Category: Style of the Quarter

Old Ales are category 17B in the BJCP Guidelines.

Please Note: This is a keg competition to be judged, by popular vote,
at the BAM Christmas party on Saturday, December 10th.  If you bottle
condition your beers, those are also welcome.  Let Jon know if you
have any questions.

For some great info see Keefer’s presentation on Old Ales.

Congratulations to our winners:

1st place:  Matthew Youngblut
2nd place: Dannon Baker
3rd place: Theo Rohr

This quarter’s style of the quarter is fruit beers.  Fruit beers are category 29 and 28C (Wild Specialty Beer) in the BJCP Guidelines.

As usual, beers are due at Oak Barrel the first Thursday of the last month of the quarter – in this case, Thursday September 1st.  Please check out the SOQ page on the BAM website for all details regarding standards for submitting to the contest, and let Jon know if you have any questions.

Congratulations again to our SOQ winners for the World Cup Stout contest!

1. Patrick Bennett and Brian Buckingham
2. Aaron Schleifer
3. Jason Davis

As discussed at last week’s meeting, we will be focusing on Wheat Beers for the upcoming SOQ – which actually encompasses quite a few styles. Please plan on brewing one of the following bjcp styles (and making sure you note the style on your entry):

• 1D – American Wheat

Any of the 3 category 10 German Wheat beers

• 22D – Wheatwine
• 23A – Berliner Weisse
• 24A – Witbeer

And the Historical:

• 27 – Gose

As usual, beers are due at Oak Barrel the first Thursday of the last month of the quarter – in this case, Thursday June 2nd. Please check out the SOQ page on the BAM website for all details regarding standards for submitting to the contest, and let me know if you have any questions.

Happy Brewing!

Please join me in congratulating the winners of the IPA SOQ – who were the top 3 vote getters at Saturday’s BAM holiday party:

At our July meeting, we announced the winers of the Q2 Style of the Quarter (SOQ), the “Rye” Challenge:

• 1st place: James Duerr for his “Rye Bite” American Rye bee
• 2nd place: Patrick Bennett and Brian Buckingham for their American Rye Stout
• 3rd place: Gilbert Guerrero for his “California Rye” California Common beer

Congratulations  to the winner!

­ Brian Buckingham, our SOQ coordinator, also  introduced the third quarter challenge, Smoked Beers! For those at the July meeting, you heard Lee Shepard talk about smoked beers, and tried a few samples, so are a leg up on the competition. For the rest, you can read the slides here.
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For this competition, you can enter any BJCP category of beer, so long as it incorporates smoked malt.

Due date will be first Thursday in September (the 3rd), with entries being dropped off at the Oak Barrel in Berkeley.
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Start thinking through recipe and schedule brew day soon, as smoked beers almost always benefit from a longer period of mellowing. If you can’t wait to try all these amazing creation, be sure to volunteer for the judging sessions when Brian sends out the email. All experiences of judges (from novice to advances) are welcome, and it’s a great way to get a “taste” for the world of beer judging.

Rye Beer!

Hey all – the votes are in, and Rye came away as the clear favorite when selecting the special ingredient for this round of SOQ.  Here are a few more details so you can start your brew planning:

Comp info:

• Make the best darn beer with rye in it that you can!
• Pick any style you like, and incorporate rye however you’d like, and in whatever quantity seems best.
• Entries will be judged against both 1) the base style specified; and 2) the nature of the rye character in your beer.

Comp timing:

Entries due to Oak Barrel no later than Thursday, June 4th.  Brewing sometime in the next 3 weeks will be the prudent approach.

English Pale Ale

We’re doing thing a bit differently this month. We’ll be partnering with the upcoming World Cup of Beer competition for the Q1 2015 Style of the Quarter. What this means is you’ll actually be submitting your beers to World Cup to be professionally judged through that contest, as opposed to judged strictly through BAM. Since it does cost money to enter World Cup, all entrants will receive a $10 gift card to Oak Barrel (bring copy of entry form to March meeting, or see Brian Buckingham). More details:

• Competition category: Brew any of the 3 styles within the English Pale Ale category (BJCP category 8)
• Registration between Jan 19 – March 4
• www.worldcupofbeer.com for full details

SOQ winners will be decided based on highest scoring from World Cup judging, with standard 1st thru 3rd prizes being awarded. So, even if you don’t place at World Cup, you may still win the club competition.

Happy brewing!

Hey everyone! This month’s presentation will be on Belgian beers, which also happens to be our upcoming Style of the Quarter.

Our speaker, Kim Sturdavant, is the brewmaster at Social Kitchen and Brewery, which opened about four years ago. Kim previously worked at Marin Brewing for five years with Arne Johnson.

So come out out and learn about Belgians, then get ready to compete in the club’s quarterly competition. For those that haven’t entered an event before, this is a great opportunity to see how competitions works (we use the same scoresheets, get some early feedback on your next award winning recipe, or just an excuse to brew something new.

Here are some more details on the SOQ this month, from our SOQ coordinator, Brian Buckingham:

• SOQ topic:  Belgian beers, including any style within BJCP categories 16, 17 or 18
• Due Date:  Thursday, December 4th @ Oak Barrel
• Last weekend to brew by:  Assuming you are bottle conditioning or force carbonating with the ‘set and forget’ method, plan to brew no later than the weekend of October 25 – 26. While there are exceptions to every rule, please keep in mind that most belgian styles will benefit from additional aging, especially those styles with a higher ABV point.
• Contest judging will take place during the month of December, with winners announced at the January 2015 regular meeting.