World Cup 2008 Recap
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
 |
| 2008 World Cup Afterparty |
The Bay Area Mashers held their 2008 World Cup Homebrew finals March 29, 2008 at Trumer Brauerei in Berkeley, California. Even though I didn’t have any entries, the wife and I decided to drive up to Trumer to see how a homebrew competition is run. A few people from the BJCP class were going up so we’d know a few people, at least.
I had no idea what to expect. We arrived at Trumer and followed the signs to the after party. With the gate open, Samboun and I waltz right in and made ourselves at home. There was a fine selection of homebrew on tap along with a keg of Trumer Pilsner donated by the host company. Having never been to Trumer before, I expected them to be a brew pub but found they were a production brewery… that brewed only one style of beer, pilsner. Of the homebrews on tap that were being served, I enjoyed the witbier most, followed by the Trumer pils, then the 14% wheatwine* someone kegged later on in the day. Samboun especially enjoyed the wheatwine.
So far, Sammy and I have attended various beer festivals but this is the first time we’ve been to a homebrew competition. Usually at beer festivals, we get a chance to meet and talk to some interesting people who are primarily interested in drinking as much beer as possible. At this homebrew competition after party, we got to meet and talk to some interesting people who are primarily interested in drinking as much beer as possible… that they brewed themselves. It’s an interesting distinction in that these are people who have an intimate relationship with beer as both a consumer and producer. They are well aware of most aspects of beer making and of tasting. Sure, a lot of them ended up getting drunk nonetheless but at least they were very selective about it.
We got to the point where the organizers began to announce the winners of the 2008 World Cup Competition. What I completely didn’t expect (but should have) was the announcement of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners from all 26 styles of beer. That’s a lot of writing and my little pencil and pocket notebook were not up to the task. I wish I could have a complete list of winners from each category but I don’t. Likewise, Samboun got tired of taking pictures of all the winners. She did get a couple of good shots including the winner of “Best of Show”. I must say that members of DOZE (Diablo Organization of Zymiracle Enthusiasts) where runaway winners of this competition. To say they dominated the field would be putting it lightly. I think they may have had a member place in almost each category. From what I was able to gather from the folks I spoke to, it was like this last year as well.The folks as Trumer Brauerei were kind enough to take the few of us who remained on a tour of their production facilities. I could sit here and write play-by-play coverage of the tour, but frankly, that would be boring to both you and me. Instead, click over to the event gallery gallery to view the pictures Samboun took of their facilities. Here are a few notes that I do remember:
- Surprising to maybe just me, Trumer only brews a pilsner. I would have expected a production brewery to make more than one kind of beer but they only do a pilsner. A very good one, in fact.
- The Trumer Brauerei location in Berkeley used to be a Pyramid production brewrey.
- Trumer has a production capacity of 50 barrels at a time. This is the largest capacity I’ve seen to date but I was reminded that the Anheuser-Busch breweries measure their capacities in the hundreds of barrels.
- They can fill a keg (15.5 gallon) in about a minute.
- They have a “pet” black widow that lives somewhere around the kegging machine.
- The Trumer guys are really cool and answered all of our questions.
By the end of the day, a few of the guys left were ready to head to Trappist for more beers but Samboun and I were going to call it a day. We had met some really interesting people (who I keep forgetting to email, sorry guys!) and we hope to see them around. Thanks to the Mashers for allowing us to crash their party, Trumer Brauerei for hosting the event and the cool people we talked to and/or met (Alex, John, Micah, the two Erichs, Crazy Jack and Adam).
