Upcoming meetings:

December 19 – Holiday Dinner at Balefire Brewery

Previously

November 22 – Dan Farber presented a talk on distilling and tour of his distillery (www.osocalis.com)

Oktoberfest at Phil’s with the Santa Cruz Fungus Federation – Saturday October 18th.

September – Our pub crawl to San Carlos: We rode safely in a passenger van to Hapa’s, Blue Oak and Alpha Acid. Good times and good brews. The highlight was Blue Oak where we had a full brewery tour.

August – Thanks to Steve for hosting and the talk on Barleywine. The samples provided were excellent and we all learned a lot. We also finalized the date for Oktoberfest at Phil’s – Saturday October 18.

In July, Phil gave an amazing talk about Trappist Ales. As he was giving the talk, we also tasted the four different  styles. Thank you Phil for the interesting program. We all had a great time.

June 22 – Big Brew at Steve’s! Brewers should arrive with their equipment at  10am. Non-Brewers should arrive for the business meeting and the experience at 1 . Early arrivals to kibitz are welcome.

May 18th was our annual event with the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz. “We bring the beer, they bring the food.” As usual, the food, beer and company were be outstanding.

April 13th members gathered to brew a batch of Steinbier. See pictures here. It was the big day for the long discussed Stein Beer brew. Heating rocks over fire to provide the energy to boil a full batch of beer. See this article for and explanation of how to brew Stein Beer. (Source: Brew Your Own)

In March we met at Kevin’s in the condo’s clubhouse. Dave B spoke on English Barley Wines, along with tasting of examples of the style.

At February’s meeting, Tito demonstrated his yeast washing process and how to re-use your yeast. We also started planning for the “Stein Beer” project and set the date for April 18th.

On January 12th, we be traveled down to the Steel Bonnet production facility in Salinas for a brewery tour followed by a judged tasting of member’s brews from the October wort share. So many different flavors from the same wort!

2024

November at Kevin’s clubhouse in Aptos: We tasted through 18 off flavors and discussed causes and prevention. Some subtle, some off the charts bad. Thanks to Kevin, we had some sausages and kraut to enjoy with some homebrew afterwards. Then in December we had a club dinner at Balefire Brewing Co.

What a great couple of beer weekends in October! The October 13th wort share was a huge success. We owe many thanks to Steel Bonnet in Scotts Valley for their generosity. There were many ideas being floated as to what everyone was going to experiment with. We’ll be tasting the results at our January meeting at Steel Bonnet Salinas. Then the following weekend was the amazing Oktoberfest at Phil’s. A big thanks to everyone that came out and provided beer, and to Phil and Margaret for hosting. It’s always a good time when we get together with the Fungus Federation. 

At the September 15th meeting we discussed Closed Fermentation at Kevin’s house.

The August meeting was at Steel Bonnet in Scotts Valley – Round table discussion on off flavors in prep for November meeting when we’ll have a deep dive on the topic.

We had 2 events in May:
1. Saturday May 4^th was Big Brew (in the pouring rain) at Mark C’s house in Capitola.
2. Saturday May 18 at noon: Suds & ‘Shrooms Potluck – McDorsa Park in Scotts Valley, Our annual event with the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz.  Zymurgeeks bring the brews and FFSC member cook up some tasty mushroom dishes.  https://ffsc.us/fun.

The April 21^st meeting was at the CAPITOLA Sante Adairius location (103 Kennedy Drive Capitola, CA 95010)  Thanks to Dave for stepping in last minute on the presentation 😊

The Saint Patrick’s Day meeting was at Phil’s house in Aptos. Topic: “Big Beers” was presented by Dave while we shared a few BIG examples.

At this upcoming February 25th meeting, Dave will be doing a talk on milling grain. We welcome people to bring their mills to the meeting so we can all see the various styles and price ranges. Reminder about dues from our treasurer Mia: It is a new year and my motto is “no dues, no brews”

Our first meeting of the year was hosted by Steve and Rick. Will & Katie dove into water conditioning. Also plot developing for a possible wort share from Steel Bonnet.

2023

Our annual holiday gathering was at the newly opened Balefire Brewing Company. Pizza truck for food and plenty of good cheer!

The November meeting was at Woodhouse Blending & Brewing in Santa Cruz. Will and Dave faced off on rice hulls – yay or nay??? Let’s call it a draw!

A huge thank you to Phil and Margaret for yet another successful Octoberfest with the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz!!!! Great turnout from both clubs and as always we went home with a belly full of amazing food. So much fun spending time with old friends and meeting new ones. 

The September meeting was at the Davenport Roadhouse. Ray’s band was playing that day and it was great fun. Will attended for the first time in person after moving back to Santa Cruz, and Larry surprised us with visit from back east.

In August Kevin  S had to postpone his talk on French beers. Alors! We look forward to hearing it in the future.

For the July meeting at Kevin H’s home we discussed glycol chilling, and Kevin gave a demonstration of his glycol system.

In May, we had our annual event with the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz, Suds & Shrooms. “We bring the beer, they bring the food.” Wow, what an even! This year we were treated to an amazing venue in Aromas with 360 degree views of EVERYTHING. Big thanks to Peter of the Fungus Federation for opening up his beautiful home and property. As usual, the food, beer and company were outstanding.

Our April meeting was at the Highway 1 Brewing Company. After the business meeting, we enjoyed a tasting and tour by brewer Leslie.

At the March meeting, Steve delivered a great presentation on growing hops, AND they stuffed us with homemade chili and cornbread!

February’s meeting was at Woodhouse Blending & Brewing in Santa Cruz. Dave brought lots of props for his talk on various wort chillers.

After the storms, we managed to dry out enough to enjoy our meeting at Steel Bonnet in January, but we cut it short with no presentation so we could all go watch the niners game. ☹ Better luck next year team.

2022

Our annual December Holiday party was held at Sante Adarius Rustic Ales in Santa Cruz. The brews and Detroit-style pizza were excellent.

In November, we elected new officers (see our About page). Congratulations to our new members!

The October meeting , started with club business to vote on by-laws and nominate members for next month’s election. Then we moved to Phil’s house for the club’s Oktoberfest celebration with the Santa Cruz Fungus Federation.

At the meeting on September 18th, Steve gave an excellent presentation on growing your own hops.

The August 21^st  meeting was at club president Meg’s house for a nice afternoon in the Redwoods.

The July 17th meeting, at Woodhouse Blending and Brewing in Santa Cruz, featured a presentation by Professor Will on New Zealand hops.

The June meeting at Steel Bonnet Brewery in Scotts Valley started with a competition and judging. Will Rush took home the win for the wort share beer, and Dave Bossie in the English IPA category. Lots of good beer from all our brewers. After a brief  business meeting we had a wonderful presentation on German Hops by Phil Carpenter, thanks Phil!

Contact

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