March 2025

Have you ever considered becoming a beer judge? I’ve been debating pursuing certification for a while. I got the opportunity to participate as a judge for the Peak to Peak Pro-Am and it was a really fun experience. If you’ve been curious about this process, consider joining the practice session the club has coming up after our next meeting, details below.


Monthly Meeting

March’s meeting is our 4th Annual White Elephant Quarterly Challenge. Looking forward to seeing (and tasting) what you all brewed up with your mystery ingredients…

We’ll taste the quarterly challenge entries and hear from each participant about their beer. A reminder for folks to bring in 2-3 samples of your entry. After tasting, the winners will be announced. This event is welcome to all, whether you entered the quarterly competition or not.


BJCP Practice Session

Following the March meeting, you're invited to a BJCP training session. We'll sample three different beers and practice filling out BJCP score sheets and assigning scores. No prior experience is required! The goal is to familiarize ourselves with the judging process. Beer samples and pizza provided for paid members, $10 requested from non-paid members.

If you plan on attending this, please RSVP with this form. We will send an email with Bobby’s address the day of the meeting, for those who may not have it.


Education Corner

Acetaldehyde

Often described as smelling and tasting like green apples. Others describe it as oxidized apples, acetic cider, pumpkin flesh/seeds, or unripe avocados. Acetaldehyde is the immediate precursor to ethanol in fermentation. It is found in large quantities during the early stages of fermentation and is produced in large masses by yeast in the early stages of their metabolic cycle.


It is also formed by beer sitting too long on yeast. This is why dumping yeast before aging is important. When yeast health is poor, cells can burst open and die (referred to as autolysis), which releases Acetaldehyde. 


A practical way to avoid Acetaldehyde is to not remove beer from yeast until fermentation is complete. Just with diacetyl, raising the fermentation temperature near the end of fermentation will help resolve this issue.