Archive for the 'Beer Education' Category

Sunday Beer School: Beer Basics Recap

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

This is going to be a relatively short post. I just wanted to thank everyone who came on through for the Sunday Beer School - Beer Basics class. There are a lot of options on how you could spend your Sunday afternoon, especially with the gorgeous weather we had yesterday, and I appreciate you took the time to spend it with us at Wine Affairs. I wish I had photos to post but I completely forgot to take some until after the session was over! Next time!

If you happened to remember my blog URL and are reading this, I would appreciate any feedback you can give me. I am open to constructive criticism and will to my best to learn from, and improve upon, based from the feedback I get. You can email me at betterbeerblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

Click here to view all the upcoming Sunday Beer School Classes. Next week we’ll be going over American Craft Beer! I look forward to seeing many of you again.

Sunday School: Beer Classes at Wine Affairs

Monday, July 19th, 2010

One of the stereotypes of growing up Catholic is having to go to Sunday school. For better or worse, I never went to Sunday school; the classes I went to were on Saturday. By comparison, Sunday might’ve been better as I wouldn’t have had to miss my Saturday morning cartoons (remember those?).

Wine Affairs in San Jose has tapped yours truly to host a series of 6 Sunday beer classes. The classes are geared for craft beer newbies and we will be learning about, and drinking, beers from several countries culminating in a high-level beer and food pairing session. Here are the details:

Beer Classes at Wine Affairs

Classes start on 8/1 and run through 9/5. Make your reservations by calling 408-977-0111. I hope to see some of you at these classes.

August 1, 2010: Beer Basics, $10pp
Overview of the brewing process, ingredients, beer styles, serving and how to taste. Tasting of 4 beers.

August 8, 2010: American Ales 101, $20pp
Overview of American Ales. Tasting of 6 beers.

  • American Wheat Ale
  • California Steam
  • American Stout
  • American Pale Ale
  • American IPA
  • American Barleywine

August 15, 2010: Essential German 101, $15pp
Overview of German Ales. Tasting of 5 beers.

  • Weizen/Weissbier
  • Dunkelweizen
  • German-style Pilsner
  • Marzen/Oktoberfest
  • Bock

August 22, 2010: Essential English Ales 101, $20pp
Overview of English Ales. Tasting of 6 beers.

  • English Brown Ale
  • Brown Porter
  • Sweet Stout
  • English Pale Ale
  • English IPA
  • Old Ale

August 29, 2010: Essential Belgian 101, $20pp
Overview of Belgian and French Ales. Tasting of 6 beers.

  • Witbier
  • Saison
  • Belgian Dubbel
  • Belgian Tripel
  • Belgian Golden Strong
  • Belgian Dark Strong Ale

September 5, 2010: Beer & Food, $25pp
High-level overview of beer & food pairing. Tasting of 4 beers with paired dishes.

Port Brewing Tasting at Wine Affairs Recap

Saturday, June 26th, 2010

The flight of beers sampled.
It’s great to see some of San Diego’s finest is starting to make its way up to the San Jose area. Last month Wine Affairs, via distributor Wine Warehouse, hosted a small tasting event featuring the beers from The Lost Abbey. This month, they decided to host a tasting of a few beers from Port Brewing. This is not surprising in some ways. Firstly, Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey are pretty much the same brewing company. Think of it as two sides of the same coin. Secondly, Wine Warehouse is the sole distributor for Port Brewing/Lost Abbey and it only make sense one tasting should follow another.

Port Brewing got its start as a spin-off of the highly acclaimed Pizza Port brewpubs. They were the production facility that churned out the bottled versions of the popular beers found in the various Pizza Port locations. A little bit of trivia: Port Brewing’s current location is the old Stone Brewing location.

Midnight Session, 5.0% ABV

Midnight Session pours out a very dark brown beer with a brown head. Beer has a slightly sweet malt aroma with a robust, deeply roasted malt character and low hop aroma. Flavor is roasty with bittersweet, dark chocolate flavors and a touch of black coffee. Hop bitterness is low, hop flavor is low. This is a medium-low bodied beer with an almost creamy carbonation and a slightly dry finish.

Midnight Session Black Lager

Midnight Session is a dark lager; traditional versions are known as schwarzbier. I thought this was a good example of the style, very tasty without the heaviness that can be associated with stouts. After all, this is a lager.

Hot Rocks, 6.5% ABV

A little hazy, dark brown color with amber highlights and a thin, tan head. Aroma has a muted malt character and a slight spice note from the alcohol. Flavor is malty; slightly sweet with a bit of caramelization. Hop flavor and bitterness is low. Surprisingly low/medium-low in body, Hot Rocks has a matching level of carbonation and has a slight astringency in the mouthfeel.

Hot Rocks

This is an interesting beer, arguably because of the way it was brewed. You can check out the photos on The Lost Abbey website.

Wipeout IPA, 7.0% ABV

Clear, orange-gold color with an off-white head. Grapefruit/citrus hop aromas hit my nose first, followed by a slight garlicy character; the beer’s aroma is also very floral. The flavor is primarily hoppy, lots of fruit, grapefruit/citrus character and enough malt for balance, at least for the style. Hop bitterness is high. Body is medium/medium-high, carbonation is medium. There is an astringency in the finish that is probably from the hops.

Wipeout IPA

Pretty much what a West Coast IPA should taste like. While I liked it, I thought it could’ve used a little more balance by allowing the malt flavors to come through a little bit.

Hop 15, 10% ABV

Slightly hazy orange/amber color with a thin, white head. Aroma is hop forward, lots of tropical fruit aroma. Mrs. BetterBeerBlog called it “perfumy”. I also noticed alcohol in the aroma as well. The flavor is sweet, which is surprising because of how much hops are in this beer. It is candy-like in its sweetness. The hop flavor matches the aroma; fruity and tropical. Hop bitterness is high but not clingy. Full bodied beer with a medium carbonation and an astringent mouthfeel.

Hop 15

According to Kurt from Wine Warehouse, Hop 15 was made with 15 different types of hops added in every 15 minutes during the boil. Sounds like one, expensive beer to make.

4-year Anniversary Ale, 10% ABV

Hazy amber color with a white head. Lots of hop aroma, slightly citrus and tropical fruit in nature. Flavor has a “catty”/garlicy hop flavor with a toasty/caramel malt backbone for support. Body is full, carbonation is medium with a slight alcohol spice while the mouthfeel has a slight bit of alcohol warmth.

Port Brewing 4-Year Anniversary Ale

Out of the last 3 hoppy beers, this is probably the one I like the most. While it has a boatload of hop character, Port Brewing has allowed the malt to shine though a little by brewing this beer with a little more balance.

Overall

Wine Affairs continues to impress. The plan is to try and do a monthly, horizontal tasting of beers from a specific brewery. More power to them. It’s good to see how a brewery’s beer stand up next to each other; you get a better idea of the “house” character of a brewery.

There were a few things that caught my interest: first, I noted low the carbonation level was in all the beers we tried that evening. That being said, as the tasting kept on, these beers were sitting in open bottles. It’s conceivable the lack of carbonation might have been due to that. Also, about all the Port Brewing beers were cloudy leading me to believe they were all bottle conditioned.

To finish the day off, Sammy ordered a bottle of Saison D’Erpe-Mere from KleinBrouwerij De Glazen Toren. While I’ve had this beer before, I’m not sure if I reviewed it formally for the site. I didn’t do a formal review for this post simply because sometimes, you just want to have a good beer without thinking about it.

Saison D\'Erpe-Mere for good measure.

I’m already looking forward to the next set of tastings and I believe they’ll be holding another “End of June” beerfest next week. Come back to the blog for exact details.


Behind the Scenes at the BABO Homebrew Comp

Friday, June 18th, 2010

I recently had the opportunity to be somewhat involved in helping run the Bay Area Brew Off (BABO). This is a BJCP sanctioned competition run by the Draught Board Homebrew Club (out of San Leandro, CA) of which I’m a member. It is held annually at the Alameda County Fair and this year saw a record 251 entries.

Now, when I say “somewhat” involved, I mean just that. One thing I learned is that putting on a judging competition is a heck of a lot of work! The extent of my involvement was minor compared to the competition organizer Roger St. Denis, and there were plenty of others more fully involved than I.

To get an idea of what it takes, here are a few things I was able to help out with:

Drop-off location pickup

This is one thing about most competitions that I initially took for granted. You just drop your entries at your local homebrew shop and that’s it, right?

Well, there can be a dozen or more drop-off locations around the Bay Area and all of those entries need to be collected, transported, refrigerated and eventually make it to the competition in one piece. Most shops are generous enough to provide the location, but it is club members and other volunteers that do the leg work.

I personally collected from only one location and ended up with 5 cases! (Good thing my lager freezer was not in use, or I wouldn’t have had space for all that beer.) The entries had to be collected before the shop closed on Friday eve and transported the next day to the fairgrounds where check-in and registration was being held.

Check-in and Registration

This was an all day affair. Folks were at it well before I even arrived at 10:00. Each entry had to be checked-in, registration and payment information recorded, every bottle labeled with a generic entry number, the entrants temporary labels removed, special ingredients listed on a separate label affixed to the bottle, bottles sorted and cellarred…. you get the idea.

The process was conducted by an assembly line of people. With 251 entries, we’re talking 753 bottles of beer that need to be managed. Beer would come through the door, be unpacked and correlated to registration info, then make it’s way around a series of 3 long tables where the rest of the work was completed.

Entries awaiting check-in.

Yours truly (helping with check-in) and Roger St. Denis (chained to his laptop.)

At the end of the table, the bottles would make their way to the “cellar”, which in this case was a cool room staging area, then eventually were moved to large commercial size refrigerators.

Preliminary Judging

Another logistical problem with a competition of this size is how to get all the judging completed. A panel preferably consists of 3 judges and a single flight no more than 10 beers. Judging any more than 10 at a single sitting can be a bit daunting especially when your dealing with high alcohol Strong Ales or palate-frying IPAs.

With 250+ entries, this equates to roughly 75 judges. Even the bigger comps with over 600 entries (such as World Cup and NHC) can’t get that many judges on a single day, so judging is usually carried out in stages. This allows folks to judge more than a single round over the course of a week or two.

I personally judged in four separate preliminary rounds, two of which were hosted at people’s homes, the other two at the Firehouse in Sunnyvale (thanks Steve!) I would have judged more, but I had 10 entries in the comp which disqualified me from judging a number of sessions.

Preliminary Judging from a previous BABO.

Final Judging

Final judging is usually held over the course of a single day (or for larger comps an entire weekend.) At this point, most of the better beers have bubbled up to the top, and judges that sit on these panels can expect some good brews.

Cellar-Master Paul Goularte at the Cellar Staging Area.

One of two rooms where final judging was conducted.

Bob, Kevin and a flight in progress.

Label Judging

Many homebrew comps also provide a category for labels. BABO is no exception and I helped steward the judging table. This was a marathon session with 16 total entries in the category we judged. Every label was evaluated on design criteria using a judging form similar to that used for judging beer entries.

Kudos to the 4 judges who slogged through this huge flight. I don’t exaggerate when I say a bit of writer’s cramp punctuated the effort.

My personal favorite - one of several Erich Schmidt label entries.

Best of Show

After the winners of each category are determined, a Best of Show (BOS) round is judged. This flight consists of the first place winners in each category. In large comps where categories are not collapsed, this can be a whopping 23 beers!

Although I didn’t judge BOS, astute readers may be able to pick out Mr. BetterBeerBlog in the photo below. (Hint, he just got a haircut!)

BOS judging panel: John, Kevin, Lee, David and Peter

Best of Show Flight

Fair Homebrew Display

My final contribution to this huge undertaking will be to help set up the Fair display this coming weekend. Each winning entry will be on display, so stop by and have a look! Unfortunately, no samples will be available. ;-)

San Mateo County Fair Homebrew Display (BABO’s will be similar.)

Again, this is just a small part of the overall effort required to make a comp like this happen. To say that the paperwork involved is a bit overwhelming would be an understatement. Not only do all the results need to be checked and cross-checked, but they need to be correlated with the original entrants, scores and winners validated and final score sheets packed up with ribbons to be sent to the winning entrant.

Thanks to the Draught Board and it’s members for organizing and running this competition on behalf of the entire Bay Area homebrew community. Personal thanks to Roger St. Denis who put in hours upon hours as competition organizer and who included me in this year’s effort. Special thanks to Charles Webster for taking most of these photos and giving me permission to use them.

For more information on how BABO is run, see the How We Do It page on the Draught Board website.

Brian the Rabid Brewer

Hopinions: Would you like to try my Wu-Tang style?

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

I recently attended new beer tapping at one of my local brewpubs. As usual, I had a great time at the event and did my write up a day or so later. The brewmaster wrote back to me commenting on how I compared this beer to the BJCP guideline for the style. Long story short, he purposely doesn’t brew that specific beer to “style” but instead brews it to the palettes of his consumers. It’s one of his best selling beers so it’s a justifiable change. So that got me thinking about beer style guidelines; how useful they are, how limiting they can be and most of all, how divisive they are in the beer community.

From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog

The beer style guidelines I most refer to are those from the BJCP. As a BJCP judge, these form the backbone of the work we do. Part of the BJCP’s Mission Statement is to promote beer literacy and these guidelines help to do so.

The other set of guidelines I refer to less but are no less useful come from the Brewers Association. While the BA style guidelines are very similar those from the BJCP, there are major differences. The BA guidelines are more succinct; they are also organized with a greater focus on country of origin and historical consideration.

When initially developed, each set of guidelines had a specific objective they wanted to fulfill. Individually they are great resources but when used together, they paint a very comprehensive portrait of the world of craft beer.

As important as I think style guidelines are in providing a common language and context for craft beer, I have met more than a handful of brewers who aren’t too keen about them. Their resistance ranges from annoyance to declarations of evil! A major criticism is that style guidelines are restricting.

What are your thoughts regarding beer styles? Do you find them useful in defining a common ground by which we can all talk about beers in-depth? Do you think they’re restrictive and killers of the imagination?

From: Mario at Brewed For Thought

I like this topic as I was thinking about it myself recently. As some may already know, I am actively avoiding any BJCP certification. My reasoning is that I want to avoid honing my ability to detect flaws in the beer in front of me and simply enjoy it. Ignorance is bliss after all.

On the topic of styles, I am pro- and anti-guidelines. My problem with BJCP or BA guidelines is that it finds a way to criticize a beer that is otherwise perfectly fine. The subtle difference between a Bohemian Pilsner and a German Pilsner matters if you’re specifically trying to brew a style, or looking at beer from a historic perspective, but from a beer drinker’s point of view it simply needs to taste good.

The use of guidelines reminds me of my time working at a music store through high school and college. At first, you had a handful of sections: Rock, R&B, Classical, Jazz, Country. Then there was a section for Rap; then Electronica, then the Jazz section was split, and so on and so forth. Eventually, there were so many sections and sub-sections that order was lost. Some bands would belong in multiple sections, making finding anything more difficult.

Beer can be the same way. If a brewery brews a beer exactly as they intended and it’s an excellent beer, but it falls between categories, that beer is punished by the powers that be. They will not bring home GABF hardware, they will not win anything at the World Beer Cup. Does this mean a beer is a lesser beer than some that win those medals? Does it mean a gold medal is the best beer or the beer that fell in line the best?

This is where I think the guidelines can hurt the awards themselves. Every year, brewers submit for GABF and World Beer Cup with hopes of winning, but you also hear the dismissal of the awards and the judging after the fact. Brewers will be biased, but there are always surprises among the winners where you wonder how that beer beat out some of the others in the same category. Granted, no system will make everyone happy, but should the best beers win the gold medals?

So do I say get rid of styles all together? Not at all. The 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines has 23 Categories and over 70 individual styles. How about drop the sub-categories, make it simple. Sure, some categories need a split between Imperial and otherwise, but that’s simple, find a dividing line according to strength and give a little in each direction (e.g. Stouts with ABV less than 8%, Imperial Stouts with ABV of 7.5% or more)

Styles can be helpful for an everyday beer drinker as well. Hand me a beer, say it’s a pale ale, I know what to expect. Sure, it could be an English pale or an American pale, but that can be left to the brewer to describe to the customer.

From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog

BJCP certification really isn’t for everyone, in reality it’s not for everyone. If you want to take an active role in the homebrew scene, then it might be something to look into. Being able to recognize flaws in beers is actually a good thing. How else would be able to know what good beers are or how to fix bad ones? Trust me when I say that it’s pretty easy to shut off the “beer analysis” part of the brain and just enjoy a beer. That being said, I think having a lexicon by which to describe beers goes a long way toward appreciation. I’d rather someone be specific when describing a beer as opposed to telling me, “It’s a’ight.” or “Meh.” or “Hella good!”. Why is the beer lackluster? Why is it good? I don’t need to know what the “original gravity” is or what the “apparent extract” or even what “SRM” the beer is at to enjoy it. A little too much information. That being said…

The whole reason we have beer styles today is because beer, like many other food products, are regional. They are a direct result of the ingredients available to local brewers and the techniques they’ve been taught and incorporate. A few insightful people in the craft beer community noticed this, drank a lot of beer, took detailed notes, drank more beer, refined those notes and did their best to categorize a vast body of information. If anything, blame the late Michael Jackson for this quagmire because it is through his notes that many of these beer style guidelines have been developed from. ;)

I’m glad you brought up the issue of competition and awards. I have to respectfully disagree with you in this matter. It is in these specific instances that style guidelines were developed. While I like your analogy of the record store as it relates to the organization of beer styles, I think a dog show analogy would better represent what goes on during a competition. Beers are not necessarily judged against each other, at least not in the beginning. When judges receives beers, they are “blind” in that they have no idea who brewed this beer or where it came from. Judges then have to compare the beer in front of them against a “standard”. In this case, the “standard” is taken from a style guideline. In the Best of Show rounds, beers are then judged against one another. I think this is a fair system. I think the BJCP says it best:

Without beer styles, competitions would be nearly impossible to conduct. Judging would simply become a hedonistic event, where judges would simply pick beers according to their preference. The outcome would be totally arbitrary and would depend on the background and preferences of those who judge their beers. This is not a desirable situation.

With regards to beers that don’t fit a particular category, there are “catch-all” categories in both the BA and BJCP guidelines in which these beers can be entered. The BJCP has Category 23: Specialty Beers, which was designed just for this purpose. The BA has Specialty Beers, Experimental Beers and Out of Category - Traditionally Brewed Beer categories for tweener beers. Entering your beers in any of these categories gives you just as good a chance to medal as the traditional categories. Take the Sam Adams Longshot homebrew competition. In the short time I’ve been involved in the craft beer scene, I’ve noticed just as many non-traditional beer recipes win as traditional. Grape Pale Ale? Not my favorite but it won.

One thing to remember is that there is no super-secret Craft Beer Illuminati trying to push their agenda on the populace. Beer style guidelines are just that - guidelines. They should not be seen as hard and fast rules but as a point of reference. They are living documents; constantly evolving and being updated as brewers push the boundaries of current styles and in many cases, develop entirely new ones.

Going back to the original reason I chose this topic, a local brewmaster decided to brew one of his best selling beers slightly out of style. His customers demanded it and he’d have been a fool not to listen. That being said, what are some notable non-traditional beers you’ve had? I found the Orange Kush from Ale Industries, an American-style Witbier I suppose, to have been surprisingly good. The Hades Habañero from Devils Canyon remains one of the few chili beers I actually enjoy. Hell, most of what The Bruery or Lost Abbey brews can be considered non-traditional.

From: Mario at Brewed For Thought

I wasn’t suggesting a free for all-category free competition. I just thought less specialization would be nice. I like the analogy of the dog show. We need less best of breeds and more of the best of groups.

For me, I live in the heart of non-traditional brewing. Lagunitas makes an excellent pilsner that doesn’t fall into categories as it’s their own interpretation of the broader style. Or take their most recent release, A Little Sumpin’ Wild, a highly hopped, wheat ale that comes in at over 7% and is fermented using Belgian yeast. What style would that beer fall into?

This actually reminds me of a conversation I had at the bar a few weeks back. A man was sipping a Scrimshaw pilsner and complaining about the Lagunitas pint night going on. According to him, Lagunitas needs to use less hops. He wondered why Lagunitas couldn’t brew a pils like Scrimshaw, to which I replied “because North Coast already brews it, why do we need two of the same beers?”

The point of this is that I love style bending. I love when a brewer take a style, sees room for improvement (in his or her opinion) and executes it. That’s how we see changes in the brewing industry. Racer 5 calls itself an IPA, but how does this compare to an IPA of 15 years ago? In terms of IPA, one of my favorites right now is Belhaven’s Twisted Thistle. This was an IPA brewed by a Scottish brewery specifically for the American market.It’s incredibly fragrant, but not bitter and still in the 5% range. It’s not an English IPA and definitely not an American IPA, but it’s own style.

This conversation has me thirsty. I think I’ll go dig through my fridge and find a style bending beer and raise a toast to the BJCP. In the end, as long as good beer continues to make it’s way to my glass, I can’t complain. Styles do a great job of reminding us where we should be and also let’s all of us, home brewers and professionals, to feel like a rebel when we break out of the mold.

Flemish Sour Blending Seminar at the Trappist

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

I have developed a dislike for St. Patrick’s Day. The “holiday”, as it’s celebrated today, is an excuse to wear green, get drunk on green beer and boast of your Guinness given Irish culture. Whatever. In the case that you are looking for something different and unique to do, Oakland Belgian beer bar The Trappist might have just the thing for you.

Sam Quartier, brewmaster of Brouwerij Bockor in Belgium, will be hosting a Flemish Sour Blending Seminar. I cannot begin to describe how much of a rare treat this is to have an expert come in and give us professional insight to how this is done. Here are the details:

Who: The Trappist
What: Flemish Sour Blending Seminar details
Where: The Trappist, 460 8th Street, Oakland, CA map
When: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 @ 6pm
Cost: $9 (cash only, at the door).
Reservations: Call The Trappist at (510) 238-8900 to make your reservation. NOTE: Reserving your spot does not mean you will actually have a spot (so why even do it, right?). Arrive on time or your spot(s) may be given away.

Maybe I’ll see some of you there?

A Chat with a Cicerone

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Somewhat of a short post this time around. Sammy and I are going to a Belgian Beer Dinner Friday night at the Lafayette Park Hotel. The dinner is at the Duck Club Restaurant and was developed in tandem by Chef Chuck Courtney and Cicerone Nicole Erny, who you may recognize from the Trappist.

I was able to interview Nicole about the event. She goes into some depth regarding the Cicerone program, putting the dinner together and pairing beer with food. I wrote this for Beer Connoisseur magazine so head on over there to read it in its entirety.

Click here to read A Chat with a Cicerone at Beer Connoisseur.

BJCP Prep Class starting soon in Los Altos

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

The BJCP stands for Beer Judge Certification Program. The purpose of the BJCP is to:

  1. promote beer literacy
  2. promote the appreciation of real beer, and
  3. recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills

BJCP Grandmaster-level judge John Watson has organized another BJCP prep class. I’ve taken John’s prep class in the past, twice actually. As a craft beer lover, it was the best thing I ever decided to do. Not only did I learn a lot about craft beer in general, I learned a lot about the various styles in the BJCP style guideline. I had no idea there were over 70 recognized styles!

I would highly recommend this BJCP prep class to homebrewers and to anyone who is interested in craft beer. Even if you decide to never take the BJCP exam, you will get more out of this class than you expect. Here are the details:

Who: BJCP Grandmaster-level judge John Watson
What: BJCP Prep class
Where: More Beer homebrew shop, 991 N. San Antonio Road, Los Altos, CA 94022 map
When: First class is on Thursday, January 28, 2010, 6:30pm - 10pm
Why: Because it’s cool to be a beer geek
Cost: $135 ($20 deposit at the shop) for an 11 week course

Beer Appreciation 101 has been approved for SF Beer Week!

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

sfbw10-header

wa-bbb

Beer Appreciation 101

Update: There have been a lot of phone calls to Wine Affairs asking about the event but when they find out it’s on Superbowl Sunday, they can’t commit. I totally understand. Superbowl Sunday is an American Institution. It’s practically a holiday.

So I’ve talked to Diane at Wine Affairs and I’m letting you know, “We hear you.” We’ve listened to your feedback and we’re pushing the event back a week. Hopefully reservations will pick up. The updated information is below, I hope to see you there!

Venue: Wine Affairs, 1435 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126 map

Date/Time: Sunday, February 7 14, 2010 @ 5pm - 7pm

Reservations: Call 408-977-0111 to reserve your spot today.

Cost: $25 per person

Description of the Event:

With the explosion of the popularity of American craft beers and imports, it can be confusing trying to make sense of it all. Dubbels, Imperial IPAs, Barrel-aged brown ales brewed with sour cherries? Where to start?

Join the BetterBeerBlog’s Peter Estaniel (that’s me!), BJCP judge, beer writer and homebrewer, as he tries to make sense of it all. Expect a general overview of the brewing process and how the basic ingredients used in brewing affect a beer’s flavor. Develop your beer vocabulary while tasting beers that exemplify certain characteristics of each basic ingredient.

Contact Wine Affairs at 408-977-0111 to make your reservation today!

California State Homebrew Competition Pre-Lim

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

I had the opportunity to judge a preliminary round for the California State Homebrew Competition, better known in homebrew circles as Stern Grove, at Firehouse Brewery & Grill last night. Stern Grove holds a special place in many a homebrewer’s and BJCP judge’s heart for a variety of reasons. It is one of the oldest homebrew competitions in California. Stern Grove also signals the end of homebrew competition season. It is one of the last, if not the last, homebrew competition in California.

Judging Stern Grove is a bit of a departure from your typical BJCP/AHA sanctioned event. The biggest difference is the way the beers are scored. In a typical homebrew competition, beers are judged against a 50 point scale. Beers are evaluated according to aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel and overall impression. Because the competition has been around for so long, Stern Grove has it’s own competition forms. They’re not really trying to be different from your typical BJCP event more than they’ve been grandfathered in.

The Stern Grove worksheets are evaluated on a 20 point scale. This poses a slight conversion issue for judges in the sense that a point given or taken away from a Stern Grove worksheet will have a greater impact than your typical BJCP score sheet. That being said, it takes a little bit getting used to.

Most homebrew competitions will have preliminary rounds. This allows the judges to cull the field of entries, weeding out the stronger ones from the entries that need a little more work. By the time the final rounds of judging at Stern Grove actually takes place, the majority of the beers there will be pretty good.

In last night’s preliminary round, we had the opportunity to judge the wheat beer category. There were 3 judging groups. Two of the groups had 3 judges while the final group had only 2. Unlike other preliminary rounds I’ve judged at, we actually had 2 stewards to help us out. Big thanks goes stewards Bobby and Anthony for keeping things fluid.

There were a few issues that kept cropping up as the night wore on. Weizen beers are supposed to be lighter, effervescent, refreshing and flavorful. Yeast character needs to be the dominant, yet balanced, character in a weizen beer. Just about all the entries we tried were lacking banana esters and clove phenolics. In their place were generic fruit esters slightly reminiscent of Belgian yeasts while the phenolic character was equally generic and varied from spicy to plastic/band-aid. Body was an issue as well as many beers were watery while other samples were undercarbonated. Surprisingly a few beers were clear and lacked the “mit hefe” cloudiness one would expect from the style.

To bring out more of the weizen yeast character, start with a viable weizen strain of yeast and then ferment one’s beers at a slightly higher temperature (70º F +). Having a thin body in a hefeweizen is unusual since the addition of wheat malt is usually the prescription for thickening up a beer’s body. For the hefeweizen though, the brewer can implement a decoction mash to both thicken up the body and darken the beer slightly to get a gold color. Wheat malt will also help with head retention. When bottling beers, make sure to measure out one’s priming sugar correctly. Weizen beers are noted for their effervescent character and a flat beer is not a good sign. Lastly, always be mindful of one’s sanitation.

It was good to get back on the beer judging horse. It had been at least 6 months or so since my last competition. I may have been a little rusty with filling out score sheets and with my descriptions but my palette’s been okay. For whatever reason, I haven’t been all that interested in judging competitions this year. You could probably count on one hand how many competitions I’ve judged. What’s ironic is that I received my BJCP exam results (I retook the tasting portion of the exam) and I moved up a rank. There’s always next year.