Prost3-403




					*Mar-Apr 2003* *Volume 26* *Number 2*

		*The San Andreas Malts' Newsletter* *Our 26th Year*
	INSIDE &OUT:			OYSTER TIME!!! When: Sunday, April 27, Noon to Dusk. Where: San Pedro Park, Pacifica (Linda Mar east from CA 1 until it ends; R a block, then L into the lot. Parking was $4 last year - may be a buck more this year - if the lot's full, there's street parking, but you have a bit of a lug if you have coolers, kegs, etc. If you live south of Half Moon Bay - DON'T USE 1! There's usually an air show in HMB that causes a major traffic jam - instead, take 280 to Westbrook, which becomes Sharp Park Blvd, then go south on 1 to Linda Mar.) PRICES (oysters are up again!): Malts & 1st guest - $15/each Additional Guests - $17/each Kids 6-12/Non-oyster eaters - $6 Kids under 6 - FREE Get your checks in by April 23!! Bring: Quaffs of your choice, eating utensils (we'll have plastic if you forget, but we like to be eco-friendly - on that same note, try to conserve plates!!), something to drink out of, and a salad/side dish/appetizer/dessert. The alphabet routine by last name, member or guest: A-F - Side Dishes G-R - Desserts S-Z - Appetizers We're staging ELECTIONS again ... all paid-up Malts as of 4/25 are eligible to vote. Send us your nominations (you may nominate yourself) to run against the incumbents, all of whom are willing to stay on for another year of fun!
a melange for your reading pleasure, including... BHJ - San Diego & a lot more Oyster BBQ!! NO EL PRESIDENTE STOUT BOUT RESULTS
STOUT BOUT RESULTS A smaller crowd than usual met at Pat's the Thursday before St. Paddy's Day to blind taste 8 stouts - 4 "homeys" and 4 commercial brews. No Guinness or Murphy's - your editor bought 3 micros from CA & OR; one of the attendees brought an Australian that he found at Trader Joe's. The night belonged to VP Jack Dawson - he claimed 1st & 3rd places with his concoctions; Pat's daughter Katie made out like a bandit with the cookie sales. The results, based on 6 judges' wildly varying palates (treasurer Joe Byrnes was the most "out of sync" all night), average score beside: 1. Jack Dawson's Oatmeal Stout - 13 2. Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout - 12.25 3. Jack Dawson's year-old Imperial - 11.92 4/5. Old Australia (dryish) - 11.5 4/5. Hoptown Oatmeal Breakfast Stout - 11.5 6. Mike Manushaw's Oatmeal Stout - 11.25 7. Rogue Shakespeare Stout (Oregon) - 10 8. KJ's "Foreign" style - 9.75 Thanks to Pat for hosting - the "homeys" continue to do well!!

			DUES TIME - SAME FOR INFO UPDATES!! When you send in your dues check, please give us any address, phone, and or e-mail address changes so we can update the members' list that will come in the May-June issue. Also, please e-mail them to your Editor. Dues remain $15, thanks to a fat entry list at Stern Grove last year & judicious management - *MJK*



2 MAR/APR PROST 2003

		B^REWER'S Comments & Opinions Home Journal
	SAN ANDREAS MALTS P O Box 884661 San Francisco, CA 94188-4661 http://www.sanandreasmalts.org President - Dave Suurballe 415/759-6768 (h) suurb@sbcglobal.net Vice President - Jack Dawson 415/841-1433 (h) jsdawson@pacbell.net (h) Treasurer - Joe Byrnes 415/681-5901 (h) joe@byrnes.com (h) Editor - Mark Kornmann 510/528-5351 (h) 510/466-3495 (w) beerman49@msn.com (anywhere) Webmeister - Jay Stanley beansboy@yahoo.com Contributing Emeritus Officers Pat Loughran Alec Moss Bill Stender Russ Wigglesworth Tim McNerney Honorary Lifetime Malt - Steve Norris *** * * * * * * It's easy to become a San Andreas Malt. Dues are $15/year, renewable in January. Mail them to our PO Box or pay at any meeting/club event.** The Malts publish the Prost* semi-monthly. Our copy deadline generally is the 25th of the even-numbered months. You may reprint our articles as long as you cite the *Prost* as the source. *Editor's note:* Send me material on the net/on 3.5" disk (< 1.44 Mb) in Word (< 7.5), WordPerfect (< 6.5) or ASCII (text only) files. If you send Word/WordPerfect files, send an ASCII backup just in case. Mail discs to: Mark Kornmann 1621 Mariposa Street Richmond, CA 94804-5017 * prost \pröst\ interjection, [German fr. Latin], used to wish good health, especially before drinking.	B^REWER'S Comments & Opinions Home Journal
		Time to enlarge the typeface one size - I have to fill up this column plus two more ... just killed the last Czechwar in my fridge & am now down to dry vermouth on the rocks. I'd prefer brandy, but I doubt if I'd stay awake long enough to finish this if I had that by my side. El Presidente's been hitting the brewfests a lot, so one of these days he'll have a big chunk of this paper. KUDOS to him for a fine officers' dinner last month, to Dave Keene for another fine BW Festival; to Anchor for another good Brew Club of the Year dinner (the sausages were great - but a KABONG to whoever overcooked the ribs & chicken); and to VP Jack Dawson for kicking ass at the Stout Bout. Got a chance in late January to check out a couple more brewpubs in San Diego - Callahan's in Mira Mesa and On Tap (nee Hops) just east of La Jolla. Both had decent house-made quaffs - Callahan's BW was quite good; On Tap's dark brews were better than the lighter stuff. Callahan's is in a strip mall & more "blue collar" - they have some of the "Budswiloors" on tap, plus other commercials (Bass & PU come to mind) and guest micros (I tried Kona Pale Ale, a very good & hoppy lighter variety). Good burgers & fries - wide variety of other "pub grub"& not very "yuppified", though they do serve liquor. On Tap is in a "high rent district" mall - the menu & high end booze reflect that. I only sampled the beers there while I was killing time waiting for a long-time amiga to finish at the hairdresser's - we had lunch at The Spot in La Jolla later (highly recommended - I had dinner there a couple of years ago - good food, SNPA & other brew on tap, & very reasonable!). There's also a great bakery/deli/cafe around the corner from The Spot that has some excellent sweet stuff to coat the stomach beforehand/further the road to adult onset diabetes afterward. Sat on a 1st-round panel at the BW fest for the first time in 5-6 years - I'd forgotten how much fun that can be - even at the ungodly hour of 10AM!! I found out later from another judge on my panel that the 2 we sent to the next round made the finals, as did one of the others. The most intriguing brew was a bourbon-flavored concotion that smelled more like booze than beer - highly alcoholic (I'd guess 10-11%), with a strong whiskey barrel flavor. VP Jack, who was on a different panel but at the same table as I, had a similar brew, but the booze flavor wasn't as pronounced. After we finsihed our round, I hung around for a couple of hours sampling other BWs, but then went back to my buddy's house in the Haight to chill out before the Anchor dinner ... over yonder for more



	3 MAR/APR PROST 2003

				AND FINALLY ENDS... TJ's & BevMo have Czechwar these days - if you like lagers/pils & not yet have sampled this superb brew - DO SO!! TJ's price is $6.99/6, BevMo $7.99 unless on sale (they'll match price with ad proof). I'm now into brandy, which I alluded to earlier. I found a very good German brandy (Dujardin, 78 proof) at BevMo for $4.99/750 ml - I suspect this is a 1-time "gray market" special, so get it while you can - I bought a case after taking a flyer & I'll buy more this weekend if there's any left. Now the rest of the club stuff. The May meeting listed in the calendar is a send-off to a house Pat Loughran's been restoring for the past 6 months & will be putting on the market soon after we meet. Bring brew, a glass, & some beer munchies to share. Easy walk from 24th & Mission BART - 1 block south on Mission to 25th, 1-1/2 blocks east to the house on the left with the fenced driveway. Magnolia has the best fish in any fish & chips I've had in the Bay Area, plus excellent house brews at reasonable prices - join us there in early June. We'll check into a tour of the base- ment brewery if you're interested. We're going to do a brew-in (2 10-gal batches) later this summer, the end products to be divided equally between Stern Grove & the Xmas party - we hope Joe & Rik can host; we may need some equipment - stay tuned. Time for another "road trip" to Sierra Nevada - either as an over-nighter staying in motel nearby so we can enjoy the Sunday brunch, or a day trip on a chartered vehicle. Or perhaps a Saturday excursion to wherever you choose - we welcome suggestions/organizers! *(how about Boulder Creek/Seabright duo??)* I've edited this newsletter for most of the past 10 years - we've evolved. We're still home brewers (when we have the time - some more than others), but we've become a small coterie of "geek" socializers the past few years, except for the oyster BBQ, when everybody shows up. That's fine, but if you newer Malts want more brewing-related meetings & stuff in this paper - SPEAK UP!! Seeya at the grills on April 27!! Peace (now more than ever!!) & Good Brewing! - MJK
	BHJ CONTINUES ...

	While we were killing time watching college basketball, my buddy turned to me to say something, blew something in his left leg & ended up on the floor in major pain - I ended up running him to Kaiser E-ward on Geary before heading for Anchor. He's OK, but still walks a bit gingerly 6 weeks later. March has been wacko since the Stout Bout - we get the Iraq fun & games, then I get an offer out of the blue to take a $25K buyout & retire on April 30! I've not yet made up my mind - there are some monetary details I have to analyze - but I'm 80% sure I'll be in the "leisure class" soon, even if my bosses in San Diego don't accept my offer to stay on until the end of June. Either way, I'm odds on to take the $$ & run. When you see me at the grills, I'll let you know if I took the plunge into voluntary unemployment & when my "AMF" day will be. Once I retire (for sure no later than 9/30), I'll have more time for the *Prost* & will infuse it with stuff I can pull down from the web. For you who surf regularly, I highly recommend realbeer.com as a starting point - they have links to all sorts of brew stuff, plus newsletters to which you can subscribe. The every other Wednesday brew column in the *Oakland Tribune* (www.ang.com - click on the Oakland Tribune) also is worth a look - my roomie gets the Trib & leaves me the column - 3/26's covered a Colo-rado brewery whose products are now appearing on tap in the Bay Area; he often reviews local watering holes that have good brews on tap. Now to the local scene ... Pyramid had a "California Uncommon" on their Brewer's Handle in February - a hoppier version of "Bomferd Ale" than Anchor Steam & a quite tasty session brew. Upcoming is a BW, which I hope to check out next week. Hit their Walnut Creek pub at the former Faultline site - not as noisy as Berkeley, nicer bar stools. Didn't look at the menu - just stopped in for a brew w/long-time Malt buddy Vince Moran after we saw a fine play (theater's so small you can count the house!) While stewarding prelims for the WCOB last weekend, I heard that Golden Pacific has been sold & may close. More on that next time, as well as on the future home of the WCOB (I can't make the finals - Jack/Pat let me know what you hear that day!). keep going ...


4 JAN/FEB PROST 2003
		CALENDAR Saturday, April 5 - World Cup of Beers Finals at Golden Pacific Brewery, 4th & Camellia, Berkeley - entrants are welcome to attend the great party, whic starts around 1 PM. Saturday, April 26, noon-5 PM, Berkeley Brewfest at Oak Barrel (San Pablo Ave just above Cedar on East side). Sunday, April 27, Noon to Dusk, San Pedro Park, Pacifica - Oyster BBQ & Elections. Details on page 1. Wednesday, May 7, 7:30 PM - Meeting at Pat L's "Spec House", 3627-25th St, SF (@ Juri, btwn Guerrero & Valencia). From 101/280, take Army/Cesar Chavez west to Guerrero, R on Guerrero, R on 25th - 5 doors down on right to fenced driveway. Parking in back for 5-6 cars. Wednesday, June 4 - 6:30 PM on - Fish & Chips nite at Magnolia, Haight & Masonic, SF. We do an informal/planning meeting there every so often - maybe even a brewery tour.
	July/August - wanna host one? CALL/E-Mail ME!!! Late Summer - we're looking to do a brew-in to make 2 10- gallon batches, half for Stern Grove, the other for the Xmas Party. Saturday, November ??, 10AM -9:30 PM - State Comp @ Stern Grove. *Recreational/Educational Activities:* Devise a weekend "road trip"/outing! Call an officer/attend a Planning Meeting/post details to the PO box to run it up the proverbial flagpole! IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN, FOLKS!! THE RED DOT MEANS THIS IS YOUR LAST ISSUE UNLESS JOE B FINDS YOUR CHECK IN THE PO BOX BEFORE WE SEND ONE OUT IN MAY ! ! GET THOSE DUES CHECKS IN THE MAIL SOON!!