Sudzers Chief Communications Officer Derek Wolfgram’s latest column in the Los Altos Town Crier explores the role of craft beer in San Francisco’s Fancy Food Show.
http://www.losaltosonline.com/special-sections2/sections/food-a-wine/46703-
The Homebrew Club of Silicon Valley
Sudzers Chief Communications Officer Derek Wolfgram’s latest column in the Los Altos Town Crier explores the role of craft beer in San Francisco’s Fancy Food Show.
http://www.losaltosonline.com/special-sections2/sections/food-a-wine/46703-
Hello Sudzers! Our February meeting will be held Friday, February 7 at
7 pm at Nick’s house. Need the address or directions? Email
moresimcoe@sudzers.org.
If you would like to pay your 2014 dues, entitling you to many club
benefits, including a 10% discount at MoreBeer and member-only events,
please bring $25 cash.
Because of the large number of homebrews that have been brought to
recent meetings, the officers have decided to implement a cap on the
formal evaluations. We will only have 15 beers presented per meeting
(of course, others may be brought and shared and critiqued during
social time before or after the meeting, but we will not pass them
around to every attendee). The first 15 brews (limit one per brewer)
entered on the whiteboard will be part of the formal tasting. If fewer
than 15 brewers bring beers, we can open up opportunities for brewers
to present a second beer.
7:00 Social Time
7:15 Club Business
Upcoming events:
-SF Beer Week!
-2/20 Thirsty Thursday destination
-March 8 Santa Cruz bus trip
-March 20 Members-only off flavor tasting
-April brew day host needed
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)
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.
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!
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!
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
Reviews of five California-brewed red ales from Sudzers Chief Communications Officer Derek’s column in the Los Altos Town Crier. Cheers!
Mike presented an excellent primer on Brewing Water at the November Sudzers meeting, including information on chlorines and chloramines; pH, alkalinity, and hardness; managing water flavor profile; and acidifying sparge water.
The full presentation is available for your edification and enjoyment.
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.
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
Check out “Holiday gift ideas to please the beer lovers in your life” in the Los Altos Town Crier. Cheers!
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!