom at the Linda Vista store or to Yuseff at the Solana Beach store.

PITCHABLE YEASTS

We've got a ton of White Labs pitchable yeast strains available at the moment, and I just wanted to run through them so that everybody knows what we have:

California - The original, all purpose yeast

English - A fruity, malty ESB yeast. Perfect for thick rich beers

British - Similar to Wyeast's London Ale yeast, wonderful hint of diacytel

Burton - from the famous Burton upon Trent area where Bass is made

Irish - THE stout yeast. Works well in all dark British ales

East Coast - a mild, alt beer style yeast. Ideal where little yeast
character is wanted

San Francisco - The classic steam beer yeast. Lager yeast for warmer temps.

German Lager - good all around lager yeast for almost any style

Pilsner - ideal for malty pilsners. sulfur produced during fermentation
ages out

Trappist - perfect for those unique Belgian doubles and triples

Hefe-Weizen - big banana, clove aromas dominate this German wheat yeast

Belgian Wit - a phenolic, tart yeast that is milder than the German Hefe-Weizen

That's a lot of yeast! Look for the new White Lab flyers at the store.

COMPETITION

Stuft Pizza is having an Octoberfest & Halloween Brew Competition.

The categories are:

Octoberfest/Marzen
Barley Wine/Strong Ale
Brown Ale/Porter
Holiday/Spice Ale
Pale Ale/IPA

For more info contact Mat or Greg at Stuft Pizza Del Mar 481-7883.

Applications are due on Oct. 15th and the Judging will be on Oct. 24th. Entry fee is $15 for any and all categories and includes a Stuft Pizza
T-Shirt.

Forms are available at both stores.

CIDER RUN

The first cider delivery from Julian was such a hit that I am going
to do another one in either late October or early November. The price of $6/gallon will still be the same. Again I will do it on a Friday, I just need to figure out which one. When I come up with a date I will pass it
along. Look for sign ups at the store. If you want to go to Julian and get Cider from John Henry at Farmer's market YOU MUST CALL FIRST! The number up there is 765-0188.

(Non) GRAPE RUN

I finally heard from the vineyard this and the grapes are being picked, however, we're not getting them. I saw the grapes and they have started to raisin because they sat on the vines so long. The sugar levels are OK, but the acid levels are way off. The grapes are not worth the money they are charging and would likely make not so hot wine. Sorry about the hassle, and to those that pre-paid, we will issue refunds. Next year we will find a better vineyard, not in Temecula to buy grapes from. For those still interested in wine making, we have many different styles of wine concentrates available.

PUB UPDATES

Next Tuesday, Oct 7th will be cask beer night at San Diego Brewing Co. I'm not sure, but I think its going to be their Mission Gorge Porter. Look for a good selection of Octoberfest beers in the coming weeks.

Kaiserhof in Ocean Beach should be doing specials with the Paulaner and possibly Hacker-Pschorr Octoberfests all month long.

More rumor news on the Strong Beer Fest '97. Tentative date is Thursday, December 18th at the Carlsbad Pizza Port. Plans are to have at least 10 local strong ales (8% on up) in addition to the fine beer and Pizza at the Port. More details coming as we make them up.

CLASS SCHEDULE

I will be doing a beginner/intermediate brewing class this coming Sunday, October 5th from 10-11:45 am at the Lind Vista store. Class is free so just show up!

I will be teaching another ALL GRAIN BREWING class on Sunday, October 19th from 12-4 pm also at the Linda Vista store. The class cost is $20 and includes a certificate for your first batch of grain. Please RSVP by email or sign up at the store.

RECIPES

This weeks recipes all center around cider. The first is a strong, sparkling cider and the other is for Apple Ale.

Sparkling Cider

5 gallons of raw cider
2 pounds of Honey

Champagne Yeast
2 tsp. Yeast Nutrients

Boil honey in 1/2 gallon of water and add to cider along with yeast and nutrient. Starting gravity should be about 1.070. Ferment dry and add corn sugar to carbonate--about 1 cup will do the trick. This is a 8-10% alcohol "light Champagne". Different, but very good. Expect this to be dry. If you want to add a little body to it, try some lactose.

Apple Ale

This recipe is all-gran. For extract brewers use 6 pounds of pale malt extract, .5 pound of honey and 1/4 pound of biscuit malt to steep.

6# Great Western 2-row
1# Vienna Malt
.5# Car pools
.5# Munich Malt

3/4 gallon of raw cider immediately after boil

1.25 oz Hallertaur - boil
.5 oz Hallertaur - 5 min

California or East Coast Ale Yeast

This is a basic light golden ale with the cider added at the end to give it some kick and aroma. Maybe try an Apple honey porter, or an Apple wheat beer. Cider lends an unique flavor to beer that blends well with dry, not-too hoppy beers.

PS Thanks for all the positive feedback on the chili beer recipe!

That's all folks!

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