ARCHIVE / ACE NORTH PARK BEER MAKER WINS GOLD MEDAL

QUAFF MEETING TONIGHT--San Diego is home to a huge craft beer making trend. Beer lovers locally are opening breweries right and left to fashion more creative tasting beer. Also, individuals are “homebrewing” on a larger scale as well.

Last week, the American Homebrewers Assn., the leading national organization of beer clubs and individuals held its annual convention and competition in Seattle.

One San Diegan, a North Park resident, Kelsey McNair won a gold medal in category 14 for India Pale Ale (IPA). McNair, who runs his one-man brewery, North Park Beer Co., entered as a member of San Diego’s leading beer club: Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity or QUAFF.

McNair’s IPA beat out 553 other entries from across the country for his Gold Medal.

Tasty stuff this trend.

QUAFF has been around since 1989 and currently boasts 180 members. These men and women, who are dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of homebrewing and beer evaluation in Greater San Diego, meet the 4th Tuesday of each month (except December).

TONIGHT’S meeting will probably be more festive than usual as they no doubt will toast Kelsey McNair’s Gold Medal winning IPA. The meeting will be held at Randy Jones All American Sports Grill, 7510 Hazard Center Dr. #215, San Diego CA 92018. The meetings start at 7 p.m. and run until approximately 9:30 pm. (Most people arrive around 6 pm.)

You can meet the members, find out about recent pub-crawls or adventures and homebrew competitions. You will also get to enjoy the monthly presentation, an informative talk about a brewing process, technique or style of beer. Last, but certainly not least, you’ll also get to share and enjoy some of the members’ recent brews.

To find out more about QUAFF, please check out their web site, www.quaff.org, where you can learn about past as well as upcoming club events. The website features a photo gallery, archived speaker’s presentations, a recipe database and calculator, brewpub and brewery database, a calendar of events and archived newsletters.

Sources:

http://www.northparkbeerco.com/collaboration/

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/

www.quaff.org

Opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of this daily blog.

FOREVERMORE IT’S CATFISH DAY IN AMERICA

AS THE WORLD TURNS—During June 1987 the planet witnessed:

--the first woman British prime minister in 160 years to win her 3^rd consecutive term.

--Oliver North’s secretary Fawn Hall testifies in Iran Contra hearing.

--New Zealand bans nuclear weapons and nuke powered vessels from its territory.

--The last Dusky Seaside Sparrow dies adding its name to the list of extinct species on the planet.

--Supreme Court rules schools teaching evolution need not teach creation.

--Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. retires.

--Johnny Carson marries 4^th wife Alexis Mass

--Ben & Jerry’s announces Cherry Garcia flavor after Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia.

Meanwhile at the White House on this day, President Ronald Reagan proclaims June 25 will be forevermore National Farmed Catfish Day. Go Cats!

For the official White House proclamation go to http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1987/

062587e.htm

Tease as we may, The U.S. catfish industry is doing very well. It is doing its part to produce healthy and sustainable food for consumers. Catfish day has spawned National Catfish Month in August. There are catfish festivals going on mainly in the south, where catfish are farmed: Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama.

The species of catfish grown on U.S. Catfish farms is the common

Channel Catfish (Ictalurus Punctatus), which is native to the growing region and is found in rivers, lakes and streams throughout North America.

The National Audubon Society, Monterey Bay Aquarium and Environmental

Defense Fund all recommend U.S. farm-raised Catfish as a sound environmental seafood choice.

For those that don’t like the taste of wild catfish, the http://www.uscatfish.com/ organization points out farm grown cats are milder tasting because of the controlled diet. Check out the site for recipes.

Image: While National Catfish Day and Month are strictly U.S. celebrations, we had to go to Canada for this image of Chuck, the Channel Catfish, who has been immortalized in this roadside sculpture in Selkirk, Manitoba.