The Heart of the Valley Homebrew Club meets on the third Wednesday of every month, alternating between Corvallis and Albany. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, April 21, at 7:00 p.m. at Corvallis Brewing Supply (Joel's store), 464 SW Madison Avenue, Corvallis. Phone: 758-1674

     Our last meeting was graciously hosted by Dave and Stine Benson in South Albany. For those of you who didn't make it, you really missed out. There was more beer on hand than we could deal with, and at the end of the meeting Dave served some special beverages that, for now, I'll call "exceedingly old, oak-aged, distilled beer." Thanks again, Dave and Stine. You have an extremely cool puppy, too.

1cup of cooked eggplant, drained and mashed
1/4 tsp. cinnamon*
1/4 tsp. nutmeg*
1/4 tsp. ginger*
2/3 cup dark brown sugar*
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup dark ale
1 cup sifted flour

     Blend together first 7 ingredients. Blend in flour, a little at a time until mixture has the consistency of thick batter. Drop by rounded teaspoons into hot oil. Cook like any other puff. Sprinkle done puffs with powdered sugar before serving. Good breakfast or brunch treat.

     You can also make these without the sugar or above listed spices. Just add your favorite herbs or seasonings instead. They're good this way too. I would think some savory, sage, and a little thyme would work.

     The following HOTV members judged beers and the Slurp & Burp competition, held Saturday, March 31 at Jane's Restaurant in McMinnville: Ron Hall, John Sterner, Rob Nicol, Scott Leonard, and Kendall Staggs. The competition went smoothly enough, but it ran a little long, so Scott and Kendall drove home before the winners were announced. (We wantd to watch the NCAA basketball championship semifinal game.) For more information on the results of the Slurp & Burp, ask John Sterner, a Best-of-Show judge, or contact Ted Hausotter of the Strange Brew Club.

Let's try to get some entries in this year's AHA Club-Only competitions.

August - Wit: Category 19b, Belgian Witbier hosted by Donna Bettencourt and the Gold Country Brewers Association

October - California Common: Category 6c, California Common hosted by John Aitchison of the Maltose Falcons

December - Mild: Category 10c, Mild hosted by Bruce Bennett and Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP)

Another reminder: the annual Oregon Homebrew Festival will be May 18-19.

The Ram Restaurant and Big Horn Brewery
I found this one in the University Village along with a few upscale shops. The brewpub was not hard to find due to its small grain hopper in the front. There was a long line for dinner but we placed our names down and proceeded to the bar after we were handed a pager. The restaurant was upscale, much like the village. It reminded me too much like a Rock Bottom. This was what they had on their brew list; Buttface Amber Ale, Bighorn Hefeweizen, Total Disorder Porter, Washington Blonde, Ram Premium Pilsner, Dawg Sled Ale, and Big Red IPA.

Eggs Cetera's Blue Star Cafe and Pub
This is one of the first non-smoking watering holes in Wallingford. The have a very impressive bar which houses their 14 taps, 5 rotating along with a rotating cask. The brews are mainly Pacific NW fare. The neat thing about this place is that you can pound a few brews, have dinner and then come back the next morning for breakfast. They have decent pub grub, like all-you-can-eat fish 'n' chips.

Maple Leaf Grill Ale House
I was driving to the University District and the words "fine ales" caught my eye at the house on the corner in the Maple Leaf area of Seattle. The next time we wanted to go out for dinner we paid them a visit. The house looked like it had just been redone. It was kind of weird. It's like walking in a new house but there is U- shaped bar in middle of the living room and there are tables scattered throughout the house. It didn't have the feel of an ale house or a restaurant. That did stop me from ordering some brews. They had 12 on tap. The beer was good but the house thing still bothered me.

Wedgewood Ale House
This neighborhood pub was quite noisy but more typical of a old 50s bar. They have 18 taps, all of which are rotating except for Guinness. Most of the brews I didn't recognize. I think most were from Washington. They have very excellent pub grub; in fact Anne had her best burger yet.

Finding Good Bottled Brew in Seattle
I have been trying to find a good place to buy beers recommended by our resident beer guru, Kendall. I have not found a place with the caliber and selection of Burlingame Grocery. The one place that I have found with a very good selection (for a grocery store) is the Central Market in Shoreline, north of Seattle at Aurora and 155th). If can't find what I am looking for there I check out the Big Star Beer Market on Northgate off Aurora. They don't stock more beers than Central Market but they do have a different assortment. Another place to find good brews in the Seattle area is Bottleworks in Wallingford on 45th. This place is where all the yuppies go for their brews, but this is where I found Unibroue's Don de Dieu, a beer recommended by Kendall. I have one other place I would to check out soon called the Stumbling Monk. It sounds good to me!

     The membership voted (at our last meeting) to hold the pub crawl on SUNDAY, APRIL 22. For those of you who haven't participated before, the pub crawl goes something like this: we charter a good old-fashioned school bus, load a 1/2 keg onto it, and depart the Corvallis/Albany area around 10:00 a.m. From there, it's a drive to the Portland area, where we stop in a few local establishments in search of liquid refreshment. We eat along the way, and sing songs on the bus ride home. Generally, we're done by about 6:30 p.m. The cost (per attendee) will be in the $15 to $20 range. If you would like a friend (or friends, or significant other) to join us, there will probably be space available.

     Please email me ASAP if you would like to attend. Also, if you plan to bring a guest or two, their names as well. For now, just an email indicating interest is fine, but as we get filled up, we'll move to more of a first-paid, first-served type of arrangement.

     If you haven't already decided to go, consider this: our very own Joel Rea will be joining us for his first ever HOTV pub-crawlin' experience!

     Big Brew 2001 will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 5. As usual, Corvallis Brewing Supply will be supporting the AHA's Big Brew event. This event encourages homebrewers all over America to brew the same beer on the same day. To make it easier for folks, bring in a printout of your site registration and with the purchase of all the ingredients, I will provide the hops for the recipe, any number of gallons, any number of batches. Corvallis has done real well in years past with this event and I would like to encourage folks to join in the collective fun this year. Invite a friend who has never brewed before to see how it fares!

     Here is the AHA's announcement: Help us celebrate National Homebrew Day with a day of worldwide simultaneous brewing! The 4th Annual Big Brew will kick off with a simultaneous toast at 12:00 p.m. CDT, then fire up the burners and start brewing! This year there are three recipes to choose from, a Classic American Pilsner provided by Jeff Renner (for more information on this style see the Sept/Oct 2000 issue of Zymurgy or email Jeff Renner), a Cream Ale provided by Scott Abene (AKA Skotrat), and an American Brown Ale provided by Paul Gatza. All recipes for 5 gallons. Email Joel or Kendall for the details of each recipe.

     Each site participating in the Big Brew 2001 Membership Drive will have a chance to win one of two complete sets of the Brewers Publications Classic Beer Style Series books.

     Even though our date, March 31, conflicted with the Slurp & Burp Competition, we still had five members turn out to brighten up our stretch of Highway 20. Scott Caul, Paul Jorgensen, Greg and Angela Kurbis, and Lee Smith defied the weather odds (it wasn't too bad) and vacuumed up 26 tightly packed bags of trash.

     This stuff must be tossed along the road by tourists passing through, because no self-respecting Oregonian could be guilty! (Yeah, right). As usual, we had a mini-tailgate party afterward and shared a bit of Amber Ale from Oregon Trader. Our next litter pick-up date will be June 23, the Saturday following our regular monthly meeting (at which we dispose of the festival leftovers!). I hope you can join us.

     SYDNEY (Reuters) Beer-loving Australians have flocked to their garages to turn them into home breweries after hotel beer prices jumped following the introduction of a 10 percent consumption tax nine months ago. "We've had huge sales of home brew kits in the last eight months," Alec Hill of Pacific Brewing Party, Ltd., told Reuters on Friday.

     Australia's largest grocer, Woolworths, says the sale of home beer brewing kits has risen 55 percent since the introduction of the goods and services tax last July, according to local media. A home brewing kit costs A $70 (US $35) and makes 22 liters (five gallons) of beer or 60 small bottles called "stubbies" in Australia. But refills cost only $11.50 for 60 bottles compared with A $25 for a case of 24 bottles in a hotel - a saving of close to A $50 for beer-swilling Australians.

     The Australian Hotels Association said there has been a sharp decline in over-the-counter beer sales since the consumption tax hiked the price of on-tap beer by nine percent. Australia is one of the world's biggest beer drinking nations with 99 liters (22 gallons) per head being downed each year.

     SYDNEY (Reuters) An Australian gardener rode his lawnmower over an 18-foot cliff in Sydney on Friday, plunging into the Parramatta River but suffering only minor back and leg injuries.

     An ambulance service spokesman said the man was winched back up to dry land by emergency crews. He fell in the water while his lawnmower crashed onto rocks at the bottom of the cliff. "It was a steep bit of lawn so maybe he shouldn't have been mowing there," the spokesman said.

     The story failed to indicate whether the man had a homebrewery in his garage.