We will be brewing a delicious breakfast beer this afternoon – “Granola Stout” – an oatmeal honey milk stout with cinnamon and toasted coconut. We will also have experienced brewers available to answer your questions and allow you to experience different ingredients of beer with several malts and hops available for your tasting and sniffing pleasure. Our demonstration is just one part of the festivities, with a homebrew competition, 70+ craft beers on tap, delicious food, and live music. For more information on KraftBrew Fest, visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/KraftBrew-Fest/188260571219991. The Sudzers will be brewing at the west end of the festival, near Post and San Pedro.
Please come by and say hello. Here is the recipe we’re brewing:
Hello Sudzers! Despite the fact that there are many delightful SV Beer
Week events on tap for Friday, August 2 we will hold our regular
meeting that night at 7 pm at Nick’s house. Need the address or
directions? Email moresimcoe@sudzers.org
7:00 Social Time
7:15 Club Business
Presentation of San Mateo County Fair ribbons
Upcoming events:
KraftBrew Fest demo August 3
August 15 Thirsty Third Thursday destination
August 17 SF Pub Crawl
Northern California Homebrewers Festival
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.
See you Friday! Next upcoming club meeting – Friday, September 6
Sudzers are doing a brewing demonstration and providing refreshments again for the MoreBeer Los Altos summer sale on July 13. (Since the event occurred before the notes were finished, you can see an event recap with photos at http://www.sudzers.org/?p=846.)
This week’s Thirsty Third Thursday meetup will be held at Harry’s Hofbrau San Jose and will feature several Goose Island brews, July 18, 6:30 pm onward.
Northern California Homebrewers Festival registration opened Sunday, July 14. (The festival sold out in 95 minutes, a new record by far. At last count, over 20 Sudzers registered for the event, so we should be well represented!) The club is still looking for someone to take the lead on organizing booth decorations, food, and, most importantly, beer! We also need to identify an area to camp together in the upper campground for those not staying in cabins.
Silicon Valley Beer Week July 28-August 3 has over 100 events scheduled. The closing event for the week will be the KraftBrew Fest in San Jose from 1-7 pm on August 3. As part of this event, Sudzers will be doing a brewing demonstration on the grounds of the fest. Derek will bring his gear and brew a granola stout for NCHF – a honey oatmeal milk stout with cinnamon and toasted coconut. If you are interested in assisting with the club booth and attending the fest, please email Derek.
Chris Ringer will bring ribbons from the San Mateo County Fair to the next meeting for distribution. He entered several BBQ beers on behalf of the club, and his Angry Leprechaun Irish Red took first place in its category (along with his non-BBQ beers: Belgian Blond which also took a first, and his barrel aged barleywine which got an honorable mention). In addition, Santiago’s Abbey Wit’ Smoke Witbier took second place in its category, and Derek’s McSwinerson’s Scotch Ale took a 2nd as well.
Jim W. presented a dry hopping experiment conducting by adding a couple grams of six different hops to bottles of Corona Light for five days in order to explore the characteristics that each hop contributes in dry hopping: Northern Brewer, Columbus, Centennial, Simcoe, Citra, and Cascade. Of particular note was the intensity of flavor and aroma that Columbus contributed when added in the same quantities as the other hops. Thanks to Jim for all of his preparations in sharing this useful tasting experiment with the club!
A Sudzers San Francisco public transit pub crawl, led by Vern, has been scheduled for August 17. More details will be forthcoming. Two years ago, we did a similar event, travelling from Toronado to Magnolia to Rogue & La Trappe to the Public House to 21st Amendment to Mad Dog in the Fog, and a good time was had by all.
After homebrew tasting was completed, Nick shared some eggs that he pickled in the famous Flanders Red Ale of “To the barrel” fame. Delicious – it works quite well as a pickling solution.
Homebrews sampled at the meeting included:
Anna and Fuad’s Honing Witbier with honey
Linda R’s Bitter Brit ESB
Nathan’s single hop Saaz Pale Ale
Nathan’s single hop Glacier Pale Ale
Justin’s Dubbel Step Belgian Dubbel
Joe’s J&J #3 Cider with strawberry
Joe’s J&J #5 Cider with blackberry
Rich’s Janet’s Brown Ale clone
Derek’s Rubicund Projectile Red Rye Ale
Tyler’s Tasting Challenge Porter (nobody guessed the secret ingredient – butternut squash!)
Paul S’s American IPA
Linda R’s Blind Curve American IPA
Justin tries the Flanders Red from the barrel for the first time
Congrats to the Sudzers for several ribbons in the Amador County Fair this weekend, including several of the beers brewed for the Sudzers BBQ Beer Competition.
Award
Brewer
Beer
Style
1st
Marcus Catano
Lunch Meat
7A – Northern German Altbier
3rd
Santiago Basso
Abbey Wit’ Smoke
16A – Witbier
2nd
Derek Wolfgram
McSwinerson’s
9E – Strong Scotch Ale
3rd
Chris Ringer
Angry Leprechaun
9D – Irish Red Ale
2nd
Jamie Beard and Adam Powell
Hadrian’s Ale
11C – Northern English Brown Ale
Nicely done, Marcus, Santiago, Derek, Chiris, and Jamie and Adam! Cheers!
For the second year in a row, the Sudzers provided a brewing demonstration, tasty grub, and homebrew on tap for the customers of the annual MoreBeer summer sale on July 14.
Nathan and Nicole brewed their seriously hoppy Summer IPA on the “death star” system, and Steve and Derek H. brought their equipment and brewed a west coast Belgian pale ale. Chris Q. manned the grill and served tasty sausages, grilled veggies, and other treats all afternoon. Robin contributed additional yummy snacks including the S’mores Golden Graham Rice Krispies treats. The famous Sudzers “computer server” system made an appearance to deliver Derek W’s Rubicund Projectile Red Rye Ale and Belma Ryewine, and Nick brought some reinforcement brews in the afternoon after those two tapped out. Several other club members stopped by to help out, lend encouragement, or talk with customers about the club and homebrewing in general.
Especially from about 10:30 to 12:30, the store was completely mobbed – looked more like mosh pit than a homebrew supply store. Fortunately, everyone was in great spirits and had a good time while they waited.
Mashing in on the “death star”
Grillmaster
Stirring the mash
Talking about homebrewing with customers
Never Obsolete!
Talking about homebrewing with customers
Derek H. and Steve demonstrate a more typical homebrew system
In addition to our club meeting Friday night, we also have a club brew
day planned Saturday at the MoreBeer store in Los Altos. Co-President
Nathan will be brewing up something special on the “death star”
system, and we need a few club members to help out with other aspects
of the day.
1. Food. The MoreBeer Summer Sale is one of the busiest days of the
year for the store, and we like to help the crew out by having food
and beer to make it fun for customers and maybe make waiting in line
less of an ordeal. Ideally, it would be great if someone could bring a
small grill and cook up some sausages, dogs, burgers, etc.
2. Beer. We will have the club jockey box set up, and it’s a great
opportunity to show off the creative and tasty brews Sudzers make. If
you have a keg or two to contribute, that would be great.
3. Brewing. Nathan will probably want a lieutenant brewer to help with
the death star. In addition, it’s always cool if someone brings their
own system to brew there and show off how it can be done without
having to drop $5 grand on a brew sculpture.
If you are available and willing to help with any of the above, please
email moresimcoe@sudzers.org.
Thanks much. Cheers. See you Friday and/or Saturday.
Hello Sudzers! Just a quick reminder that our next meeting is this Friday, July 12 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 events:
MoreBeer summer sale brew day July 13 – Nathan
Thirsty Third Thursday July 18 – location TBD
SV Beer Week brewing demo at KraftBrew Fest August 3 – Derek
NCHF September 20-21 (registration opens July 14) – need a club coordinator
7:30 presentation by Jim Williams of his results from conducting the “Bud Light dry hopping experiment” described on the Bertus Brewery blog.
Homebrew evaluations will follow the presentation. 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.
See you Friday! Next upcoming club meeting – Friday, August 2
For our June Thirsty Third Thursday meet up, we will be joined by special guest Santa Clara Valley Brewing Company brew master extraordinaire Steve Donohue.
We will meet at O’Flaherty’s pub at 25 N San Pedro St in San Jose starting around 6:30 pm. There is a parking garage across the street – bring your ticket with you and the bar will validate parking.
If you haven’t been to O’Flaherty’s recently, you might be surprised that they feature 38 taps now. Next week, one of those taps will be SCVBC’s Electric Tower IPA, full of resiny & tropical hop goodness. Their current tap list is posted at http://oflahertyspub.com/drinks.html.
Sudzers Chief Communications Officer Derek Wolfgram has begun writing a monthly beer column called “Cheers!” for the Los Altos Town Crier. June’s column is “Beer meets grill: Summer pairings offer flavorful versatility.” The column includes three pairing recommendations: Knee Deep Citra Extra Pale Ale with Teriyaki Chicken & Pineapple Kabobs, Russian River Consecration with T-Bone Steak, and Trumer Pils with grilled hot dogs. Enjoy!
