Gigayeast Sudzers brewing challenge results

On November 21, the Sudzers judged 19 entries, 10 brewed with the GigaYeast super-secret new Belgian strain, and 9 brewed with their Vermont IPA yeast. Scoring was loosely based on the BJCP scoring system, with a special category for “use of yeast,” but beers were not evaluated against a particular style. Judging was much more subjective based on enjoyability of the beers.

Special thanks to Tyler for organizing and creating score sheets, all of the members who helped propagate yeast for other brewers to use, and Nick for foregoing tasting in order to be the cellar master and score tabulator. Super special thanks to Jim Withee and Loren Reynolds of GigaYeast for providing the initial yeast, allowing the club to propagate it, and then attending the meeting to serve as special guest judges.

Ribbons and yeast were awarded to the three highest rated beers for each yeast. The winners were:

IPA
1. Raghu & Nick
2. Jim Williams
3. Adam Campbell

Belgian
1. Justin Vincent
2. Mike Conant
3. Chris & Linda

November meeting minutes

It was great to see everyone at the meeting on Friday.  As a reminder, please get your nominations for Homebrewer of the Year to Derek or Tyler.  If you are interested in running for office please also let one of us know.  If you have presentation ideas for 2014, please let Tyler know.  Some ideas already suggested include a beer dinner (food with home brew pairings) or a broader contest (BJCP style comp).  So even if you aren’t running for office, you could still head a committee or help with an event.

Mike did a fantastic job presenting on Water.  We hope to have a link to the presentation posted soon.

Upcoming dates (visit the calendar on the right hand side of sudzers.org for details on any of these events):

11/21 GigaYeast Brewing Challenge – 7:00 P.M. Nicks – If you have entries please show up at 6:45 P.M. so we can get them logged in.  We welcome both those competing and anybody interested in judging.  Please bring a growler of the beer or an equivalent amount.

11/23 Dark Matter Bottling Day at Derek’s

11/30 Dark Matter Brew Day at Nick’s

12/7 Christmas Party / Gift Exchange at Nick’s

12/13 The membership voted to do a select bottle tasting instead of a pitcher tasting.  More information to follow *Members only event*

12/19 Third Thursday – Location TBD

12/27 Fridge Clean out get together

The off-flavors presentation and tasting has been moved to early next year.  Siebel moved their lab and all orders are back ordered for a month or two.

Cheers!

November 1 meeting to include talk on water chemistry + upcoming events

Hello Sudzers! Our regular November meeting will be held Friday November 1 at 7 pm at Nick’s house. Need the address or directions? Email moresimcoe@sudzers.org

7:00 Social Time

7:15 Club Business

Upcoming officer elections/Homebrewer of the Year nominations

Upcoming events:

-11/21 GigaYeast brewing challenge update
-11/23 Dark Matter 2012 bottling day at Derek’s house
-11/30 Dark Matter 2013 brew day at Nick’s House
-12/6 regular meeting cancelled
-12/7 Christmas party/gift exchange at Nick’s house
-12/12 Homebrewing program for Palo Alto City Library
-12/13 Pitcher tasting event
-12/19 Thirsty Third Thursday
-12/27 Fridge cleanout meeting
-Members-only off flavor tasting – to be rescheduled

Presentation: Brewing Water Chemistry, presented by our very own Mike Conant

7:30 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)

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.

hop cone

October meeting notes

The membership felt that the November 1 meeting was too soon for the Belgian/IPA GigaYeast Challenge.  We are going to judge the beers on the Third Thursday of November instead.  Thursday November 15th – 7:00 P.M. at Nicks.  For those of you that have not brewed yet you still have time.  We still have yeast available so let Tyler know if you need some to participate.  Ribbons will be presented to the top three places in each category.

October 17th – Third Thursday – Will be a hosted tour of Hermitage Brewing at 6:30 P.M. with pints to follow in the tap room

Fall Brew Day – It was suggested to do this on Black Friday after Thanksgiving or perhaps that Saturday – more to follow from Nick

Off Flavors Tasting – Also TBD in November

NCHF recap is posted on the website. The Sudzers were voted as having the best overall beers at the festival!

Next meeting will be Friday, November 1st.  Mike Conant will deliver a presentation on water.

Sudzers present Homebrewing workshop at Belmont Library, Saturday, Oktober 12

Derek Wolfgram from Silicon Valley Sudzers and Andrew Carroll from the HeadQuarters homebrew club will be presenting a workshop on homebrewing as part of the Belmont Library’s Oktoberfest Celebration at 3 pm on Saturday, Oktober 12.

2013-10-12 14.17.29

Feel free to download the slides from the presentation.

Cheers!