Silicon Valley Sudzers Homebrew Club
The Homebrew Club of Silicon Valley
Good collection of beer at Smoke Eaters on De Anza Avenue in Cupertino Thursday night. I had the Coronado Idiot IPA which uses Citra hops that I first had at Yard House Santana Row. I really like this beer, passing up some other awesome double IPA’s.
Sudzers co-Chief Communications Officer Derek will be writing a monthly beer column in the Los Altos Town Crier to share profiles of local breweries, recommendations for local craft brews, beer and food pairing, upcoming beer events and much more. The first installment in the series is “Homebrewers create unique beers in Los Altos.” Cheers!
We had a pretty outstanding AHA Big Brew day at MoreBeer, with about 15 Sudzers in attendance at various times during the day, a group of about 25 Stanford grad students who joined us to learn about the brewing process, and a number of others who stopped by to talk about brewing and the Sudzers club. We were part of a nationwide event that featured over 4500 participants brewing over 9000 gallons of beer at 383 different sites on May 4! A full set of photos (thanks to Linda, Ron, and Derek) is posted on the Sudzers Flickr page.
The beer came in just above the target gravity, and the hop extracts worked their magic. Brewmaster Jim gets full credit for the recipe development (recipe and process notes available here) and the vast majority of the brewing labor. Thanks to everyone who came by and participated in the brewing process and/or brought snacks to share. Thanks to Tyler, Mike, Jim, Santiago, Charles, and Chris bringing beers to serve. Thanks also to Chris & Linda for showing up super early to help out, and to Professor Chris for giving the group of about 25 Stanford grad students who came for the day a nice introductory lecture on the homebrewing process. Thanks to the Stanford crew for buying 16 pizzas to feed the hungry masses, and to Robin for baking delicious brownies and mini chocolate chip cakes for dessert. As always, thanks to Gary & MoreBeer for ingredients and the opportunity to promote the store, the homebrewing hobby, and the club. And thanks to Nick for bringing some brews to share with Jim & Gary & Derek after everything was cleaned up and put away.
A report from Brewmaster Jim: Before yesterday I was a virgin to brewing with HERMS system, but Morebeer’s sophisticated 1100 all digital brew stand changed all that. I’ll probably look back years from now and remember my first time 😉 Fortunately, there were many people that helped avoid more difficulties that might have otherwise overshadowed the day. Of course there was the ever guiding Derek, but also Chris who instinctually understand how to set the stand up and get off to a good start. And also, there was Charles, who knew just when to stop sparging to avoid an otherwise messy cleanup of the spent grain bed. The one thing that I wished we had captured on film, oops – old school, I mean digital, was the endless stream of young ladies that came by to have their picture taken stirring the mash. Perhaps next year. And most importantly to any tired and hot brewer at the end of a long brew day, A HUGE round of thanks to all that did an excellent job of helping clean up, including Rich, Derek, Nick, and Gary.
The yeasts are happily turning our efforts into an awesome beer, sitting comfortably at 64 degrees for the first three days of fermentation. The FG was higher than expected. Not knowing the expected mash efficiency, I planned for 70%. As it turned out, the efficiency was closer 76%. Consequently, rather than a FG of 1.089, the FG will come in around 1.097, after accounting for the second sugar addition at the end of fermentation. So, perhaps the brew should be called Pliny the Younger Stud. Regarding water treatment, Mountain View has really soft water and with the adjustments, the wort PH was 5.4 going into boil and Chloride:Sulfate ratio projected at .38, which should provide that definitive PTY hoppiness. One bit of concern however, was the thermo-shock the yeasts experienced. By the time the beer made it to the fermentation chamber, it had warmed up to about 83 degrees. In any case, a healthy krausen developed within six hours and I added the second O2 dose early this morning. I’ll bring the finished (completed NOT consumed), keg to the June club meeting. So, bring your growler and take some home to enjoy…
Logistical preparations were discussed for the AHA Big Brew Day event on May 4 at the MoreBeer store. Plans to brew 10 gallons of a Pliny the Younger clone recipe came together well, and there was a full lineup of homebrews ready to go on the club jockey box.
Our May 16 Thirsty Third Thursday was set for Trials Pub in San Jose. They typically bring in new British cask ales at the beginning of each week, but don’t tap them until they’ve settled midweek, so there should be fresh cask-conditioned brews on tap.
Club members were reminded about special guest Marin Kasper from Shmaltz Brewing who will speak and bring beers to share at the June meeting.
A San Francisco pub crawl with honorary Sudzer Pete Slosberg was tentatively set for June 8. More details to come.
The July Sudzers meeting will be moved to the 2nd Friday of the month, July 12, in order to avoid meeting on the July 4 weekend.
Co-president Tyler is coordinating an upcoming order of 8 gallon whiskey barrels from Woodinville Whiskey Co. Because of their production schedule, they will likely not have barrels ready to ship until early September. Contact Tyler if you’re interested in being included in a barrel order.
And, of course, plentiful homebrew tasting:
Enjoy reading about the growth of the homebrewing hobby, the American Homebrewers Association Big Brew day, and the Silicon Valley Sudzers. Cheers!
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/35148-big-brew-for-national-homebrew-day/
Great article from the indomitable Andy Lee, including a shout out for the Sudzers’ participation in the AHA Big brew on Saturday, May 4. Cheers!
http://www.examiner.com/article/south-bay-beer-happenings-for-may-2013-and-beyond
Hello Sudzers! Just a quick reminder that our next meeting is this Friday, May 3 at 7 pm at Nick’s house. Need the address or directions? Email moresimcoe@sudzers.org
Also, our club brew day to make 10 gallons of a Pliny the Younger clone and participate in the AHA Big Brew at MoreBeer in Los Altos is the next day! Big weekend of Sudzers fun!
Agenda for this month’s meeting includes:
7:00 Social Time
7:15 Club Business
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.
See you Friday! Next upcoming club meeting – Friday, June 7 with our special guest from Shmaltz
Sharing a message from Vanessa at Giant Creative (the organization behind Silicon Valley Beer Week) – kudos to Gordon Biersch for 25 years of craft beer in the South Bay!
Please join us Saturday, May, 18th 2013 to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of local brewing company, Gordon Biersch Brewery. Gordon Biersch Brewery has been a part of the San Jose community since 1990. We will be marking 25 years of brewing business with a fantastic selection of Gordon Biersch Brews, as well as BBQ from local restaurants Vung Tau, the Old Pro, and several fantastic BBQ food trucks: Mobowl, BBQ Kalbi, and The Rib Whip. Gordon Biersch will serve their famous Garlic Fries. We will kick the night off with a performance by the San Jose Jazz All Star Big Band. This performance will be followed by the spicy Latin rhythms of 19-piece Pacific MamboOrchestra, and finally end with Carlos Reyes’ group featuring vocalist Tony Lindsay from Santana.
The event is open to all ages, (so please feel free to bring the kiddos). There will be a craft root beer-tasting booth, as well as plenty of entertainment that the whole family can enjoy.
Admission is $10 and includes 6 tastes of Gordon Biersch beer or craft root beer and a commemorative glass. Advance tickets are available online. Additional Beer and BBQ will be available for purchase inside the event. Children under 5 years old are free.
Doors open at 2 pm, the event will be at Gordon Biersch Brewery at 357 E. Taylor Street, San Jose, CA 95112.
A small but enthusiastic crew turned out in Pleasant Hill for the Sudzers/Slow Hand BBQ Beer Competition today – 10 attendees had the opportunity to enjoy delicious bbq meats, and sides while judging the six beers brewed with malt co-smoked with BBQ meats back in January. Many thanks to Dan Frengs and the Slow Hand crew for their hospitality, event logistics, and great food!
Nine judges ranked the brews in seven categories, including appearance, aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, smokiness, degree to which beer pairs well with BBQ, and overall impression. In addition, one well-known judge by the name of “Tasty” did not complete the full scoring, but did offer his 1-2-3 rankings of the brews served.
In the “Smokiness” category, the top three scorers were:
1. Tyler’s Smoke and Mirrors Porter
2. Marcus’s Lunch Meat Altbier
3. Chris’s Angry Leprechaun Irish Red Ale
In the “BBQ Pairing” category, the top three scorers were:
1. Chris’s Angry Leprechaun Irish Red Ale
2. Tyler’s Smoke and Mirrors Porter
3. Derek’s McSwinerson’s Scotch Ale
In the overall score, the top three were:
1. Tyler’s Smoke and Mirrors Porter
2. Chris’s Angry Leprechaun Irish Red Ale
3. Derek’s McSwinerson’s Scotch Ale
And in the “Tasty” rankings, the top three were:
1. Santiago’s Smokin’ Wheat American Wheat
2. Chris’s Angry Leprechaun Irish Red Ale
3. Tyler’s Smoke and Mirrors Porter
Cheers to all for a successful and delicious event!
J&J Russian Imperial Stout, the first beer we tasted at the March Sudzers meeting, took 1st place among imperial stouts, and 2nd place in the Best of Show round out of 159 total entries in the Bridging the Gap competition sponsored by Greenbelt Brewers Association.