Prost!! April, 2002




				*April 2002* *Volume 25* *Number 3*

		*The San Andreas Malts' Newsletter* *Our 25th Year*
	INSIDE &OUT:		OYSTER TIME!!! When: Sunday, April 28, 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: Malts & 1st guest - $14/each Additional Guests - $16/each Kids 6-12/Non-oyster eaters - $6 Kids under 6 - FREE Get your checks in by April 22!! 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. Last year we had a dessert overload, so it's back to the alphabet routine by last name, member or guest: A-F - Appetizers G-R - Side Dishes S-Z - Desserts 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 - Beisbol is back! EL PRESIDENTE's WIFE SPEAKS OYSTER BBQ ALERT STOUT BOUT RESULTS!!
MAY MEETING?? WHERE: SEE THIS SPACE NEXT ISSUE WHEN: PROBABLY THE WEEK OF 19-24 MAY. WHAT: YOUR GUESS IS AS GOOD AS YOUR EDITOR'S, BUT PROBABLY EITHER AN INFORMATIVE TASTING OR A BREWPUB OUTING. BRING: SEE THIS SPACE FOR DETAILS NEXT MONTH!


DUES ARE DUE - AS ARE 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. Because of increasing reproduction & postage costs, we may be raising dues to $20 (probably for 2003) - stay tuned - *MJK*



2 APRIL PROST 2002

		B^REWER'S Comments & Opinions Home Journal
	SAN ANDREAS MALTS P O Box 884661 San Francisco, CA 94188-4661 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.
		After many long, frustrating years of waiting, WE'RE #1 (my alma mater, the University of MD, that is)!! Gotta give them the 1st KUDOS of the month for their gritty play in the NCAA's. KUDOS also to Indiana for KO-ing both Duke & Oklahoma & helping the Bloomingtonites get over Bobby Knight. On the beer front, KUDOS to Pat Loughran for his 1st place Oatmeal Stout and to good buddy Brewbird Kelly Dunham for 1st place Barley Wine (American), 2nd place Strong Ale (Old English), & 3rd place Porter (Robust) at the World Cup of Beers. Final KUDOS to the Bay Area Mashers for putting on another good WCOB - it's the only other contest around here that comes close to matching Stern Grove for fun & good food & brews! More on the WCOB: Amongst the judges were Malts Grant Johnston, Tim McNerney & El Presidente, Brewbird Kelly; VP Jack had to be out of town, otherwise he would have been on a panel. I stewarded the Pale Ale/Bitter table - surprisingly, not a high quality batch of entries, tho 3 of the 12 were quite good. As usual, quite a few got downrated for being in the wrong flight. That's getting to be quite common - we ran up against that while doing prelims last year for Stern Grove. Apparently, some brewers are "shotgunning" a brew into 4-5 different categories, hoping to strike gold somewhere. To me, that's paying one's money & taking one's chances in extremis. Baseball season returneth at last!! Went to the A's Opener 4/1. Once in the park after a 15 minute wait in line to go through (to me UNNECESSARY) security BS, all was well - my man Mulder pitched a good 8 innings, & the stand selling Grant's excellent Black Diamond Pale Ale was right behind us (between sections 127-128) & had no lines! SN stand is behind 120 - a Malt buddy told me they had Pale, IPA, & Summerfest on tap. Prices are still $5.75/14-oz; $7.50/20-oz. Somebody please clue me in about the beer scene at PacBell this year - I probably won't get there until mid-May at the earliest. Nothing new or exciting to report about as far as what's on the commercial shelves. I wish TJ's would get the Goose Island 12-pack samplers back in stock - haven't seen those since December. Tried some "Backdraft Brown" from Hook & Ladder Brewing in Gilroy - dry, but not real hoppy American style. OK, but not worth $6/6-pak (sale price at BevMo). On the other hand, Bear Republic's 7% ABV "Racer 5" IPA is quite good, with nice malt to balance out the powerful hops - a nice addition to an IPA repertoire. I'll be firing up the brewkettle this weekend for one of my bridge-related bbq gigs & may try throwing a hoppy pale together for the oyster BBQ. Don't have enough time to age a lager. Anyhow - seeya at the grills on April 28!! Peace & Good Brewing!! - MJK



	3 APRIL PROST 2002


	EL PRESIDENTE		STOUT BOUT RESULTS Once again, the "homeys" held their ground against the connercial brews, copping 2nd-4th places in a 10-brew field. 9 panelists, including your editor rated 10 stouts, 5 commercial (no Guinness or Sierra Nevada), 5 of the home made variety as follows (average score on our 20-point scale/order tasted; notes follow): 1. Mendocino Blackhawk Stout - 16.39/3 (a) 2. Pat Loughran's Oatmeal Stout - 14.94/6 (b) 3. Jack Dawson's homey (no style given) - 14.11/4 4/5. Kelly Dunham's Oatmeal Stout - 13.22/7 4/5. Big Bear Black Stout - 13.22/9 6. North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout - 11.56/10 (c) 7. Dave Suurballe's homey (no style given) - 10.88/5 (d) 8. Jay Stanley's homey (no style given) - 10.11/2 9. He'Brew Messiah Stout - 9.78/1 10. Lagunitas Imperial Stout - 9.22/8 (e) Notes: a) 3 judges' overall favorite; one judge's co-fave w/Jack's b) Pat took 1st place at World Cup of Beer with this one!! c) Surprisingly low score - maybe I bought old beer! d) Dave swore it wasn't his when we tasted it!! e) The boys at Lagunitas must've been smoking too much on the bottling line - the beer inside was probably Brown Shugga! Way too light in color for a stout, but it tasted awfully familiar. The panel: all the officers, plus new member Mike Durkin, Kelly Dunham, host Pat Loughran, and former prez Sturdy McKee. Thanks to Pat & Chris for their usual gracious hospitality - & we made the Girl Scouts a little richer that night as well. Thier daughter Katie did a brisk cookie business before we got started. We did not rate the "swill bucket" afterward. Next bout, probably in September, will be the annual Pale Aler - if demand warrants, perhaps we can split it into 2 flights - "regulars" and IPAs - there certainly is a wide variety of commercial product out there to sample! In any case, get them ready - it's a good chance to get a reading before you enter into the club/state comps. -MJK-
	*After reading my bragging about beer festivals, my wife suggested she be given an opportunity to rebut, and what could be better for a lazy president than having his wife write his column?* The Beer Widow (aka Honoria) No! Not another beer glass! ugh...a beer event means a beer glass advertising a beer logo or a beer type or a beer maker or a beer drinker or the best, a bad beer joke! Do other beer widows have cupboards overflowing with beer glasses? I wonder... And what ever happened to the glasses we got for our wedding? They seem to have disappeared. This latest glass says, "Bay Area Mashers World Cup of Beer". Is it only time till we see beer as an event in the Olympics? Not so far-fetched an idea; it happened to ball-room dancing. I wonder too why only non-beer glasses accidentally get broken. Ugh...
	MATERIAL WANTED!! This is YOUR newsletter!! If you've taken a trip, read a good book or 2, gone pub-crawling, or had any other kind of beer adventure you're willing to share ... SEND IT IN (preferably via e-mail)!! I'll be glad to expand any issue to 6 or 8 pages to accommodate you. If you want to get up on your soapbox, the BHJ column is yours!! All you gotta do is e-mail me whatever's on your mind!! I'll print virtually anything. If you see something on a beer-related website that's especially newsworthy, e-mail me the link & I'll check it out! 75 sets of eyes/ears are better than 4-5!! RANDOM THOUGHTS TO FILL UP A CORNER Wouldn't it be nice if ... some entrepreneurs would make a "beer channel" available to Dish Network/DirecTV/cable systems? 170 acres at the Oak Knoll (Naval Hospital) site in Oakland are for sale (details @ www.gsa.gov/property), including the parcel containing the old officer's club - maybe some venturesome folks will turn it into something akin to one of the McMennamin's places in Portland - plenty of kitchen space & certainly room for a brewery!! Ballfields nearby for fun & games as well!!


4 APRIL PROST 2002
		CALENDAR Sunday, April 28, Noon to Dusk, San Pedro Park, Pacifica - Oyster BBQ & Elections. See Page 1 Ideas wanted for May-Sept; we plan a couple more brewpub/brewery visits - anyone want to host one?? Saturday, October 26, 10AM-2PM. Entry Check-in for Stern Grove, probably @ Landmark Signs. Volunteers wanted. Saturday, November 23, 10AM -9:30 PM - State Comp @ Stern Grove.
	EARTH TO NIK FARATS: Your brewkettle is gathering dust (hopefully not rust!) in my garage! Call me to arrange its return to you - MJK IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN, FOLKS!! THE RED DOT MEANS THIS IS YOUR LAST ISSUE UNLESS WE HAVE YOUR DUES BY THE OYSTER BBQ!! GET THOSE CHECKS IN THE MAIL NOW!! *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!




	*1ST CLASS*