Once again, the Sudzers had an exceptional year at NCHF, particularly being voted as having the best beers of the festival by the other clubs in attendance. The instructions said that voters should choose not the club with the best single beer, or the club with the most beers, but the club with, on average, the highest quality beers. (We may also have had the most beers of any club besides Chico Homebrew Club, with 22 items available at the
Sudzers booth.) We will get a super fancy certificate in the weeks ahead in recognition of our awesome beers.
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. And of course, the keg of Russian River Hop 2 It was a hit as well.
The giant Sudzers tent came in very handy for the torrential downpour on Saturday afternoon… we had a nice space for people to hang out, and enjoy some snacks and brews.
The food at the Sudzers booth was incredible – tons of tasty smoked meats, pineapple pulled pork, sausages, veggie chili (someone picked out all the meat!), chicken
coconut curry, lasagna, celery and apple salad, slaw, brownies, chocolate chip cookies (with M&Ms, pretzels and potato chips inside).
There were the usual hiccups – we had to rearrange several booths on Friday afternoon to make room for our giant tent, since there were a record number of clubs in attendance, and the field was set up more narrowly than it should have been. All of our beer and serving equipment were not quite ready (or even at the Fest yet) when things
kicked off, but eventually we got it all up and running. There were also some adventures… Marc Andre had a very long, very refreshing nap… Nick got locked in a cabin restroom for an hour before being rescued (really!) You’ve got to have some stories to tell, right?
Thanks to all who participated in making the event a success – there ended up being about 30 of us from Sudzers – one of the strongest showings of any of the 40+ participating clubs.
We’re still looking for more pictures to post. If any attendees have any pictures to share,
please email Derek W.