Category: Meeting notes

Our July meeting at Steve Victor’s house was a throwback in so many ways.

It was an old-fashioned “judging” meeting, where we tasted and gave feedback on each other’s beers, meads, and ciders.

It was in a member’s home (albeit on the back porch for covid safety). As tends to happen in member-hosted meetings, we got a tour of the brewing space and raided the host’s cellar.

It featured entirely too much food provided by the host, including a delicious chicken dish and a huge cheese board.

In short, Steve gave us a throwback to the old days. It felt good.

Thank you, Steve!

We tasted many homebrews over the course of the evening. Quality was, for the most part, exceptional. We’ve sometimes been accused of “grade inflation”, scoring things higher in meetings than we would at a competition. But, when pressed to identify a flaw or some other reason to lower a score, we never could. The offerings really were that good.

• NEIPA by Mara: Ripe tropical fruit, just a hint of solvent, very cloudy, tons of hop flavor, extremely drinkable. An experiment with dry-hopping (100% Citra) while bubbling CO2 through the fermenter. 9/3/16/2/8 = 39
• Saison by Paul H: Very fruity, somewhat peppery, not dry enough for style. Experiment with Cellar Science dry Saison yeast. 7/3/12/4/8 = 34
• Saison by Andy C: Citrus and spice, “ineffable saisoniness”, slight haze, tannic, drinkable. Mangrove Jack yeast and motueka hops, repitched on some wild bugs. 10/2/14/4/8 = 38
• Belgian Strong Golden by Andy T: Aroma quite subtle, very dry finish makes it crazy drinkable, undercarbed but delicious. “Mistake” beer – was supposed to be a single but ended up at 8.5% abv. 10/2/18/4/9 = 43
• Irish Stout by Andy T: Chocolate, coffee, hint of cinnamon, clean and dry and very drinkable. Much “bigger” than Guinness, but that’s okay. 9/3/18/5/9 = 44
• Lemon-Ginger Hydromel by Steve: Assertive lemon and ginger, florals not lost, clean with high acidity and just a little tannin, refreshing and beautiful. Made with the honey he won at SNERHC. 9/22/6/9 = 46
• New World Cider by Andy C. Presented for feedback but not for scoring. Made from apples grown by Thrall family. Acidic and flavorful, just off-dry, very drinkable. Would be perfect with a little tannin and some bubbles.
• New World Cider by Andy T. Lots of apple, sweet, perfumy, super dry finish, drinks like a dry white wine, only flaw is some acetone in the aroma. Very drinkable. 5/19/6/8 = 38
• New World Cider by Steve. Malolactic character, phenolic, absolutely delicious but doesn’t quite fit any of the BJCP styles. 8/20/6/8 = 42
• Cider with Cherries and Brett by Steve. Very complex, with lots of different flavors in balance: cherries, apples, Brett, graham crackers. Dry finish makes it super drinkable despite complexity. Yum. 8/20/6/9 = 43

No one remembered to take pictures, alas.

Our June 2022 meeting was at Brewport Brewing Company in Bridgeport, CT. Attendance was sparse; summer activities and sick kids were a distraction for too many members. This was a real shame because our host was Jeff Browning, the premier historian of brewing in Connecticut over the last 200 years.

Jeff has two books coming out, both written in collaboration with Dr. Terry Foster. You may have heard of Dr. Foster through his “Porter” book or through his writings in Brew Your Own, Zymurgy, and other national magazines. You may not know that he has published over a dozen other books, including a homebrewers’ guide which pre-dated Papazian’s.

Jeff and Terry have complementary skills. Jeff collects voraciously: artifacts, stories, people, everything. Terry methodically collates and codifies, meticulously cross-referencing everything and following up on loose ends. Starting with a rich trove of hand-written brewing logs spanning decades of commercial brewing history, they have fleshed out the story of brewing in and around Bridgeport from the late 1800s through and beyond Prohibition.

In the process, Jeff and Terry have debunked a number of myths about old beer styles, brewing processes, ingredients, and people. They have recreated a number of historical recipes and can defend their accuracy. Jeff allowed us to sample two of them – a cream ale and a lager – and spoke about how they are two very different beers made from essentially the same grain bill.

Jeff’s talk was, simply, the most informative brewing-related talk I’ve ever listened to. None of us wanted it to end. We immediately resolved to gather a much larger group, perhaps in combination with other brew clubs, to hear a talk by Terry Foster too.

In the meantime, we look forward to the new books. If they are half as interesting as Jeff’s talk, we will all want copies.

Thank you Jeff!

May 7, 2022 was Big Brew Day, an annual event sponsored by the AHA.

SpaceCat Brewing of Norwalk had graciously offered us their side yard space in which to gather and celebrate BBD by brewing numerous batches of homebrew. They also offered us water, electricity, and access to the tap room before official opening.

The day dawned cold and raw, with forecasts of driving rain and strong wind gusts. Not great weather for brewing outside. Could that deter us? No way!

An intrepid crew of brewers braved the elements to brew 4 batches of beer using a wide variety of equipment and procedures. We set up pop-up tents to keep the worst of the rain off and weighted them down against the wind gusts. Jeff and the rest of the SpaceCat crew jumped in to help whenever we realized we’d forgotten some critical ingredient or piece of equipment.

There was hot coffee, cold beer from SpaceCat, homebrew samples from members new and old, and lots of baked goods. It was a good time.

We had handouts. But no non-brewers showed much interest in the idiots standing in the rain.

The pop-ups kept us somewhat dry.

Somewhat. A river still ran through it.

Rosie the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog was our official mascot.

Just as we were about to pack up the cars, a band of very heavy rain came through. We retreated to the tap room until it passed.

Huge thanks to SpaceCat! And to Andy Cox for organizing the entire event.

After a somewhat weak showing at SNERHC, there were rumors that the Underground Brewers had lost their mojo. Were we no longer the brewers we thought we were?

Nope. We’re good.

Better than good, as a matter of fact. We’re DAMN good.

Greg Radawich host the first annual New England Brewing Company Homebrew Competition on April 23. An all-star panel of judges, both BJCP and and professional (many were both) evaluated 120 beers from as far away as Texas.

“All-star” is not hyperbole. The outpouring of support for Greg was exceptional. Judges from the BJCP’s highest ranks were there, as were brewers from some of the country’s best craft breweries.

And the UBC romped! An excellent showing.

Yeah. We can still bring it.

https://reggiebeer.com/ReggieWeb.php?Web=1000700

As most of you know, both Maltose Express and Veracious Brewing have been turfed out of their spaces because another tenant in the building wanted the whole thing. Maltose has already vacated its portion and moved into the back part of Veracious. They will both shut down completely before the end of May.

Mark and Tess, the couple who ran both businesses, have been awesome to us for 31 years. Veracious has graciously hosted many, many club events: monthly meetings, SNERHC sorting nights, mead-tasting events, etc. It’s hard to imagine that the space won’t be available to us anymore.

It was fitting, therefore, to hold our April meeting in their upstairs space. This allowed us to say a proper goodbye to a place that means a lot to us. More importantly, it allowed us to say a proper “thank you” to Mark and Tess for all their years of support.

Not a coincidence: The April meeting was also the first post-covid meeting which really felt like “the before times”. Attendance was excellent, with some 2 dozen members, including some new ones and some whom we haven’t seen in ages. There was so much homebrew that we could not properly judge it all. It really felt like the club was back to its old strength for the first time.

Mid-way through the evening, Mark and Tess came upstairs. We were able to give them a teeny token of our thanks, thoughtfully put together by Andy Cox. We all reminisced and raised a toast.

The best part? Mark promised that he would start homebrewing again and that they would both start attending meetings as regular members. That would make us all happy.

As mentioned above, there was much homebrew. We started out judging properly. When we ran out of time, we got a little sloppy.

• American Blonde, the Huxfords. “Seems more Australian than American”. Hop-forward. Hints of guava. Easy to drink. 8/3/13/4/7 = 35
• Ordinary Bitter, Andy T. English hops all day long. Absolutely nails the style. Apparently, only 3.4%abv. 10/3/16/5/8 = 42
• American Pale, Matt J. Grass, cat pee, and Meyer lemon. Fruity and very hop-forward. Could use a little more malt. 7/3/12/3/7 = 32
• Brett Saison, Mara. Sweet-tart. Black Pepper. Steve V was “seduced”. 3 years old. Made with kveik and Brett. 8/3/16/3/7 = 37
• IPA, the Huxfords. Beautifully balanced. Some candy sweetness. Bitter finish. Fantastic. Mosaic, Citra, and Sabro. 10/3/15/5/8 = 41
• Trappist Single, Mark V. Banana, bubble gum, and spice. Bready. Needs more bubbles. 6/2/11/4/5 = 28
• Unblended Lambic, Caysey. Barnyard smell. Sour and complex. Pierre says it’s perfect. Juicy, acidic, and bright. 10/3/17/5/9 = 44
• Imperial Flanders Red with Zante currants, Andy T. Red wine nose. Alcohol, fresh figs, chocolate. Just phenomenal. Superb. Yummy. 6 years old. 2 – 3 lbs fruit in 5 gallons.
• New World Cider, Steve V. Apple pie, including spices. Hint of sulfur. Juice from Pine Hill Orchard. Just lovely.
• Hydromel, the Huxfords. Tons of honey flavor and aroma. Carbonation would help with balance. Very, very tasty.

For our March meeting, we were able to return to our roots, in more ways than one.

We did meet in February. In person. A wonderful evening at Spacecat Brewing. There was Spacecat beer and there was homebrew and there was face-to-face talk. An excellent time. Many thanks to the Spacecat folks for being such generous hosts.

Where are the meeting notes? Well, we were so rusty after 2 years of Zooming that we totally fell down on the blind judging and note-taking. Not completely unexpected that we’d screw up a little. We’ve been out of practice a long time.

For March, our gracious host was Phil Markowski, in the Area Two building at Two Roads. And this is one way we went back to our roots. Phil joined the Underground Brewers in 1985, when our founder, Pat Baker, was still in charge and Phil was just a homebrewer. He is a direct link to our earlier self.

Phil gave us an extensive tour of Area Two, including the barrel rooms, the pilot brewhouse, the distillery, the classroom area that Sacred Heart University uses, and the coolship. He patiently answered a zillion questions and sampled our homebrew. Thank you, Phil!

After the tour came the judging. Real judging. Blind judging. With notes and scores. Just like the old days. Back to our roots for real. (And Phil had stories about how judging was done back in 1985, before the whole BJCP thing had gotten worked out.)

Somewhere in the pictures below, you see one of an ancient guy who really needs to rethink his facial hair pouring homebrew into teeny glasses. It’s what we do. It’s what we’ve always done. It felt good.

Judging notes:

• Munich Helles (Paul H): Green apple aroma, too sweet, somewhat astringent, stale? 4/3/10/3/4 = 24
• IPL (Andy C): Needs more malt in aroma and a little more bitterness in the finsh. But very drinkable. 8/3/12/4/7 = 34
• Best Bitter (Pierre and Steve): Dank, light-struck?, too dry – impacts drinkability. 7/2/10/3/4 = 26
• Weissbier (Caysey): Excellent example of the style. Extremely drinkable. 10/3/15/5/8 = 41
• Rye Farmhouse (Justin): Complex and fruity. Chewy and viscous. Delicious. 10/3/14/4/7 = 38
• New World Cider (Steve): Nice fruit presentation, fantastic tannic finish, incredibly drinkable. 4/6/18/8 = 36
• American Porter (Paul H): Complex malty aroma, but too sweet. Needs more hop bitterness. Creamy. Drinkable. 11/3/13/4/7 = 38
• American Wild with Tropical Fruit (Andy T): Voluptuous aroma, some Cheerios in the flavor. Fun and flavorful. 10/3/12/5/7 = 37
• Blueberry Cyser (Paul B): Aroma a bit hot and phenolic, flavor is perfectly balanced across all axes, delicious and drinkable. 7/6/18/7 = 38

After a few months of real, face-to-face meetings, omicron came and sent us back to Zoom-land for our January meeting. It was great seeing everyone faces. But we really wish that it had been in person.

And we really talked about brewing! Much discussion about fast lagering, kveik, and the possibility of building a club centrifuge for clearing lagers.

As of this writing, CT’s covid numbers are going in the right direction. So we have every intention of meeting face-to-face in February!

The Underground Brewers were formed 46.5 years ago with the express purpose of tasting each other’s homebrew and offering suggestions for improvement. That much is well-documented. Less well-documented is when the first friendly competition between members arose. But, people being people, we can confidently assume that it happened sometime within the first few months.

The annual in-house competition, complete with trash talk and deeded bragging rights, was well-established by the time I joined the club 19 years ago. It already had a name and a history. The name was in questionable taste even then and did not survive into our more-PC era. So now we just call it “the in-house competition”.

A decidedly non-PC trophy was also involved at that time. Subsequent efforts to replace it with a much more appropriate trophy – the brewing spoon used by the late Von Bair when making his many award-winning brews – have been less successful. Everyone loves the spoon, but the other … um … thing continues to live on. It has been censored in the winner’s photo.

(Don’t worry, folks. That thing really will disappear at some point. We aren’t complete cretins, and the spoon really is better.)

This year marks another break from the competition’s history. For the first time, we gave out two awards, one for beer and one for mead/cider. To some extent, this just recognizes the fact that we are making a lot more mead and cider than we used to. But it is also recognition that it’s really hard to judge one against the other on a Best-Of-Show table.

The competition was small this year, no doubt due to covid worries. But it was no less enthusiastic. Nor was there any shortage of fantastic brews in the running. One thing that has not changed at all in 46.5 years: we make damn good homebrew.

I had intended to write up the tasting notes. I may still scan them and attach the images. But I had my covid booster today and I lack the will to decipher the handwriting. Suffice to say that there wasn’t a bad brew in the mix.

Matt Jordan took Beer BOS with a Munich Helles which was grainy and clean and perfectly to style. Heaven in a bottle. But Mara Henek’s Saison – dry and spicy with just a hint of Brett – was so close behind it that we took a VERY long time to choose between the two. Two outstanding brews.

Andy Cox took home the Mead/Cider trophy with a New World Cider to die for. Nearly white in color and crystal clear, backsweetened just enough to take the edge off the acids, with an apple aftertaste that lasted forever.

Special thanks to the great folks at Reverie Brewing in Newtown for hosting us in their wonderful new event space at very short notice!

Congrats to our two winners! Start brewing for next year’s competition!

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We had our annual cider pressing on Nov 7. This is the event where we gather to buy fresh-pressed juice from heirloom cider apples, hand selected by Dan Beardsley at Beardsley Cider Mill in Shelton to make the best hard cider. As usual with homebrewer events, we tend to bring samples from last year’s pressing and have a bit of a party.

Like the last few years, this event was co-hosted with our sister club, Brew Haven. Combining the clubs makes the event much more fun.

Enormous thanks to Dan and the Beardsley crew for allowing us into their pressing room, and also to the organizers who did all the logistical heavy lifting. I know that Eric Sforza handled that for our club. Thanks, Eric!

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Photo credit: Matt Jordan (Thanks, Matt!)

For our October meeting, we returned to our roots. Our safe space. Our raison d’être.

We met in person (all vaxed, in a huge space with plenty of room and airflow) and we judged homebrew.

It felt good.

Why are we so judgy? Put simply, you cannot improve as a brewer if you don’t get good feedback. Blind judging gives brewers constructive criticism on the beer at hand. It also gives general advice for improving all homebrews. And finally, it trains the brewer’s palate, so the brewer can make informed decisions at home in the future.

It’s what we are. It’s what we do. We’ve been doing it for almost 50 years now. The past 18 months, when we could not do this, has been tough on the club. It’s good to be back.

Our venue was the back room at the wonderful New England Brewing Company (https://newenglandbrewing.com/). Greg Radawich was our host, providing us with the space and answering endless questions about NEBCo’s barrel program. Huge thanks to Greg and NEBCo for being so generous.

We also had a visit from Andy Orefice, one of the leaders of our sister club, Brew Haven, who brought us up to date on our upcoming co-hosted events, the cider pressing and the holiday party. You can tell which one he is in the pictures because he’s wearing a jacket and tie. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a jacket and tie at an Underground Brewers meeting before.

We had 6 homebrews to judge, beer and cider. From the scores below, you can see that the pandemic has not blunted our abilities to make great homebrew. Unfortunately, we seem to be out of practice on the note-taking part. I find no names attached to the brews in the tasting notes. So the brewers will have to remain anonymous this time. We’ll get back on this horse.

• Kolsch: A bit dark and full-bodied, some phenols. 7/2/10/2/5 = 26
• Czech Pils: Slightly cloudy, clean and hoppy. 9/2/12/4/6 = 33
• Weissbier: A bit thin and bitter, great nose. 9/3/11/4/6 = 33
• New World Cider: Somewhat sweet, tons of Brett. 6/6/15/6 = 33
• New World Cider: Hazy, refreshing clean apple flavor. 5/7/19/7 = 38
• Porter: Banana nose, a bit too sweet. 6/3/10/3/5 = 27