Altho it’s been a while since updating the website.
We have been meeting via ZOOM (during COVID-19 lockdown), and in person at Clandestine Brewing and the Oak Meadow picnic area of Vasona Lake County Park.

We will update this site from now on, starting with the following minutes from the June 18, 2022 club meeting at Vasona Lake County Park.

• We talked about NCHF (the Northern California Homebrewer’s Festival).
  The festival is scheduled for the third weekend in September (September 16-17, 2022).
  The theme is Homebrewers Circus and the club competition beers are the following.
  – Cream Ale and
  – any beer made with Lallemand Belle Saison yeast.

  Altho HQ members expressed interest- there was concern we may not have a large enough contingent going.
  Roger assured attendees that with a jockey box and EZ-up, even a couple HQ members could go and enjoy themselves.
  That’s the way clubs participated 15 years ago.
  People seemed to be more at ease.
  We will be working on pulling together a group, over the next 3 months.

• The next Draught Board brewery crawl is scheduled for July 9.
  The plan is to check out the following breweries in the Oakland/Emmeryville area.
  – Wondrous Brewing Company
  – Novel Brewing Company
  – Hoi Polloi Brewing Taproom and Beat Lounge
  – Tannery Bend Beerworks and
  – Temescal Brewing
  Roger will send a reminder email with all the details in a couple weeks.
• Organizers are working out details for the annual multi-club picnic.
  Currently, the tentative date is set for Sunday, August 21st, 2022.
  This has traditionally been the east bay clubs, Bay Area Mashers, Draught Board, Mad Zymurgists and DOZE.
  But everyone is welcome.
• Everyone expressed their desire to brew- especially as folks have acquired new & better brewing equipment over the COVID-19 period.
  But most of us reported a glut of homebrew, preventing us from brewing.
  There aren’t as many homebrew events, as pre-COVID, so harder to reduce our homebrew inventory.
  Suggestions ranged from bottling up the excess, to give to friends & family, as gifts (freeing up kegs).
  To the standard ‘just dump it’.
• The above conversation gave way to future club challenges.
  Roger shared the following few competition ideas, from other clubs.
  – Worts of Wisdom are considering a ‘pseudo lager’ challenge.
  This would include Kviek (Lutra) fermentations along with
  hybrid styles like Kolsch, California Common and Cold IPA.
  – Bay Area Mashers are organizing a ‘grape’ fermented beer challenge.
  This could include grape juice or even the ‘must’.
  – The San Francisco Brewer’s Guild has laid out an ‘adjunct’ challenge.
  – And the Draught Board, in recognition of the NCHF club beer challenge,
  has initiated an any beer made with Lallemand Belle Saison yeast challenge.

  He went on suggesting an easy way, for the HeadQuarters to get competitions going, was to just participate in the Draught Board challenge.
  Attendees expressed interest in participating.
  The Draught Board beers will be judged at the August 13 meeting, probably at Lou & Cathy’s Castro Valley home.
  For brewers, who can’t make the Draught Board meeting, they can a couple bottles, of their beer, to Roger who will transport and present the bottles for judging on the brewer’s behalf.
  Just to be clear.
  The Draught Board club judgings are not as rigorous or structured as HeadQuarters judging sessions.
  It’s more of a show of hands and subjective, sort of a ‘beauty’ contest.
  But brewers would get some feedback.

• Another opportunity, to get objective feedback, is to enter the Santa Clara County Fair homebrew competition.
  This is a BJCP recognized competition that is both local and well run.
  – Entry Fee: $8.00
  – Entry Deadline: 07/01/2022
  – Final Judging: 07/23/2022
  Entries can be dropped of at Beer & Wine Makers or the Santa Clara Fairgrounds.
  Contact Eric for questions, as he’s one of the organizers.
  BTW: Volunteer to help, if you’d like to get an inside view of the way homebrew judging occurs.
• We’ve decided the club has lost too many active brewers over the past few years.
  So it’s time to actively recruit new members.
  – Roger will start updating the club website and FACEBOOK page.
  – Jeremy will investigate using MEETUP (the original recruiting mechanism HQ used).
• Members brought beers, we’ve brought before.
  Some have held up well, others not so much.
  But all were interesting- especially when we started blending them.