Hello Sudzers,
For our January meeting, we discussed the homebrew competition that Steins is asking us to help organize, and we presented the Sudzers Homebrewer of the Year trophy. Then we tasted ten great homebrews. Thanks to Stein’s and everyone who showed up.
– Steins is holding a homebrew competition in March this year and asked the Sudzers to help organize the judging. The competition will be limited to BJCP category 31A (alternative grain beers). The pre-registration of entries will be at the end of February. The deadline for drop offs will be sometime in mid-March. Judging will occur March 23 with March 24 as a potential backup/secondary judging date, since final judging for the World Cup of Beer will also be held on the 23rd.
– The Sudzers 2023 Homebrewer of the Year trophy was awarded to Stephan Piotrowski. Congratulations Stephan!
– Derek W. gave his annual CFO report on the club’s finances for 2023.
– The off flavor of the month was geranium. Thanks to Mikael for putting this together.
– Mikael also mentioned some upcoming homebrew competitions in the area:
| Name | Location | Date | Entry Deadline | URL |
| El Dorado County Fair Homebrew & Microbrew Competitions | Placerville, CA | 02/03/2024 | 01/22/2024 | http://eldoradocountyfair.org/brew-competition.html |
| Side Gate Brewery- Belgian Beer Bonanza | Concord, CA | 02/25/2024 | 01/26/2024 | http://www.sidegatebrewing.com |
| World Cup of Beer | Hayward, CA | 03/23/2024 | 02/28/2024 | https://www.worldcupofbeer.com/ |
| New World Brew Challenge | Loomis, CA | 04/06/2024 | 03/29/2024 | https://placerbrewers.org/pubs-invitational-2024 |
– We had a brief discussion about having a club brew in 2024. Members present liked the idea of using the biere de garde recipe we used for last year’s club brew. The brewing of the beer will happen late summer or early autumn.
– The beers we tasted:
| Brewer | Beer Name | Beer Style | IBUs | ABV |
| Mikael H. | MeBurger | German Pilsner | 35 | 5.8 |
| Sebastian B | Saison | 31 | 6.3 | |
| Kevin S | B Strong | strong bitter | 50 | 5.8 |
| Peter P | hazy pale ale | 40 | 4.9 | |
| Sebastian B | APA/Session IPA | 65? | 4.6 | |
| Derek | Crimson Missile | American Red Ale | 60 | 5.90% |
| Peter P | American amber ale | 70 | 6 | |
| Stephan / Rob at Clandestine | Red Ryeder | American Amber Ale | 6.8 | |
| Robert R. | Bière d’Noël | Bière de garde | 24 | 7.80% |
| Robert R. | Robert’s Old & Bitter | Imperial Stout | 80 | 8.80% |
– Remember, membership dues need to be made every calendar year. If you haven’t paid yet, then you can make a payment of $25 to Derek via paypal at derek@sudzers.org
– If you haven’t already, please join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/mBQ7smguu7. All official communication (meeting information, event information, etc.) will continue to go through the mailing list, but Discord provides us a convenient way to have smaller, quicker conversations, so we encourage you to join.
– All shared recipes can be found at https://sites.google.com/a/cloudyforecast.com/brewme/home. If you’d like to have your recipe shared on the site, then please email it in any format to recipe-share@sudzers.org. Full info can be found at http://www.sudzers.org/?page_id=2910
– For a list of all upcoming competitions, check out the Worts of Wisdoms’ calendar: http://www.wortsofwisdom.org/calendar/upcoming-homebrewers-competitions/