2012 Montana Brewers Festival Winners

October 9th, 2012

Best of Show:  Lewis and Clark Brewing Co.’s  Red Ale

Best of the Fest: Lewis and Clark Brewing Co.’s  Red Ale

Best Light Lager: Wildwood Brewing Co. Czech Pils

Best Amber/Red: Lewis and Clark Brewing Co.’s  Red Ale

Best Oktoberfest: The Front’s Oktoberfest

Best Dark Ale: 406 Brewing Co’s Brown Porter

Best IPA: Lewis and Clark Brewing Co.’s  Tumbleweed IPA

Best Light Ale: Tamarack Brewing Co’s Sip N Go Naked Apricot Ale

Best Wheat/Rye: Wildwood Brewing Co’s Organic White Bark Wheat

Best Pale Ale: Great Norther Brewing Co’s Frog Hop 2012

Best Belgian: Blackfoot River’s Montana Style Lambic

Best Stout: Blackfoot River’s Double Black Diamond Stout

Best Imperial: Bitterroot Brewing Co’s Citra Honey Imperial IPA**

This was the finest Brewfest I have ever had the pleasure to judge. The quality of the beers that were on display was superb. There were many beers that scored as excellent representations of their stated style and quite a few that were considered world class examples of their stated style. Montana’s Breweries have truly shown themselves to be  exceptional. Thanks to all the brewers and staff for making this one of the best brewfests.

Daniel Lee

Vice President, Zoo City Zymurgists.

**Edit I initially erroneously reported Madison rivers Imperial IPA as the winner of the Imperial category. It came in as a close second. My apologies.

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ZCZ News for the Fall

August 29th, 2012
Allright Zymurgists I’ve got a bit to cover here so bear with me.
 
First off is the Community brew. The club has decided (by a slim majority) on Other Smoked Beer (BJCP Category22B) for the community brew this year. If you have never brewed a smoked beer don’t be intimidated, a smoked beer does not have to taste like campfire! Look at the guidelines and do a little research. I recommend the section on smoked beers in Brewing Classic Styles. I also recommend trying Alaskan Smoked Porter or Stone Smoked Porter as both are great examples of this style (you don’t have to use porter as the base beer this has just been a popular one) and are usually available in missoula. 
 
Next up is the New Club shirt design. Carl has put together some great designs for a new club shirt. These shirts will be short sleeve Dickie’s style button up work shirts. The design Carl worked up will be printed on the back and the club name will be printed on the front above the pocket. There will also probably be an option to personalize the front with your name (or a title if you like) above the pocket as well (more on that as we get closer to production). There were 2 major variations that Carl worked up, a side facing kangaroo skull and a front facing one. Both can be viewed on the clubs facebook site and can also be viewed on Flickr. We do need to decide on one so I have posted a grupthink topic on this here. Please vote on this by Friday Sept. 7th as we would like to get these done before the Montana Brewfest in Oct so we can sell them (and sport them) there.
 
Just a heads up that we will be helping out with the Montana Brewfest this year. I believe this is the first time (or at least the first time in a while) that this festivall has been held in Missoula. Its 100% Montana breweries. There will be 20 breweries featuring 70 beers and each brewery is brewing a special release beer just for the festival! This is going to be the beer event to be at. The Club is sponsoring this event so we really need all hands on deck for volunteers for this. Its going to be Oct 6th from noon to 7pm, more info here. I’ll be sending out more info for volunteers later.
 
Last but not least is the Iron Brewer spring contest. I’m bringing this up now because we are doing things a little different this year. We are going to do A single hop IPA Iron brewer contest. The way this works is similar to the normal Iron Brewer, everyone posts hop varieties on the grupthink and we randomly draw a variety for each contestant. Each contestant must then brew an IPA with ONLY that variety. This contest will still be judged at the spring meeting in April, but since a lot of the hop varieties go out of stock before then I wanted to get them assigned early so people can purchase their hops as they are available. You can add hop varieties to the grupthink here  and we will draw them at the Oct meeting. I think this will be a really cool challenge and a great opportunity for all of us to learn what different hops bring to the table. Last year we had 20+ contestants so lets try and shoot for 25 varieties.
 
If you have any questions send them out via the brewlist.
 
Prost!

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Summer Party

August 3rd, 2012

The annual ZCZ summer party will be hosted by Carl this year. Mike will be bringing the english bitter he brewed at the last club meeting and I believe Nick S is putting together something as well. Stay tuned to the brewlist for further info.

It is once again time to pick the community brew. You can vote or add a style here. Remember you can vote for more than one answer so pick your favorite 2 or 3 if you like. Also bribing and extorting other members to vote for your favorite style is not only allowed but encouraged! The voting will end the Friday before the summer party. If you have questions please submit them via email to the brewlist.

Prost!

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June Meeting

June 9th, 2012

Alright Zymurgists, we are cramming it all in this week! First its Happy hour time, we had to postpone last months so we are going to go ahead and meet up at Sean Kelly’s on Wed the 13th from 5-7. Then on Saturday the 16th we will have a brew meeting. This meeting will be held at Mike and Paula’s starting at 5pm. This is a brew meeting so BYOB especially homebrew to show off. Contact the brew list for directions. Also we will be posting a grupthink for suggestions/volunteers for a BJCP study group. We need to have a schedule of study days and conformation of those interested. There will be a small fee to help purchase “supplies” and to help insure attendance. If there are any questions send them out via the brew list. Hope to see you all this week.

Here is the link for the grupthink

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Iron Brewer results

April 25th, 2012

The results are in for the Iron Brewer! Nick Shontz is this years official Iron Brewer! Many great beers were had by all. The top scoring beers are listed below.

1st place-Nick Shontz with his Chili P pale ale

2nd place-Peter Gornick with his Banana Cruiser cream ale

3rd place-Sean Burke with his basil saison.

Congratulations to the winners!

Also:

Don’t forget the upcoming community brew unveiling at big sky on the 26th.  

Brewfest is on may 5th. It will be preceeded by missoula’s craft beer week. Further info here http://missoulabeerweek.com/

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Feb Meeting

February 13th, 2012

The february meeting is going to be on Sat Feb 25th. Forrest and Clarisa have volunteered to host (Thanks guys)They are doing a 10 gal all grain batch of IPA, they plan to start around noon with the mash. They will provide a variety of appetizers and snack foods, but anyone else who wants to contribute may. We will also be drawing ingredients for the Iron brewer competition those unable to make it will be able to get their ingredients via e-mail later. This is a brewing meeting so please bring your own beverages (especially homebrew to sample!) Hope to see everyone there!

Contact the brewlist for directions to their house.

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Latest News

February 2nd, 2012

It is time once again for the ZCZ Iron brewer contest. A grupthink has been set up for members to add ingredients. We will then draw from these ingredients at the feb meeting. Those unable to attend the feb meeting will get a chance to draw an ingredient via email after the meeting. The beers will then be judged at the april meeting. Last years contest was a huge success with many notable brews including Peanut butter stout, Green tea blonde, coffee scotch ale, gingerbread amber, bacon porter, sweet potato brown ale, beet beer, marshmallow peep saison, maple barley wine and many others I’m forgetting due to the amount of great beers that were consumed that day. So put on your thinking caps and submit some of the weirdest ingredients you can think of to brew with. Just remember you could end up drawing that ingredient so try to keep them within the realm of brewing possibility. Here is the link.
 
http://grupthink.com/topic/15777/Ingredients_for_the_2012_Iron_brewer
 

Speaking of the Feb Meeting Forrest and Clarisa have volunteered to host. This meeting will take place on Feb 25th. (exact time and directions to their place  will be posted soon) Forrest and Clarissa have an all grain set up so those interested in seeing an all grain brew should try and show up at the start of the meeting to get the full experience!

Winter brewfest is coming up.Its going to be on Saturday, February 11, 2012 from 2:00pm until 8:00pm. It will be located at the old Safeway building on West Broadway (next to St. Pat’s Hospital) further info below:

Join us for a day of fine winter brews. This event will be held in the Old
Safeway Building on West Broadway and features more than 30 beers on tap,
a wine bar, food and live music. $10 gets you a 7-ounce signature tasting
glass and two drink tokens – additional tokens are just $1 each. Come
early for best selection. Must be 21 years old to attend. Bring your ID
and please Drink Responsibly.

Music by Tom Catmull and the Clerics, Cash for Junkers

Last but definetly not least the results from the 2012 community brew are in, and the winner is……

Richard Dahlen.  Belgian Dark Strong Ale.

Runners up in no particular order:  Pat Markert-Belgian Szechuan Pepper Brown Ale, Ron Applegate-Belgian Rye, Richard Dahlen-Belgian Tripel

Congrats to Richard, nice job!

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Happy hour

January 17th, 2012

It’s Homebrew Club Happy Hour time again!!!!
 
We have thus far patronized all the Missoula breweries but one, so on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012, it’s time for us to visit the fine, fine folks at Kettle House.  This gathering will be held at their original location – 602 Myrtle Street, Missoula, Montana, USA – from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. 
 
All members who have paid their dues for 2012 will get a free beverage on the club – I have a list of the 21 folks who paid at the Xmas party.  For anybody else, I will be accepting 2012 club dues during the event.  Dues are $10 for the calendar year 2012.  Cash works great.  Checks should be made out to me, Patrick Markert.  Credit cards are not accepted.
 
See you there!

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Deadline for the Community brew and stuff

December 30th, 2011

This years community brew deadline is fast approaching. All entries should be submitted the week of Jan 9th to Big Sky Brewing Co. Each bottle should have labels removed and be labeled with the base style of the beer the brewers name and contact info. Remember you have to have your club dues paid in order enter.

The holiday party was a great time! Thanks Mike and Paula for hosting. A great time was had by all.

The new T-shirts are available and they look great! Contact Asa to get one. The Quote this year is “Buy a man a beer and he will waste an hour, teach a man to brew and he will waste a lifetime”  and they are chocolate brown in color. (hides wort stains well) 

Stay tuned for Januarys happy hour meeting date!

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Info for the holiday party

December 12th, 2011

Hi All,
 
Only 6 shopping days left till the ZCZ Holiday party.
 
Where: Mike and Paula’s – 2306 Garland Dr, Missoula; our part of Garland is off of 23rd, not Gharrett.
When: Saturday, Dec. 17th at 6:00 pm.
Drink: Club will have 5 gallons of beer that we brewed at the October meeting. Bring what ever else you want to drink and share.
Food: ZCZ will provide heavy appetizers. If members want to bring good stuff to eat, we should be able to find room on the table.
Activities: White Elephant gift exchange starts at 7:30pm. Remember, these are white elephant gifts, so if you are buying something, keep it on the inexpensive side. Make sure you wrap the gift or, if wrapping challenged, have it hidden in a bag. If you are bringing guests, make sure they also have a gift so everyone gets to join in the fun.
 
If you have darts, steel tipped, bring those too. Late night drunken darts downstairs has been a tradition.
 
And most importantly, plan on safe driving home. If folks want to crash, we have extra rooms. Cab rides from our house to most places in Missoula are usually $15-20. Lots cheaper than dealing with Missoula’s finest. I assume after the past two weekends, they are on a roll.
 
Send questions our way.
 
Cheers!
Mike and Paula
543-4205

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