Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition

 The Great Lakes Cider & Perry Association is pleased to announce their annual “Call for Entries” for the Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition (GLINTCAP), to be held on March 23rd & 24th, 2013. Online entry registration will open on February 22, 2013 and close on March 11.
 greatlakescider_2013

Rare Beers Stolen In Boulder CO - Man Arrested

9newscom - Police arrested 26-year-old Adam James Dickinson in Fort Collins Thursday after thousands of dollars worth of rare and vintage beers were reported stolen from Avery Brewing Company in Boulder.

Dickinson was a former employee of the brewing company from March 2012 until October 2012, when he was terminated.
 The thefts were first reported in mid-October of 2012 and police have been investigating since that time.
 A manager at Avery Brewing suspected that Dickinson was responsible for the thefts of the rare beers, which totaled more than $15,000.
Some of the bottled beer was worth $200-to-$300 per bottle. More than 570 bottles were recovered during a search warrant executed at the suspect's home in Fort Collins, and included several cases of Isabelle Proximus beer ($200/bottle); bottles of Duck Duck Gooze beer ($100/bottle); bottles of Rogue Old Crustacean beer ($100/bottle) and one bottle of 2001 Rogue Old Crustacean Barley Wine ($100/bottle). Other beers recovered separately as evidence had been given to Dickinson's new employer as a gift, and included very rare bottles of Black Tot Barrel-Aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout ($300/bottle) and Sui Generis Barrel-Aged Sour Ale ($300/bottle).
 Police say Dickinson had sold some of the stolen beer on eBay and had also offered some stolen bottles to a new employer, who cooperated with the investigation.
Dickinson is being held at the Larimer County Detention Center. Bail has been set at $5,000

Steve Berthel Joins New Holland

 New Holland Brewing Co.has announced that brewer, Steve Berthel has joined the New Holland crew. He is joining the team as Head Pub Brewer and will oversee the specialty beers brewed at the Pub.

 Berthel (or “Bert”) is an established Michigan brewmaster whose career started back in 1997 as head brewer at Kraftbrau in Kalamazoo, MI. In 2005, he took a leap of faith with his business partner and opened a new brewery – The Livery in Benton Harbor. The Livery was built in a 100-year-old former horse stable and carriage shop and has become a well-respected brewery in the state. Bert is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Michigan Brewers Guild.
“The same creativity and imagination that goes into renovating a hundred-year-old horse stable into a thriving brewery – also goes into Bert’s remarkable brews,” says New Holland president, Brett VanderKamp. “We’ve known Bert for years and respect the passion he brings to the brewing community.”
“I’ve always respected the vision and integrity of New Holland,” say Berthel. “Brewing is a labor of love for me and it’s an honor to put my talent and energy into a company like this one.”

Proposed Renovations for New Holland Brewing Co

 New Holland Brewing Co. is planning a $1 million renovation at the downtown Holland brewpub.  Improvements included are the tap system,  expanding a rear porch space into a beer garden, renovating the kitchen and updating the restrooms.
 The expanded kitchen means that more entrees will be made from scratch while having a lunch and dinner menu. The tap handles increase from 28 to 42 that will help cut down the wait for beer. In the rear of the pub,  7 parking spots will make way for the porch expansion into a beer garden with seating for 100 people, up from a current capacity of 50. There will also be a new outdoor bar and music stage. Two new family restrooms will also be installed near the rear entrance. The plans projected completion is for May 1st.
 New Holland is also planning a pub crawl on Saturday, Feb 16 celebrating the re-release of the brewery’s first beer, Paleooza,  now made entirely with Michigan-grown Cascade hops.

Possible Tax Break In Store For Small Breweries

 A new bill introduced by The House of Representatives this week offers brewers who produce 6 million or fewer barrels a year would pay $3.50 per barrel on their first 60,000 barrels, $16 for each barrel between 60,001 and 2 million, and $18 for every barrel thereafter. 

 The current federal law states that brewers who produce fewer than 2 million barrels of beer per year pay tax of $7 a barrel on their first 60,000 barrels and $18 a barrel on every barrel thereafter.

Make a stir starter

 Increasing yeast volume is a good reason for growing a yeast starter. Although your yeast volume will increase dramatically, the main reason for growing a starter is so that you can pitch actively growing yeast into your wort and have active fermentation quickly. There are many advantages for making a yeast starter, your wort will begin fermenting much quicker, thus leaving less chance for infection. You will also find that you produce a cleaner, higher quality product. That all being said, here is an inexpensive way to make a stir starter that will aid in yeast growth.
  DO NOT WORK ON LIVE CIRCUITS. Your power supply should not be plugged in until you have completed the construction of this SPECIFIC build CORRECTLY. Electricity can kill, regardless of the voltage applied.
 All in all parts should cost about $20.
-I used a 6 volt Cell Phone charger as my power supply. Just about any one should work in the 5-12 volt DC range. (They are all DC current)
-4 inch computer fan.  (12 volts DC for example)
-Hard drive magnets. You can also buy rare earth magnets online from a number of vendors. Neodymium magnets are cheap retail if you can't find an old hard drive to scrap.
- 2 inch diameter steel washer.
- Some scrap wire will be helpful, however we'll only need about a foot of black and red wire.
  The following items are from Radio Shack:
7" x 5" x 3" Project Enclosure: Part Number 270-1807
25 ohm 3 watt Rheostat (aka Potentiometer): Part number 271-265
12 Volt DC/30Amp Rocker Switch with LED - Part Number 275-018
Silver Tone Knob - Part Number 274-424
  If you aren't soldering savy, you'll also need to buy:
1/4" Fully Insulated Quick Disconnects (10-Pack) - Part Number 64-4040

  Bolts and nuts from the hardware store are (4) 2.5 inch 10/32 bolts), 12 10/32 nuts, and 4 washers to fit the 10/32 bolts.

 The most important part of all of this is using the steel washer. By gluing the washer to the fan, you are adding magnetic point for your magnet to stick to without gluing it. This will allow you to fine tune the plate before gluing down your magnet (They won't come off very easily once glued) Also, if you decide that you want to use a larger or smaller stir bar, you can add or remove magnets and center them correctly without having to scrap your fan.
Drill holes and mount the potentiometer. Mount them up using the enclosed hardware that came with both of them. Also drill a hole on the bottom corner of the enclosure to run the power supply out of the box.

 Wiring-
Get your Black and Red computer fan wires stripped. If you aren't soldering, put a female quick disconnect onto the Red wire.
 Next, cut off the power supply “phone” side and try to keep the power cord going to the wall socket as long as possible in case you make a mistake. Some phone chargers will have two wires, while others I've found have a “braid” going around another insulated wire. The “braid” is our ground or negative and the inner cable is your power side. For the chargers with 2 single wires inside, black is your ground.

 Strip about 1/4” of the insulation off your wires. Take the black cable of your computer fan and the black cable of your power supply and twist the exposed wire together and insert them into one of the female quick disconnects. Make sure that you feed your power supply cable through the hole you drilled in your enclosure before crimping or you won't be able to close your box when you are done.   Connect these two wires to the “Earth” male connector on your power supply.
 Now, take the Red cable from your power supply and add a female disconnect onto this cable and attach it to the “male” terminal on your power switch labeled “Supply”
 The only male terminal left on our power switch is the one labeled “Load”. Take some of the spare wire, about 4-5 inches, and strip off the insulation from each end. Attach a female disconnect to each end. Now, attach one side of the wire onto the “Load” terminal on your power switch, and the other to the center pin of the potentiometer.

 The last step is to take the “Power” cable (red) from your computer fan and attach another female disconnect. Attach this disconnect onto the right side pin on the potentiometer.
 After completing the previous steps you are now ready to plug in your power supply, flip your power switch to the “On” position, and try turning the knob on the potentiometer back and forth. You should be able to observe the fan speeding up and slowing down as you turn the knob back and forth.
 Now glue the steel washer onto the fan. I used some 60 second epoxy so that I could turn the fan on and off to observe if the washer was centered on the center of the fan.
 The next steps in this project is to fine tune the positioning of the fan within the enclosure, and try magnet combinations and positions until you get your bar spinning correctly.

 I used 2 ½ inch #10-32 bolts with matching nuts and washers to mount my fan. I also used some ¾ inch stand offs to raise the fan.