Tyler shared membership survey results that have helped set the agenda for Sudzers activities this year – most popular items were a beer/food pairing dinner this fall, a club session beers comp this summer, a BJCP style big beer competition open to all Bay Area brew clubs (3 styles: DIPA, Barleywine, Russian Imperial Stout), more club brew days, off flavor tasting (tentatively scheduled 3/20), and possible project day to make mash paddles or tap handles.
Bob the welder visited the meeting. He does food grade stainless welding for reasonable prices, and club members have been very satisfied with his work. He lives in East Bay but can do South Bay pickups, especially if people coordinate asking for multiple jobs. You can email Bob at tomkiewicz.b at gmail.com.
Sf beer week – members were encouraged to ping the email list if they found any great events
Nick has arranged for a private tour of the Gordon Biersch production facility in San Jose with Dan Gordon himself on February 28. Details to come by email.
Because of sf beer week, lousy weather, etc., we had a light turnout of about 20 attendees. However, the norm has been twice that, and parking for meetings has become a challenge. Folks are encouraged to carpool if at all possible.
Nick has supply of sturdier caps that fit starsan bottles if you’ve had problems with breakage of the factory caps. You can get them from him at the next meeting.
Club bus trip to Santa Cruz – see Derek H for registration. Looks like we are going to fill a 30-ish passenger bus. Because some venues are small and they are close together, the plan is to use the bus to shuttle people back and forth rather than just making one stop at each brewery. Derek H is accepting payment via PayPal – see his email for details. Thanks to Mike C for coordinating with breweries, Tim T for securing a bus, and Derek H for handling sales!
Derek W shared samples of the new “draft beer” flavored jelly bellies, and Nick shared some of BeerCandy’s much-more-enjoyable hop drops.
Nick talked about the triple second runnings black IPA he brewed with Marc Andre on the Dark Matter brew day in November. Three different brewers made batches of Dark Matter, and the second runnings from the first mash tun were run through the second mash tun, which was then used to sparge the third mash tun. The resulting wort was boiled with several ounces of experimental hops from Peter Licht at Hermitage, and produced a 6% black IPA. The plan was to do an international toast via Skype with Marc Andre in Montreal, but he was unavailable. We drank the beer anyway.
Other homebrew tastings:
Derek W’s Kona Big Wave clone
Jeff’s Bee More Specific honey wheat ale using honey from Provence to bottle condition
Adam’s American Strong Ale
Steve and Derek H’s Red IPA
Mikael & Bill’s Dogfish 60 Minute clone
Justin’s Imperial Belgian Red Ale with tamarind
Justin’s Tripel