July 2022 Meeting Minutes

July 20, 2022

I reminded attendees to volunteer to steward or judge at the Santa Clara County Fair homebrew competition next Saturday, July 23.
It’s a great way to learn about BJCP judging as this is a well run, smaller competition, which is close to home.

The annual (east bay) Multi club picnic, will be at Oak Hill Park, 3005 Stone Valley Road in Danville.
Club DOZE has purchased a permit for us to use the park from 10am – 2pm Sunday, August 21.
Mostly east bay clubs are represented- but all are welcome.
– DOZE,
– Bay Area Mashers,
– Mad Zymurgists and
– Draught Board.

NCHF will be the 3rd weekend in September (September 17).
The theme, for 2022, is Homebrew Circus!
The two club competition beer styles are the following.
– Cream Ale
– And a beer brewed with LalBrew Belle Saison™ yeast.

Jeremy has agreed to be the HQ club rep to NCHF. Thank you Jeremy!

Pre-sale tickets went on sale Saturday, July 16.
– Jeremy reports getting a ticket and plans on camping.
– Eric is planning on attending too.

My understanding is another batch of tickets will go on sale this coming Saturday, July 23.

Let us know when you get your ticket so we can organize a club booth.

I reported the Beer City Fest will be October 15 at Alameda Point Park.
The Bay Area Mashers will likely set up a booth and pour their homebrew.
– $70 for VIP
– $50 for General Admission
They also organize one in Santa Rosa (where the local club runs a homebrew competition too).

In order to bolster club membership, we accomplished the following.
– Jeremy created a MEETUP.
– Rich gave me access to the HQ website administrator’s account.
So I’ve been updating the site.
– And Sri has given me administrator privileges for the HQ FACEBOOK page.
Which I also updated with July meeting details.
The FACEBOOK page is currently ‘private’.
We decided it should really be made ‘public’.

Send me brewing photos to include on the website, FACEBOOK….

Everyone is still psyched for club homebrew challenges, suggesting challenges motivate some of us to brew.
But there really haven’t been many new homebrews showing up at club meetings lately.
So we decided to go back to specifying a beer style for monthly meetings.
– We can discuss the expectations, for the beer style.
– People can brew, for the style, or pick up a commercial example to share at the meeting.
– Of course any homebrew is welcome at HeadQuarters club meetings.

We’ve laid out the following beer styles calendar.
– September, NCHF
– October, Märzen & Festbier
– November, Holiday Beers
– December, we don’t typically have a meeting in December
– January, traditionally the club holiday party so ‘winter warmers‘.

We sampled the following beers.

Roger’s 5.2%, London Brown Ale brewed May 2019.
It was actually the 2nd runnings from an Imperial Stout I had just brewed.
This one was fermented with Kveik Voss.
Altho exhibiting a little ‘fruit’, we decided it had held up pretty well.
There weren’t many telltale signs of oxidation.
The next beer, we sampled, was the same 2019 London Brown Ale fermented with GIGAYEAST GY054 : Vermont IPA yeast.
I really liked this yeast, brewing a few beers with it.
Sadly GIGAYEAST permanently closed July 16, 2021.
This beer held up remarkably well.
Most attendees reported preferring this version to the Kveik Voss version.
But I was happy with both.
I brought a simple, 6.2%, London Porter, brewed April 8, 2019.
Like the 2 above, this one also held up OK.
Altho it exhibited a little grape (fruity) wine like aroma & flavor, from oxidation.
But it was perfectly drinkable.
I brought my 5.5% Thai Ginger IPA.
This was the result of the Oakland Woods Brewing 2020 SF Beer Week “Homebrewer’s Appreciation” event.
I fermented the 5 gallons, of Woods Brewing wort, with GIGAYEAST GY054 : Vermont IPA yeast adding Thai Ginger CASCADE Beer Candi Syrup.
Then dry hopped with the 2 ounces of Strata hops the brewer gave me.
This made a hazy IPA with OG 1.050 exhibiting considerable ginger and floral/spicy hop aroma & flavor.
It was arguably one of the better beers, on my draft system, thru 2020.
Sadly the beer darkened in color and lost most of the hop aroma & flavor, in the keg.
But the bottled version remained much as I remembered it!
Attendees really liked this beer.
Jeremy brought his aged Guava Lava, a kettle sour with guava.
This was always a crowd pleaser.
He explained it was brewed for NCHF 2019.
He put the remains in a half-gallon growler adding a little sugar, expecting to serve it sometime in the near future.
Unfortunately it sat in the garage for the past two years.
The ‘fresh’ guava aroma and flavor has subsided some, but a slight ‘funky’ aroma developed.
The same soft, tartness was preserved so it was well balanced and quite drinkable.
Altho not the same beer when fresh- it was still quite drinkable & pleasant.
I brought my latest brew, a 6.7% saison, primarily brewed for the Draught Board’s club challenge (brew with Lallemand Bell Saison yeast).
It is mostly Pilsner malt with a pound of wheat malt and a pound of cane sugar, it ended with final gravity of 1.006.
It fermented at 75F for a week.
So made for a dry, clovey & black pepper dominated thirst quencher.
Eric brought his recently brewed 11% Belgian style triple.
I really enjoyed the big, fruity, spicy nose.
The flavor seemed a little muted, sort of like it may have gotten some oxidation.
It was a little dark, in color, relative to commercial Belgian triples I typically see.
It needed more carbonation- the result of pouring into the growler from the draft system.
That said- perfectly drinkable (if you’re staying ‘in’ with an 11% beer).
Eric brought his recently brewed 11% triple IPA.
Altho hopped with Citra, Centennial and Amarillo hops, I found it to be a bit ‘dank’.
Everyone else really enjoyed the hop aroma & flavor.
Again this one could’ve used a bit more carbonation.
Eric busted out a couple other commercial beers, I neglected to jot down.