Sudzers win Best Club Beer at Northern California Homebrewers Festival

While this award was previously reported back in September, the certificate came in the mail today. Congratulations once again to the Sudzers, whose fellow homebrew clubs voted that the 22 Sudzers beers on tap at the Northern California Homebrewers Festival were, on average, the highest quality beers of over 40 clubs present. The highlights of our beer selection were Jim W’s Citrarillo IPA, the club’s Dark Matter Imperial Stout, Doug W’s Flanders Red (no relation to the barrel in the basement), Joe D’s Pumpkin Pie Ale, and Derek W’s cask-conditioned Flanders Cream Ale, but every single beer was well-received. Cheers!

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January meeting notes

Welcome to all of the new members who joined us for the January meeting – we had a great turnout with 45 attendees and 18 homebrews to taste!

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A few upcoming events were discussed:
-Since we met one week later than usual this month, we will also move out Thirsty Third Thursday meetup back one week and celebrate Firsty Fourth Fursday at Original Gravity in San Jose for the release party for Santa Clara Valley Brewing’s New Almaden Imperial Red Ale.
-New events are being added every day to the calendar for SF Beer Week from February 7 to February 16
-Mike Conant is planning a brewery bus trip to the Santa Cruz coast on March 8 – stay tuned for details

Due to the large number of attendees and homebrews, the discussion of brewing software was postponed until the February meeting.

Sudzers CFO Nick provided the annual financial report, detailing all of the major income sources (memberships, t-shirt sales, BBQ beer competition event) and expenditures (summer club party, rare bottle tasting, t-shirts, Dark Matter ingredients). The club’s revenues slightly outpaced expenditures, so the financial picture for the club is good (especially with the 32 memberships paid for 2014 at the meeting!)

Homebrews evaluated and enjoyed included:

Frank’s Hefeweizen

Frank’s Maibock

Paul’s Dunkel

Rob’s Hoppy Blonde

James’ AAPL Pale Ale

Charles’ Avante Garde

Doug’s Amber Ale

David’s Prickly Pear Saison

James’ Some Kind of Honey Porter

Sam’s Troubled Porter

Mikael & Bill’s Magnum Bucks Porter

Jim & Jason’s Breakfast of Champions Oatmeal Milk Stout with Cinnamon and Toasted Coconut

Mikael & Bill’s Torpedo Clone

James’ Last Day IPA Pliny Clone (!)

Nic’s Pliny Clone (!!)

Jim & Jason’s Pliny Clone (!!!)

Adam’s Barleywine

Derek’s 2 year old Bourbon Barrel Aged Barleywine

 

Sudzers meeting agenda & information for Friday, January 10

Hello Sudzers! Our January meeting will be held Friday, January 10 at
7 pm at Nick’s house. Need the address or directions? Email
moresimcoe@sudzers.org.

As a reminder, club dues are collected on a calendar year basis, so
please bring $25 and arrive as close to 7 as possible if you would
like to pay your 2014 dues. We have made a slight change to the
structure this year as a result of the huge recent growth in
membership (We had 18 paid members in 2011 and 52 in 2013!) Membership
will now be $25/person with no “complimentary” spouse/partner/family
bonus members.

You may want to bring cash for T shirts as well – there are just a
handful of the 2012 beige shirts with the integrated circuit design
($20) and the 2013 black shirts with the Space Invaders theme ($15) left.

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7:00 Social Time

7:15 Club Business

Annual Financial Report – CFO Nick
Upcoming events:
-1/16 Thirsty Third Thursday – location?
-SF Beer Week!
-Members-only off flavor tasting – to be scheduled in 2014 – Tyler
-potential March Santa Cruz coast brewery bus tour – Mike C
-potential March homebrew event for charity – Robin

7:30 Roundtable discussion topic: brew software, online brew tools,
and mobile devices – bring ideas to share

7:45 Homebrew evaluations. Reminder: Bring your recipe – club members
will have lots of questions! Sign your beer in on the whiteboard along
with your name and statistics (IBU, ABV, etc. – optional, but helpful
in determining tasting order) Tyler and I are both planning to bring
big barleywines,
so if anyone else would like to join in our “winter warmer” theme,
please feel free!

After homebrew evaluations: more social time/informal commercial brew
sharing

Always welcome: homebrews from any style to share.  Don’t have any
homebrew on hand right now? Feel free to bring other interesting brews
you’ve picked up. Don’t have a beer to bring? Please bring some snacks
to share

2013 Homebrewer of the Year named; 2014 Club Officers announced

 

2013-12-07 20.31.35
2013 Homebrewer of the Year Jim Williams receives the coveted Sudzers Cup from Mike Conant, one of the 2012 joint winners of the HBOTY

Congratulations to the newly elected Silicon Valley Sudzers club officers and the 2013 Homebrewer of the Year, Jim Williams.

Club officers for 2014 are:
President/CEO: Tyler Dassow
Vice President/COO: Jim Williams
Treasurer/CFO: Nick Osborne
Chief Communications Officer: Derek Wolfgram
Chief Technology Officer: Chris Quinn

Cheers!

Brew University homebrewing talk on December 12 for Palo Alto City Library

Derek Wolfgram and Mike Conant from Silicon Valley Sudzers and Andrew Carroll from the HeadQuarters homebrew club will be presenting a workshop on homebrewing for the Palo Alto City Library on December 12 at 7 pm, followed by Q&A at Steins Beer Garden in Mountain View. For location details and to register in advance, please visit: http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=2256&TargetID=140,162

The slide deck from the presentation is available for download. Cheers!

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Dark Matter Bottling Day Re-“Cap”

Thanks to everyone who participated in the bottling day for the 2012 Dark Matter Imperial Stout. Many hands made light work, as we very quickly were able to get 53 bombers bottled, as well as six 12 ounce bottles for submission to the 2014 National Homebrewers Competition.

Over the next few weeks, each paid membership for calendar year 2013 will receive a bottle for your drinking or aging pleasure. The remaining bottles will be used for assorted club events.

As the label on the bottle says:

“Since 2007, the Silicon Valley Sudzers have produced four batches of this ginormous imperial stout. 2012 represents the first batch with an oak-aged component, which we hope you’ll enjoy. Drink it now, or lay it down for a year or two. Dark Matter will patiently wait for you. Brewed with Maris Otter malt, roasted barley, black patent malt, Caramunich, flaked barley, chocolate malt, and molasses with Magnum, Columbus, and Centennial Hops.”

The 2012 bottled version is 33% oak-aged. While most of the oak-aged batch was blended into the bottling, there is one magnum of pure oak-aged Dark Matter that will make an appearance at the December 7 club Christmas party.

Also, don’t forget that we’ll be brewing the 2013 Dark Matter next Saturday at Nick’s house. More information will be forthcoming about that brew day. Cheers!