Here is what you missed at the April GBA meeting.

Matt Boyer gave us a competition update.  The Bridging the Gap competition put on by GBA and Elk Grove Brewers Guild was just the previous weekend, and ran very well.  Also, the California State Fair is the next big regional competition, so make sure to enter some beers to represent GBA.

We had an exciting presentation this time.  Mike McDole (aka Tasty) from the Brewing Network gave a presentation on session beers.  He covered balance, drinkability, and recipe formulation, along with providing his session pale ale recipe.  Samples of Tasty’s beer were provided to the club

After Tasty’s talk, Jamil Zainasheff talked about Heretic’s low ABV beer, Gramarye, and gave samples.  He also discussed the marketing and sales aspect of session beer.

Finally, Will Shelton from Mavericks provided two session beers and answered questions.  He had with him a Belgian wit and a rye pale ale, both at only 3.75% ABV, which were great to finish our session beer meeting with.

Ian Elliott, Secretary

As many of you know, on Saturday, April 13th, 2013, the Greenbelt Brewers Association, along with Elk Grove Brewers Guild, put on a Pro Am homebrew competition hosted by Berryessa Brewing Company in Winters.  The competition went excellently:  we had 170 entries, all of which were judged by an excellent group of judges (most of whom were BJCP certified!), and had all our scores entered, packets with scoresheets ready to go, and ribbons handed out to those onsite, all by 6pm!  So, now, you know why you are really here:  you’re looking for results!  Here are the results from the comp:  http://www.greenbeltbrewers.org/competition/.  If you have beers entered, and were not onsite yesterday, we expect to get those scoresheets in the mail to you early this week.

Our Best of Show winner, Dwight Mulcahy, will be brewing his winning beer with Chris Miller at Berryessa Brewing and that beer will go on to GABF, as a Pro Am beer!  Again, we congratulate all our winners, and thank you all again for submitting your beers and making this a great comp.

While this comp went extremely smoothly, we couldn’t of managed such a great competition without the following people.  First off, we want to thank Chris and his crew at Berryessa Brewing Company.  They went out of their way to allow us the space, the time, and the beer storage to make logistics much easier to run this comp, and also rewarded the judges and staff with a pint of their great beer on the house!  If you haven’t had a chance to run out there and sample their beers, make sure you do so!

We also want to give thanks to our two food vendors.  In the morning, we supplied our judges and staff with bagels, cream cheese and coffee from a great local place, Sacramento Bagels.  The staff there are great, the bagels are great, and if you haven’t tried them, make sure you do!!  For lunch, we supplied our judges and staff with sandwiches made by Preserve, a great public house in downtown Winters that makes absolutely great food!!  When you run out to Berryessa, make sure that you stop by and grab a bite to eat at Preserve:  you won’t be disappointed!

Now, if you missed it this year, don’t worry…..there’s always next year!

Here is what you missed if you couldn’t make it to the GBA March meeting.

We had a quick recap from Darrel about some of the Sacramento Beer Week events, including Capitol beer fest and the Capitol Beer and Taproom GBA takeover.

There are a couple of events coming up that all club members should be ready for.  Bridging the Gap, GBA’s first competition in collaboration with Elk Grove Brewers Guild will take place on April 13^th, so enter some beers and volunteer to judge or steward if you can.  A couple weeks later we are going on a club camping trip on April 26^th.

Ricky gave a presentation on DIY electronics.  He gave us some electronics basics, and then focused on applications such as fermentation temperature control, mash systems, and peltier cooling.   The presentation will be available on the members only site.

Steve from the Northern California Brewers Guild was in attendance and gave an update on some of the changes made to the state fair competitions this year.  David Teckam will now be coordinating the homebrew competition, and we all know he will do a great job with this.  Steve also asked for volunteers for the Raley Field beer fest, so keep that in mind as we get closer to these events.  Rick from Mendocino Brewing was also present, and together with Steve they provided beer and cheese pairings for the club, which was a great way to end the meeting.

Also, here’s a picture from the Anchor homebrew club of the year party for anyone who missed it.

Ian Elliott, Secretary

Here is what you missed if you couldn’t make it to the GBA February meeting.

Most of the club just got back from the Anchor California homebrew club of the year party.  The whole weekend was great and winning this award is a big honor for GBA.  Even though we have been busy, we still have Sacramento Beer Week coming up and have several events planned.  This Saturday, February 23^rd is the annual bike pub crawl.  This year we teamed up with the shack for this event, so it should be a lot of fun, so come join everyone for a great day of biking and beer.  On Sunday the 24^th GBA will have a team brewing at Capitol Beer and Tap Room to compete with other local clubs for a chance to have their beer brewed at the 21^st Amendment.  The teams are limited, but anyone can come to hang out and enjoy beer specials.  Thursday, February 28^th there will be a GBA takeover night also at Capitol Beer and Tap Room where they will have numerous Firestone Walker beers on tap.   Finally, Saturday March 2^nd is Capitol Beer Fest.  The GBA will be pouring 10 different beers at this event alongside all the craft brewers, so make sure to check it out.

There are some competitions coming up that we hope GBA members will enter and help out with.  First is Celebrewtion with an entry deadline of March 9^th.  This is put on by the Gold Country Brewers Association in Sacramento and is an event where you can get some great objective feedback on your beer.  Next, the GBA along with the Elk Grove Brewers Guild is putting on a competition on April 13^th.  This will be a Pro-Am competition with Berryessa Brewing where the winning beer will be sent to GABF.  Entry details will be released shortly, but get brewing ahead of time.

One other event we have coming up is a club camping trip on April 26^th.  This should be a great event for club members to get to know each other outside of the meeting setting.

This month we had a presentation by Mike Bannasch on hop growing.  He covered history, profitability, planting, growing process, terminology, and watering.  Most of this information was from Mike’s first-hand experience, so it was very interesting and thorough.  The presentation will be available on the members only site.

Ian Elliott, Secretary

If you couldn’t make the meeting this month, here is what you missed.

Big news if you haven’t heard, the GBA won the California homebrew club of the year award!  This was actually split between Greenbelt and the Worts of Wisdom, so in February we will have a joint party at Anchor Brewing for both clubs. We will try to coordinate transportation and get a group rate for a hotel so people can stay afterward.

Score sheets from the recent State Competition were given back to the brewers.  We had a lot of great beers entered, and congratulations to those who placed.

Next month we will have our annual holiday party instead of a meeting.  The holiday party will be at Sudwerk on December 15^th.  More details will follow in email.  Remember this means there is no regular meeting on December 18^th.

We had a great presentation from Steve and Mark from Doze/I Do Brew Crew on brewing lagers.  These guys are known for making really good lagers, so they were an excellent source of information.  They covered multiple techniques and styles, and also brought several lagers for everyone to taste.

See you all at the holiday party.

Ian Elliott, Secretary

If you couldn’t make the meeting this month, here is what you missed.

First we had a lot of announcements.  Since this was the first meeting since NCHF, we recapped the festival.  We had a huge group there and everyone had a blast.  The GBA has some hop plots that will be maintained by members, so anyone interested in helping out and learning about hop growing should get in touch with the board.  We are getting the brewing mentor program going again, but right now we have more mentors than mentees.  Anyone who is just starting out brewing, or looking to advance from extract to all grain should consider signing up as a mentee as this is an easy way to learn.  A new GBA merchandise online store will soon be live.  This store will serve as a way to pre-order and pay for merchandise or memberships, but there will not be an inventory maintained at this point.  The club will soon have its own bank account, and orders can be made using a credit card.

Several events are coming up.  The GBA holiday party will be held at Sudwerk in the brewery on December 15^th at 6 pm.  We may even have a Santa present, in the form of our vice president, Brian Conlin if he gets in the spirit of things.  There will be a Davis pub crawl on November 17^th.  We still need to get in touch with some businesses to sort out the details, but it will most likely be centralized to downtown Davis.

This year the GBA entered 32 beers in the California State Competition, so we should have a really good presence there.  We had a representative of the competition in attendance and he asked that GBA members help out as judges or stewards.  This is a great way to get some exposure to beer judging, and also for anyone there it will be really easy to pick up your awards and score sheets, as well as being the first ones to hear the homebrew club of the year announcement.

Next we had an old ale mini competition to see whose beer would represent the GBA at the AHA club only competition.  There were three entries, and the winning beer came from Dan Murphy.

Dave Bosworth, the club’s treasurer, presented on wort chilling techniques.  He covered motivation, basic and advanced methods.   This presentation will be available on the members only site.

Ian Elliott, Secretary

Here is what we covered at this month’s meeting if you couldn’t make it.

At the start of the meeting everyone going to NCHF picked up their shirts.  If you ordered a shirt and couldn’t make the meeting, don’t worry, you can pick it up at NCHF this weekend.

One quick announcement was made for the state competition coming up.  It has an entry deadline of October 13^th for entry, and everyone in the club is encouraged to enter something.

Club member John Hughes gave a yeast presentation.  This talk was more technical that usual, focusing on microbiology and chemistry in some detail.  He covered how yeast consumes different sugars, use nitrogen and oxygen, and produce fusel alcohols, esters, and phenols.  He also explained how pitching rate and fermentation temperature will affect the fermentation products.  It was a really informative talk, and the presentation can be found on the members only site.

After the presentation there was a light hybrid mini competition for the AHA club only competition.  Two kölsch beers were entered, and the competition was very close, separated by only a single vote.  In the end Jonathon Fuller’s kölsch won, so congratulations and we hope it does well at the club only competition.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 16^th at 7 pm in the Master Brewers classroom at Sudwerk.

Here is what we covered at this month’s meeting if you couldn’t make it.

We started off by recapping the GBA BBQ we had on August 11^th.  A lot of people showed up for good food and lots of beer, so overall it was a great success.

Next month we are going to have a club mini competition for light hybrids for the AHA club only competition, so anyone who has any kolsch, cream ale, blonde ale, or American wheat should bring a growler or six-pack of their beer so we can send the best example to the competition

Travis announced the winners from GBA at the state fair competition.  We had a lot of people do really well at the state fair, so congrats to everyone for making great beer and representing the club.

Andy Gray and John Sanatar presented on Kolsch.  They presented on the history, characteristics, ingredients, and fermentation for the style.  We also got to try a commercial example of Kolsch.  This presentation will be available on the members only site.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 18^th at 7 pm in the Master Brewers classroom at Sudwerk.

Here is what we covered at this month’s meeting if you couldn’t make it.

We had some new board members to announce.  The board has a new position of merchandise coordinator, filled by Don Davis, so hopefully we will be getting more of a variety of GBA related merch.  Brian Conlin was introduced, who is taking over the vice president position from Mike Matiasek.

There is a club BBQ planned for August 11^th in Putah Creek Park in Davis.  This will be a family friendly event and should be a lot of fun.  There is a signup sheet online so make sure to RSVP there.

There will be a club brew day at Sudwerk on July 28^th.  A beer will be brewed on the Sudwerk pilot system, and other members may bring their personal set up and brew a beer along side.  The beer brewed on the Sudwerk system will then be sold in the dock store, so people will be buying a beer we helped make.

The GBA did very well recently at the state fair homebrew competition.  We had several people place, and all the winners were congratulated.  The next big competition is the state competition in November, so keep that in mind when planning your beers.

Our competition coordinator, Matt Boyer, gave a presentation on porters.  He covered details about the history of the style, the different types of porters, and recipe formulation, along with commercial tastings for each type.  This presentation will be available on the members only site.

After the presentation there was a mini competition for porters to determine which was sent to the AHA club only competition.  There were four entries, with the winner being Ricky’s robust porter.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 21^st at 7 pm in the Master Brewers classroom at Sudwerk.

This month’s meeting had a tasting of single hop beers.  Six single hop beers were brewed by our club members, with everyone following the same recipe and the only difference between them being the hops.  This round of single hop beers focused on newer varieties or blends of hops, such as Zythos, Falconers Flight, Apollo, Bravo, Calypso, and Nelson Sauvin. The beers were tasted blind, but the hop used was revealed shortly after everyone had tried it.  Members were given evaluation sheets to write the characteristics they perceived of each hop and their overall impression.

NCHF tickets go on sale July 1^st.  It has been selling out earlier and earlier each year, so if you plan on going, get your tickets as soon as possible.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 17^th at 7 pm in the Master Brewers classroom at Sudwerk.  We will have a mini competition of porters and send the winning beer to the AHA club only competition.