Mission
Welcome to the H.A.Z.E. site. Our mission is to promote beer brewing, education, and responsible consumption. Our main contribution to the national home brewing community is our annual competition dubbed "Queen of Beer" held in October. We are based in Placerville, California with active members surrounding the area. Club meetings are monthly on the second Thursday at 7:00pm.
The Fun Side
As a club we have 'team brew' sessions as time and location permit. The annual barleywine team brew usually gathers the highest attendance. Team brews may consist of individual brewers bringing their systems or the use of the club's trailer mounted system dubbed The Big Brew System (BBS). The club isn't only dedicated to brewing. We also believe it is important to support the local boys and girls club yearly.
Queen of Beer
Our club sponsors the annual, women brewers only, Queen of Beer competition. Women brewers nationwide submit their best brews in hopes of being crowned Queen of Beer. While many entrants are from Northern California, we have entries from New York, Florida, Alaska and many other states. Click here for a virtual audience with the current Queen of Beer.
Education
The club educates in as many ways as we can conceive and develop. Many of our members are BJCP certified beer judges. We encourage members to take part in the certification program not only to judge competitions but also to increase their understanding of the craft. One member has held two formal classes introducing interested people to the process of extract brewing. As a club we have volunteered at many craft brew related events to reach out to interested members of the community. We hope to extend our educational offerings outside of the local area with our web site. Please browse around to find beer recipes, brewing gadgets our members have created or use (ok, that's mostly just to show off), and a wealth of information on the process of brewing beer.
Our Members
Our members have been published in Zymurgy and Brew Your Own. One member is a semi-regular contributor to Zymurgy as a panel judge.
Like any brew club, we have members with a wide preference in style. There are three major groups within the club; the hopheads, those preferring German styles and those preferring Belgian styles. Everyone tends to agree that barleywine is a fine style to be brought out towards the end of a evening. The bulk of our beer production tends to be ales as not everyone has the required equipment needed for laagering.
Recently, our members have been winning medals for Trappist Ale, Wit, Weizen, Smoked Weizenbock, and Dunkelweizen. Apparently we are pretty good with wheat.
Where to Find Us
Placerville is located in the California gold country on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Our active members live from Pollock Pines to Folsom along the highway 50 corridor and from Georgetown to Plymouth in the north and south directions. If you're interested in learning to brew or are an advanced brewer, you're invited to stop by one of our meetings and see if the club is right for you. We don't discriminate based on extract or all-grain, male or female, or even if you enjoy Lambic.
