Sudzers Chief Communications Officer Derek’s latest column from the Los Altos Town Crier:
Fruit beers offer unlikely complexity
Author: Sudzers
Meeting Agenda Friday, September 5
We will not be meeting at Nick’s house this month – please email moresimcoe@sudzers.org for meeting location information.
7:30 Club Business
Upcoming events:
-BJCP exam prep class begins September 17
-Thirsty Third Thursday September 18
-Northern California Homebrewers Festival, Sept.19-21
-Beer pairing dinner November 1
-Host needed for fall Dark Matter brew day in November
7:45 Homebrew evaluations. Reminder: Bring your recipe – club members
will have lots of questions! We will not have the whiteboard, so
please check in your beers with Derek W when you arrive (if you know
in advance that you’re bringing something, please feel free to email
moresimcoe@sudzers.org ahead of time with ABV and IBUs to help determine tasting order).
Cheers!
KraftBrew Fest/Gordon Biersch Club Brew Day
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.
Sudzers August meeting notes
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
More Beer Brew Day July 19 – recap from Sudzers CFO Nick
Wow! What a great event!
Many thanks to everyone who helped including:
Chef Chris Q on the grill,
Justin brewing on the sculpture with Jeff’s much appreciated experience and help,
Pranab running the beer, Tim on the ice and cup runs, and Russell, Tim, Elan, Paul S, Paul T, Jeff, and Ron, serving and engaging the customers 🙂
Thank you Chris and Jeff for bring the pop-ups to provide us with much needed shade, Tim for bringing a table and chairs, and Adam for the white board.
We had an amazing EIGHT beers on tap, plus bottled mead, thanks to:
Matt for the Special Bitter,
Pranab for the Pale Ale,
Adam for the Hoppy Stout,
John S for the Imperial Hefe,
Yours truly for the Kolsch,
Ron for the Session Brown,
Roger S. for the Hefe and American Pale Ale, and
Elan for the Blackberry Mead.
What a line up!
Finally, many thanks to all those helped organize at the beginning, those who stuck around at the end to pack everything up, and for Malcolm for transporting tables, chairs, the jockey box, banner, and other miscellaneous stuff in his pickup truck from the Sudzer cave to and from the event.
August 1 Meeting Agenda
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.
Club Session Competition results
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
Upcoming Sudzers dates and events
Thu 7/17: Thirsty Third Thursday meetup, 6:30 pm – ?, Harry’s Hofbrau
San Jose https://www.facebook.com/
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/
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.
Secret no more: Word spreads about Clandestine Brewery
Sudzers Chief Communications Officer Derek’s latest column from the Los Altos Town Crier:
Secret no more: Word spreads about Clandestine Brewery
Intermediate Homebrewing class at Palo Alto Community Center on Thursday 6/19
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.
