Home Brew Club

I attended my first Chico Home Brew Club meeting on Thursday night. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I'm not very knowledgeable. As it happens it was a great group of people, with about 40 or so members attending. And I didn't feel like a complete noob, as I actually knew what the style guide was. It was essentially two hours of beer tasting, with an emphasis on Bochs this month. A club member brought a few commercially available boch styles to sample, then club members offered up their own home brewed versions of bochs. It was quite a bit of fun to compare. After the bochs, we sampled a few other offerings, including an American Pale Ale, a Pomegranite Cider, and Dogfish Head's Pangea, which is a ginger beer. As usual with DFH offerings, it was over done.

As a member, I got my very own tasting glass:

Susan got one too, as I signed us both up. That gives her the option to attend club functions in the future. Such as a Sacramento Pub Crawl they are doing in a few weeks. They have a bus charted to take us down to a few pubs and breweries, where the club has arranged for samples and tours. Should be a lot of fun.

And I actually got a nice compliment from my neighbor Doug today, who was out changing the front brake pads on his Mercury Cougar. I brought him out a glass of my American Pale Ale I brewed back in January. It seems to be getting better each time I try it. Luckily Doug thought it was very good, and suggested I enter it in the upcoming competition. Not bad, considering he took Best of Show last year! I'm hoping to have three or four offerings to enter.

Oh, and Doug got us signed up to be stewards at the competition. That let's us take part in the pre and post club activities, which includes a lunch at Sierra Nevada and plenty of booze tasting.

C'