The longest day of the year was a great backdrop to our June meeting and Pale Belgian Beer mini club competition. In total, we had 28 beers by 12 club members. We had a nice spread of beef stew, pasta, bread and watermelon to help keep us sampling all the beers.
For the competition, we had 11 entries ranging from Saisons all the way up to Belgian Golden Strongs. There were thirteen people judging in a ranked-choice style voting, where each judge voted on their top three beers. First choice was worth 5 points, second choice worth 3 points and third choice was worth one point.
The winners for the competition were:
First Place: Mike with his clone of Orval. He picked apart several clone recipes and compiled a grain bill based on that, then fermented and aged the resulting beer on Orval dregs. This resulted in a very recognizable beer if you’ve ever had Orval.
Second Place: Ben with his Chinook Saison. This beer started out as an IPA kit that he brewed as part of a workplace team building exercise. Instead of pitching the IPA yeast, he subbed in Lallemand Farmhouse Saison.
Third Place: Brandon with his Rye Saison. This beer was brewed with 20% of the grain bill being flaked rye and resulted in a unique and spicy flavor profile.
Thanks to everyone who submitted beers to the competition and congratulations to the top three.
The next mini club competition will be a repeat of our Festbier / Marzen competition from last year which was a huge success. We still need to decide if we’ll do it for the September or October meeting, but start thinking about a recipe to brew!
Meeting Location Issues – What I thought was going to be a one-time meeting location issue is turning into a larger problem. Santa Fe Brewing Co is going to start hosting a karaoke night every other Wednesday and, understandably, wants to use the party room to serve patrons. This is going to interfere with us being able to use the space. If anyone has other suggestions / connections for a meeting location, please let Brandon know so we can investigate it as an option (a few of us mentioned not minding hosting at our homes during the summer).
That being said, Lorrey said he will host the July meeting at his house. Stay tuned for the address. The date will be Wednesday July 19th.
Custom Club AHA Renewal
I signed us up for the AHA referral program which gives our club a $5 kickback whenever someone joins or renews their membership through our custom link and enters SDCCB as the code. If you’ve let your membership lapse or haven’t signed up before, I’d encourage you to do so. You can find our custom URL here: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/support-the-aha/?promo=Sangre-de-Cristo-Craft-Brewers (note: you will still need to enter SDCCB as the code when you’re at that point in the sign up process).
The full list of beers brought to the meeting were:
- Aaron – Saison Dupont
- Ben: Hoppy American Pils, Chinook Saison, Blaugies Saison, Timbo Pils (clone), Kinda Classic Saison by Suarez Family Brewing
- Brandon O: Farmhouse Saison, Rye Saison
- Corey T: Southbound Pachyderm (Belgian Golden Strong)
- David G: Kross Stout by Kross Cervezeria Independiente, Cerveza Obscura Allende by Cervezeria Allende, Allende 100 by Cerveceria Allende
- Eric H: Belgian Blonde Ale, English Mild
- George: Saison
- Lorrey: Belgian Single, Brewer’s Pride Barrel Aged Doppelbock by Shiner
- Michael: Biere de Garde
- Mike: Solera sour, NZ Hazy IPA, Orval clone
- Ted: Baca por Vida Mexican Lager, Big Brew Barleywine, Full Blooded Florida by Rowley Farmhouse Ales
- Tom: Saison, 1000 Gilles by Two Brothers, Head Under IPA by Fat Heads, Double IPA by Brewery Nyx
(Note: commercial beers are italicized)
Sangre de Cristo Craft Brewers 