Club Business:
- The club’s 2nd Annual Pub Crawl with Pete Slosberg in the SF Mission on June 8 was discussed
- The Thirsty Third Thursday destination for June 20 was discussed – we will go somewhere with Santa Clara Valley Brewing Company Electric Tower IPA on tap, and will invite brewmaster Steve Donohue to join us – stay tuned for details
- The Sudzers will do a brewing demonstration for the MoreBeer Los Altos summer sale on July 13. Nathan is in charge and will send details.
- Derek is working to coordinate a Sudzers brewing demonstration at the Kraft Brew Fest on August 3 at the end of Silicon Valley Beer Week.
- Northern California Homebrewers Festival registration will open July 14 at 10 am. Visit www.nchfinfo.org for details
- The club is looking for future beer-related presentations by members or others you know. Mike C. will do a talk on water chemistry later this year. Tyler would be interested in having someone speak on TIG welding if anyone knows a good speaker on the topic. Contact Tyler if you would like to present or have an idea.
Marin Kasper from Shmaltz Brewing talked about the history of Shmaltz and presented several brews for the club’s enjoyment. Shmaltz was founded in 1996, and currently has two lines: the He’Brew beers, which are kosher-certified ales, and the Coney Island line, which currently includes all of Shmaltz’s lagers. Shmaltz produced 12,000 barrels last year and is on pace to produce a similar volume this year.
Beers sampled included the Genesis Dry-Hopped Session Ale, generously dry hopped with Cascade, Centennial, and club favorite Simcoe; the malty Messiah Nut Brown Ale; the relatively new but already best-selling Hop Manna IPA; the Rejewvenator Dubbel Doppel brewed with dates & figs as well as both ale & lager yeasts; and the flagship Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A. Marin even generously shared the recipe for the Bittersweet Lenny’s Details about all of the brews are available on the Shmaltz website.
Jim brought the Pliny the Younger clone brewed for the AHA Big Brew Day to share. He has already recapped the brew day quite nicely in a previous post. Because he did one massive dry hop addition instead of the four separate additions that Russian River does, he talked about agitating the keg twice a day to maximize the surface area contact with the beer. He also shared that he chose not to add sugar during fermentation as called for in the recipe since the target gravity was already exceeded. Gary at MoreBeer did add the sugar, and the main reported difference was a bit more alcohol harshness. Both beers finished at 1.015, so the addition of sugar did not dry the beer out further, just boosted the alcohol. Jim noted that substituting sugar for other fermentables results in a drier beer, but adding sugar on top of other fermentables does not seem to have the same effect.
Finally, first time visitor Derek H brought a growler of Sierra Nevada Beer Camp #94, the Sleight of Hand Double Black Belgian IPA. Derek participated in the development of this recipe as a beer camp attendee, and the beer will be bottled and distributed later this year. He drove straight from the brewery in Chico to the meeting, so we had an opportunity to try the beer super fresh. The brew was bittered with Simcoe, with flavor and aroma additions of both Nelson Sauvin and Sorachi Ace, and the La Chouffe yeast strain was utilized.