Results from the 2019 Southern New England Regional Homebrew Competition have been posted at https://snerhc.undergroundbrewers.org
Scoresheets have all been scanned and uploaded. You can view yours by logging into the registration web site. If any of yours seem to be missing, it just means that we fat-fingered a filename. Shoot us an email and we will fix it.
Congratulations to all of the winners and thank you to all of the entrants, volunteers, and sponsors. See you next year!
After a number of meetings at local breweries, we recently returned to our usual practice of meeting in members’ homes. And since one particular deadbeat member hadn’t hosted a meeting in years, it was time for him to step up, stop being a slacker, and do the hosting thing.
That particular member would be me, of course.
Now, in my defense, I will remind you all that I now live out on the far eastern frontier. Guilford is a very long drive for many members. That’s been my excuse, anyway. But, yeah, I owed the club one.
Since we’ve been in collaboration mode lately – co-hosting SNERHC with the Krausen Commandos, banding together with Brew Haven for the cider pressing, sharing the “CT Ghetto” at Homebrew Con with most of the CT clubs – I thought it would be good to invite members of M.A.S.H. to join us as well.
It was a small but lively meeting attended by members of both clubs and featuring a number of excellent beers and ciders. The nominal “Oktoberfest” theme was quickly forgotten once everyone realized that Mara had brought IPAs from Treehouse. Food was eaten. My brewing space was shown off. There was much discussion of RO water and brewing systems. (I’ve switched to an indoor, induction-fired, BIAB system for nearly all my beers now.) Etc.
In short, we had a good time. I guess I shouldn’t wait another 5 years before hosting again.
Tasting notes:
Pierre, it seems, is immune to heat. While the rest of us spent the summer hiding in the air-conditioning, avoiding large pots of boiling liquid, Pierre was brewing repeatedly in the hot sun. Does he not feel the heat? Does he not care?
One presumes, however, that even Pierre would object to setting his house on fire. That might be a little too hot.
So it was somewhat startling to find Pierre encouraging other YAHOOS (Jaime and Mara, to be precise) to show off their skills with flaming rope darts on his front lawn. I’ll be honest: I would not want fiery projectiles in flight near my house, or even my shrubbery. Pierre thought it would be fun.
In the end, no flames were lit. Mara thought it would be unwise and, since she is the only club member who actually owns rope darts that can be set alight, her good sense prevailed.
While the August meeting may have lacked dangerous fire tricks, it did not lack for excellent homebrew. Many great beers were judged. Tasting notes as best I can decipher:
As everyone knows, the most important homebrew competition of the year is our in-house, bare knuckles, no-holds-barred cage match for Best Underground Brewer Of The Year.
This the the one meeting each year where we abandon all pretense of collegiality and let our animal natures show. Winner gets Von’s spoon, his/her name on the ceremonial cup, and unlimited rights to talk trash about other members’ beers for the year.
This year’s competition was held at Clay Viands’ new house in Redding. A lovely place, with lots of room for this sort of thing. Clay was his usual consummate host, working the grill and pouring yumminess from his extensive cellar. A meeting at Clay’s place is always an amazing sensory experience.
Eight brewers competed this year, entering 14 beers and meads (half of which were Saisons). Bottles were obfuscated. Teams were made up. Judging commenced.
When all the noise died down and the blood was wiped off the walls, Andy Tipler stood alone, reigning supreme for another year with yet another outstanding English Barleywine. The spoon and the cup go back to his house and the rest of us lick our wounds and plot to unseat him next year.
Also in the Best-of-Show round: Mara Henecks with her American IPA, myself with a dry hydromel, and Andy Cox with an American Brown Ale.
Congrats to Andy T!
But don’t get complacent. We’ll be ready for you next year.
Homebrew Con (AKA the National Homebrewers Convention, AKA HBC) has been around a long time. The Underground Brewers have been around even longer. As far as we know, the club has never had an official presence at the convention. Until now….
The 2019 Homebrew Con was held in Providence, RI, practically in our backyard. From June 26 to June 29, hombrewers from all over the country gathered to learn, socialize, compete, and (of course) drink beer. Providence became, for that brief period, the homebrew capital of the world.
The HBC is rarely held anywhere near us. Most are held in the Midwest or on the West Coast. It had literally been decades since the last HBC in New England. So you can imagine our excitement on hearing that one would be happening just a short drive up I-95. A decision was quickly made: the club was going to be there, and we were going to show up in style.
What followed was a flurry of activity most unlike the normally-unfocused YAHOOS: an AirBnB was booked, a booth for Club Night was designed and fabricated, costumes were bought, beer was brewed. Hell, we even designed an entirely new logo to go on the booth decorations and costumes.
(Credit where due! Jaime Luna designed our awesome new logo, booth backdrop, and table skirt. Steve Victor and Caysey Welton put together the costumes and Caysey designed our beer menu. Pierre Margraff built our entire beer delivery system – 9 taps! Andy Tipler managed all the details of the housing, the kegs, the logistics, and the carpooling.)
The convention started, as it always does, with a day of BJCP exams and business meetings. The hot new exam on the block is for Cider Certification; only a few cider judges exist yet. Our own Steve (Pivo) Victor jumped in to take the exam and get certified. He will act as proctor when we administer the exam in February.
Most of the rest of use showed up later that day in a complex caravan of cars, kegs, costumes, and people, convening at a local watering hole for a few beers before retiring to the Airbnb. Once there, we had a few more beers. And meads. And ciders. You know how these things go.
Thursday’s dawn came far too early. But we had to saddle up. What are YAHOOS, first and foremost? Judges. And Thursday was the final round of the National Homebrew Competition. 4 or 5 of us were judging. A couple were stewarding. Our own Jim Link, Grand Master judge, was even invited to work the Best Of Show table. Game on!
Thursday night brought the official kickoff party featuring beer brewed by many local(ish) commercial breweries. As we roamed the aisles, we all thought the same thing: our beer is better. We’d all rather be back at the Airbnb, drinking our own homebrew. So, eventually, that’s where we went.
Friday was full of lectures and panels. Good stuff. Lots to learn and lots of people to meet. The lectures were generally excellent. But we were distracted. By mid-afternoon, we were all in the Club Night room, setting up our booth.
And then, the moment we’d all been waiting for: Club Night. We were ready to pour our best for the other homebrewers.
Once more, we limped back to our Airbnb, there to rehash the glory of our booth and drink a few more beers. We were joined by Mara’s dad, about whom we’ve heard so much. Andy T and Pierre, however, went to bed early because…..
First thing Saturday morning, Andy and Pierre gave their lecture on techno brewing toys for cheapskates. The room was packed. The talk was VERY well-received. By all accounts, one of the highlights of HBC. Woot!
After that, we broke down the booth and packed it in the cars, caught a few last lectures, had lunch (and a couple of more beers), and stumbled home. There were more parties going on, but we were done.
A wildly successful convention and a great showing by the club.
Time to start planning for next year in Nashville!
For our May meeting, we were once again hosted by one of our pro-brewer friends. In this case, it was Aspetuck Brew Labs who graciously provided space. Owner Peter Cowles was behind the bar, pouring his delicious beer, and also gave us a tour of the brewing area, answering our many nosy questions.
Aspetuck is part of Bridgeport, of course. Connecticut natives of a certain age, like me, grew up with a mental image of Bridgeport. Not a good one. There was even a song about it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvvPsFTjPRM), released when I was in high school and played in heavy rotation on the New Haven radio stations for a while.
Can a brewery change the image of a city? I’m thinking maybe so. ABL is cozy, friendly, and makes great beer. Definitely a destination worth traveling to. Maybe it’s time to retire that song.
Peter provided the space. Zach provided the food and poured the entries. He handled both of these duties like an old pro despite the fact that this was his first time. I forgot to take pics of the spread (or of anything, oops), but nobody went home hungry.
Zach was faced with a happy problem which we’ve had at a number of our recent meetings: a zillion homebrews for judging. The club seems to be in high gear, with everyone brewing often and looking for feedback. We were awash in beers. Zach had it all organized. Never broke a sweat.
We had a number of new members as well, another happy trend of late. We’re never organized enough to get everyone’s name. All are welcome, nonetheless.
We also saw one of our longest-serving members, who hasn’t come to a meeting in years: Gregg Hero Glaser. Let’s hope he rejoins us on a regular basis.
Tasting notes:
Were there more? Probably. I began to lose track by the end. Sorry!
The Underground Brewers have been the recipients of massive amounts of support and love from area breweries and brewpubs lately. No fewer than five different breweries have offered to host our meetings this year, and a brewery that hasn’t even opened yet has offered to host SNERHC. It’s an understatement to say we are grateful. But we’ll say it anyway: Thank you!
Our April club meeting was held in the brewing area of Bad Sons Brewing in Derby. This is in a great old factory building near the center of town. A beautiful space with plenty of room for us.
Most of us arrived early enough to sample some of Bad Sons’ wares. No one was disappointed. They have an excellent line-up of fine brews. Hats off to the brewers.
We were excited to see several first-timers, all of whom brought excellent beers for judging. We certainly hope they’ll become regulars.
Andy Tipler provided the food and ran the meeting. He overdid it on the munchies, as usual. No one complained.
Many excellent beers were judged. Notes:
Our March 2019 meeting was not the first one hosted by Eric and Jessica Sforza and The Cutest Puppy On Four Legs ™. But it was the first hosted in The Love Shack, their renovated home office party room pub in the back yard. It will not be the last.
First, the space is simply awesome. Everyone (except the Sforzas) felt more than a twinge of envy surveying the wood paneling, 6-tap bar, timber-framed hearth, Vermont Castings wood stove, and comfy furniture. I’m sure there were a few discussions later that evening about transforming similar structures at other homes. But it would be very hard to equal what the Sforzas have done with that space.
Second, the bar is amazing. Beautiful reclaimed wood. Numerous taps. A beer engine. Tasting glasses. A glass rinser. Yeah, a real one. The amount of joy provided by that rinser was just a bit obscene. (We’re all going to look at Pierre a little differently from now on.)
Third, the food was over the top. Homemade sourdough. Many cheeses. And homemade cookies bearing the host’s own face. (For real.)
Fourth, the puppy. They don’t come any cuter.
And finally, the host’s own beer, mead, and cider. Which was all fantastic.
We dispensed with formal judging for this meeting and just sampled. There was a HUGE variety of entries across the range of beer, mead, and cider. Some commercial. Most homebrew. Almost all excellent. (My mead was a rare clunker.) Notes below.
So, an enormous “thank you” to the Sforzas! We will be back!
Tasting notes. I actually think I’m missing a few. I know I’m missing my own mead (which was bad anyway). And they were still pouring when I had to leave. But this is most of it:
Brew Haven launched the first-annual Connecticut Inter-Club Homebrewing Championship and Paul Hayslett took home the top honors for his Baltic Porter, which means he and The Underground Homebrewers of Connecticut are the 2019 Champions!
Big thanks to Brew Haven and Counterweight Brewing for organizing and hosting this year’s competition.
In addition to Paul, the club was also represented by Andy Tipler who entered an English Porter, and myself (Caysey Welton) who entered an American Porter.
Seven clubs participated and the judges indicated there were several excellent porters (this year’s theme).
Paul will hold on to the trophy for a year, until we all come together again for next year’s competition. Let’s make sure it stays in our club’s hands!
Only a couple home brews, but several great commercial beers this month.
This month’s meeting was a more casual affair. Mara welcomed around 10 Yahoos into her home for what was supposed to be an Oktoberfest theme. While there was a German beer (or maybe two) on hand, we mostly sampled a wide range of other commercial styles, including some choice offerings from Mara’s cellar.
We only tasted three blind samples, but one was actually Maine Beer’s Lunch, which scored 36 overall. We also did open evaluation of two of Pierre’s Belgian-style ales, as well as Mara’s brett IPA and Paul’s bouche.
Thanks again to Mara for hosting! October’s meeting will be held at Phil and Cathy’s home in Norwalk. Check your email or Facebook for more information.
Also, don’t forget about SNERC! We still need judges and stewards, and there are still plenty of entry spots left.
Key Dates:
Submission deadline: 10/15
Entry sorting: 10/22
SNERC: 10/28
