Author: Sudzers

2013 Homebrewer of the Year named; 2014 Club Officers announced

 

2013-12-07 20.31.35
2013 Homebrewer of the Year Jim Williams receives the coveted Sudzers Cup from Mike Conant, one of the 2012 joint winners of the HBOTY

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!

Brew University homebrewing talk on December 12 for Palo Alto City Library

Derek Wolfgram and Mike Conant from Silicon Valley Sudzers and Andrew Carroll from the HeadQuarters homebrew club will be presenting a workshop on homebrewing for the Palo Alto City Library on December 12 at 7 pm, followed by Q&A at Steins Beer Garden in Mountain View. For location details and to register in advance, please visit: http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=2256&TargetID=140,162. 

The slide deck from the presentation is available for download. Cheers!

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Dark Matter Bottling Day Re-“Cap”

Thanks to everyone who participated in the bottling day for the 2012 Dark Matter Imperial Stout. Many hands made light work, as we very quickly were able to get 53 bombers bottled, as well as six 12 ounce bottles for submission to the 2014 National Homebrewers Competition.

Over the next few weeks, each paid membership for calendar year 2013 will receive a bottle for your drinking or aging pleasure. The remaining bottles will be used for assorted club events.

As the label on the bottle says:

“Since 2007, the Silicon Valley Sudzers have produced four batches of this ginormous imperial stout. 2012 represents the first batch with an oak-aged component, which we hope you’ll enjoy. Drink it now, or lay it down for a year or two. Dark Matter will patiently wait for you. Brewed with Maris Otter malt, roasted barley, black patent malt, Caramunich, flaked barley, chocolate malt, and molasses with Magnum, Columbus, and Centennial Hops.”

The 2012 bottled version is 33% oak-aged. While most of the oak-aged batch was blended into the bottling, there is one magnum of pure oak-aged Dark Matter that will make an appearance at the December 7 club Christmas party.

Also, don’t forget that we’ll be brewing the 2013 Dark Matter next Saturday at Nick’s house. More information will be forthcoming about that brew day. Cheers!

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