The September Sudzers meeting was a busy one. The new Space Invaders-themed shirts were distributed, we set a paid membership record with our 40th paid member of the year, we set a homebrew tasting record with 22 brews people brought to share, and we had a fabulous speaker from GigaYeast.
Club business included discussions of Northern California Homebrewers Festival planning (29 Sudzers will attend), selection of FreeWheel Brewing as our Sept. 19 Thirsty Third Thursday meetup destination, discussion of a members-only party in late September (you should receive details by email soon from Nick if you are a paid member), discussion of a members-only off-flavor tasting in October (details TBD). Nick will be hosting the annual fall Dark Matter brew day later this fall as well.
Loren Gibbs, Head of Production for GigaYeast in Belmont, talked about what’s involved in producing yeast for professional brewers and homebrewers. He talked about sourcing the yeast, how it is propagated, the variety of yeasts that GigaYeast sells, and some of the professional breweries that use GigaYeast. Loren brought a few samples of GigaYeast, which were distributed to those who successfully answered some yeast trivia questions, as well as the brewers with the highest-rated homebrews of the evening. President Tyler is coordinating a project to propagate two strains, the Vermont IPA and a new, as-of-yet unnamed secret Belgian yeast, for a club brewing contest. GigaYeast has blessed the project, and we are hopeful that Loren and/or Founder Jim Withee will be able to attend the November meeting to help judge the results.
September’s homebrews, in no particular order, were:
Nick’s About Damn Time Imperial Amber
Santiago’s French Saison
Santiago’s Belgian Saison
Santiago’s Rasbury Brown
Derek W’s Belle Saison
Derek W’s Breakfast of Champions Granola Stout
Nathan’s Summer Brew Day Extra Pale Ale (from the club brew day at MoreBeer)
Anna & Fuad’s Golden Banana Belgian Blonde (incidentally, the club wishes them the best in their move to Sweden to establish the first international chapter of SV Sudzers – with the SV standing for Sverige instead of Silicon Valley!)
Justin’s Pliny Clone
Justin’s All Brett IPA
Justin’s BBB American Brown
Justin’s Schwarzbier
Chris’s Crossfire Imperial IPA
Steve & Derek H’s Imperial Stout
Chris R.’s Can’t See the Wood for the Trees Scottish 80/-
Tyler’s No Simcoe IPA
Vern’s Double High C Monster Imperial Brown
Paul S’s Coconut Porter
Marc-Andre’s Grapefruit Wheat
Adam’s Arrogant Bastard Clone
Adam’s Spiced Saison
Dave’s Amber