Author: Sudzers

On August 2, as part of the KraftBrew Fest to wrap up the 2nd Annual Silicon Valley Beer Week, the Sudzers were invited to do a brewing demonstration at the festival. Since the event was held at the Gordon Biersch production facility, we reached out to Dan Gordon about collaborating on a brew. We decided to brew the club’s version of Gordon Biersch Oktoberfest, with Jim W and Justin V each bringing their systems to the Gordon Biersch parking lot, and brewing utilizing the water, yeast, and hops generously provided by Gordon Biersch. Our plan is to taste the beer side by side with the real thing at a future event with Gordon Biersch brewers. Tanner and Cameron from GB were extremely helpful in providing both guidance in recipe development and logistics on the brew day. Thanks to all club members who participated in the event – we got to talk with hundreds of beer enthusiasts and potential homebrewers about the joy of homebrewing.

Nick gave an excellent recap of the July brew day at MoreBeer – see http://www.sudzers.org/?p=1591 for a write-up and photos.

The group discussed the upcoming brew day at Gordon Biersch as part of the KraftBrew Fest, where Justin and Jim W will be brewing their versions of Gordon Biersch Oktoberfest, using water, yeast, and hops generously provided by Gordon Biersch.

Derek and Robin are hosting a club brew day at their house on August 9 to brew beers for NCHF. Derek will be brewing Zombie the Elder (Pliny clone substituting Citra for all hop additions), and Pranab will brew a Chai-spice Brown Ale.

Our August Thirsty Third Thursday destination on August 21 will be Fibbar MaGees in downtown Sunnyvale.

Mike C will be the chief organizer for this year’s Northern California Homebrewers Festival, Sept.19-21. We have 30 (!) Sudzers registered to attend!

Jim W gave a very informative presentation on The Art of Fermentation including yeast management, wort preparation, and temperature control – you can view his slides here.

Homebrew presentations included:

Jim W’s Darker Shade of Pale Black IPA

Tugood’s Flat #1 English Brown Ale

Paul’s Rauchbier

Aaron’s Nut Brown Ale

Carter’s Galay Pale Ale

Derek W’s Cherry-Oaky Brown Ale (with wort from the AHA Rally at Heretic Brewing)

Derek W’s 89 Degree Saison

Mike C’s Solid Citizen Imperial Saison

Charles’ Raison D’Etre Belgian Dark Strong

Vern’s Getting Toasted Breakfast ESB

Justin’s Hoppositional Defiant Double IPA

Justin’s Friggin’ Huge Wee Heavy

Derek H & Steve H’s Barrel Aged Prenuptial Imperial Stout

Tim’s 11% New World Saison with Sauvignon Blanc

Our August meeting will be held Friday, August 1 at 7 pm
at Nick’s house. Need the address or directions? Email
moresimcoe@sudzers.org. Don’t forget to carpool if possible to make
sure there’s enough parking to go around.

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.

Meeting agenda:

7:00 Social Time

7:15 Club Business

Recent events:
-MoreBeer Brew Day

Upcoming events:
-KraftBrew Fest collaboration with Gordon Biersch, August 2
-Brew Day at Derek & Robin’s house, August 9
-Thirsty Third Thursday August 21
-Northern California Homebrewers Festival, Sept.19-21

7:30 Presentation – Jim W on fermentation

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.

On July 11, Sudzers members judged 21 homebrewed beers with alcohol content under 5% ABV. Judging was conducted in two categories: hop forward (self explanatory) and non hop forward (everything else). Surprisingly, there were only 7 entries for hop forward beers compared with 14 in the other category. Twenty three judges completed scores for all of the beers, the high and low scores were thrown out, and the remaining 21 scores were averaged.

The winners were:

Hop Forward
1. Jim W, Tiny Pliny
2. Adam C, Session IPA
3. Bill and Mikael, Session American Pale Ale

Non Hop Forward
1. Malcolm L, Breakfast Stout
2. Derek W, Continential Breakfast of Champions (honey oatmeal milk stout with cinnamon & toasted coconut)
3. Nick O, Kolsch

Malcolm’s Breakfast Stout got the highest overall score of any entry (37.4 on 50 point scale). Additional entrants were:

Hop Forward
Matt I, American Red
Tyler D, Session IPA
Justin V, Wheat IPA
Nic M, Session American Pale Ale

Non Hop Forward
Adam C, Chocolate Milk Stout
Justin V, Bavarian Hefe
Charles S, Scottish Ale
Tyler D, Belgian Wit
Jim W, J & J Pils
Pranab S, ESB
Matt I, Best Bitter
Carter K, Watermelon Wheat
Chris Q, English Brown Ale
Rich K, Scottish Ale
Duncan H, Belgian Wit

Thu 7/17: Thirsty Third Thursday meetup, 6:30 pm – ?, Harry’s Hofbrau
San Jose https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harrys-Hofbrau-San-Jose/143417649033860

Sat 7/19: MoreBeer Los Altos Summer Sale Brewing Demonstration,
approx. 9 am – 4 pm  – if you would like to help out, please contact
Nick at osbornen@yahoo.com.

Sun 7/20: First batch of 17th Annual Northern California Homebrewers
Festival (NCHF) tickets go on sale at www.nchfinfo.org at 10 am

We are allocating 60% of the all tickets (festival, dinner,
camping-only) and select cabins to the July 20 sale date; the
remainder go on sale on July 26
Ticket sales are capped at 2 per purchaser

Pricing for this year:
$45 Festival Tickets
$30 Camping-only Tickets
$50 Brewers Dinner Tickets

July 25-August 2 Silicon Valley Beer Week http://www.svbeerweek.com/

Sat 8/2: Sudzers brewing demonstration/collaboration with Dan Gordon
from Gordon Biersch at KraftBrew Fest 2014
(https://www.facebook.com/kraftbrew). Email moresimcoe@sudzers.org if
you would like to help out.

Sat 8/9: Brew Day at Robin and Derek’s house in San Jose to brew beers
for NCHF. Email moresimcoe@sudzers.org for address, and please let
Derek W know as soon as possible if you plan to bring equipment and
brew.

Sudzers Chief Communications Officer Derek’s latest column from the Los Altos Town Crier:

Secret no more: Word spreads about Clandestine Brewery

Join Derek Wolfgram, Doug Weitz, and Andy Carroll as they follow-up on the basic homebrewing program offered earlier in the year.  Sponsored by the Sudzers and Palo Alto City Library.  Read what Palo Alto Online has to say about this popular series.

Thursday, June 19
Lucie Stern Community Center Community Room, 1305 Middlefield Rd.
7 – 8:30 pm
Registration required.
Must be 21 years of age and older to attend.

The slide deck from the presentation is available for download.

Sudzers Chief Communications Officer Derek W’s June column

The Silicon Valley Sudzers played a key role in last year’s Silicon Valley beer Week, conducting a brewing demonstration in the middle of the KraftBrew Fest in downtown San Jose. This year, the Sudzers will also participate in the Fest, with a special collaboration with Gordon Biersch Brewery – stay tuned for details. For more information on SV Beer Week, please see the press release below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact Information:

April 18, 2014 Jennifer Anderson

408.200.1317

jennifer@svbeerweek.com

Introducing the Second Annual Silicon Valley Beer Week, the regions ultimate beer-lovers event. Taking place July 25-August 2, 2014. With the success of our first year in 2013, we invite venues who are passionate about the spirit and progression of craft beer to be a part of this event.

San Jose, CA: Silicon Valley Beer Week takes place July 25–August 2, 2014 and highlights all venues, restaurants, and breweries that are passionate about craft beer. The week will kick off with an exclusive opening party in San Jose, then feature seven days of hosted events all over Silicon Valley. The popular Kraftbrew Summer Fest, held on Post Street in Downtown San Jose, will be the closing event taking place on Saturday, August 2, 2014.

Silicon Valley Beer Week is a celebration of all the vibrant brewing and culinary traditions that Silicon Valley has to offers. Whether you’re a high end restaurant, or a 50+-tap pub, we welcome you to be apart of this celebration and invite beer lovers of all types to experience your venue.

La Pastaia’s Director of Food and Beverage, Morgan Slade writes:

SVBW was not only well organized, but proved to be great fun! We are well known for our wine list, but the event allowed us to show off our beer selection as well by bringing in new customers and starting a fresh dialogue. We are looking forward to the next one so that we can expand on our event offerings.

Morgan Riccilli Slade

Director of Food & Beverage

The Hotel De Anza

Along with the elegant La Pastaia participating, we had a variety of venues participate such as Original Gravity, Scott’s Seafood, Steins Beer Garden, Birk’s Restaurant, Martin’s West GP, and Refuge. During the week, venues throughout the valley hosted events that featured craft beer such as tap takeovers, tasting events, food pairing, new release nights and other themed-events. Venues will have a chance to promote their event on the official Silicon Valley Beer Week website and program guide that will be distributed on July 23 in Metro Newspaper. Silicon Valley Beer Week is presented by Metro Silicon Valley and Giant Creative.

Participating venues, events and other news will be announced on the official website, Facebook and Twitter:

SVBeerWeek.com

Facebook.com/svbeerweek

Twitter: @svbeerweek

Instagram: @svbeerweek

Venues wishing to list an event can do so at SVBeerWeek.com

For sponsorship opportunities: Jennifer Anderson 408 200-1317, jennifer@svbeerweek.com