Getting Ready for Club Night at HBC
Besides bread making, one of my other hobbies/interests is homebrewing. I have brewed for over 15 years now. I am an all-grain brewer which means I brew with grains rather than extract. I am also an AHA beer judge at certified level. You need to pass a test for this. I am a member of a very fine beer club, QUAFF which put San Diego on the map beerwise by winning the National Homebrew Club of The Year award 6 years consecutively and several California titles. You may ask yourself why am I telling you this when this is a bread oriented forum.
The answer is because I promised to bake bread for the National Homebrew Conference being held in Oakland, CA this year. I promised four Ciabattas. What I baked was 4 Ciabattas plus a bonus bread, my first attempt at a 6 strand braided Italian bread:
4 CIABATTAS
MY FIRST 6 STRAND BRAIDED ITALIAN BREAD
Comments and Suggestions Welcome
Comments
Looks great, Bix! I'm sure the club members will be thrilled.
Is the test being able to drink a certain amount of beer? Of course, I'm just kidding but I couldn't resist.
--Pamela
Very nice looking breads.
I just bottled the first batch of homebrew I've made in 7 or 8 years. I'm anxious to taste it and find out how it turned out.
Doesn't surprise some amateur brewers, become amateur bakers, and vice versa. I'm one too. Been baking since...well, a long time; been brewing since 1992 and making wine since 1998. Never enrolled in the Beer Judge Certification Program, but I've judged, under certified judge supervision, at AHA sanctioned competitions, and I have a modest collection of blue ribbons too for Porters, Pale Ales, and Meads. I was a member of the Hop River Brewers, in CT before escaping the winter's cold. Another of our former members, Bruce Stott, won the Sam Adams Longshot competition in 2008.
Since moving to Florida my beer making has been strongly curtailed. Weather, yellowjackets, and lacking a cellar has done me in, but I'm making five or six wines each year, and one or two partial mash beers. I recently convertered a closet to a wine cellar, and I've turned a freed-up wine cooler into a pilsner and white wine controlled temperature fermentation chamber--its also great for creating sourdough starters that favor heterofermentative bacteria. I'm giving all my all-grain equipment to one of my sons, a very successful chef.
For the past three years we've been hosting an annual open house. All the food and beverages served (except for soft drinks and water) are homemade from scratch. The guest list keeps growing, last year it numbered more than fifty. This year we are planning a Wine, Beer and Bread theme. We're planning five wines, a Barley Wine, a pilsner, and lots of breads and spreads.
David G.
I used to live in Florida-Fernandina Beach, FL. It is in the Northeast corner of Florida. I went to jr. high and high school there. I just attended my 50th high school reunion a couple of weeks ago. I was in to fishing rather than brewing and baking then. I think Florida has great fishing.
Bix