QUAFF Club Only Competitions

I am the co-coordinator and a judge for the bi-monthly Quality Ale and Fermentation Friends Club Only Competition (fondly known as QUAFF COC). There are different themes for each comp, and points are accumulated to award the QUAFF Homebrewer of the Year and QUAFF Rising Star of the Year. We have continued to successfully judge safely with social distancing through 2020 and 2021.

September’s theme was Fruit and Honey and including the following Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) categories:

Beer	Mead	Cider
29A Fruit Beer	M1A Dry Mead	C1A New World Cider
29B Fruit and Spice Beer	M1B Semi-Sweet Mead	C1B English Cider
29C Specialty Fruit Beer	M1C Sweet Mead	C1C French Cider
31B Alternative Sugar Beer (with Honey)	M2A Cyser	C1D New World Perry
	M2B Pyment	C1E Traditional Perry
	M2C Berry Mead	C2A New England Cider
	M2D Stone Fruit Mead	C2B Cider with Other Fruit
	M2E Melomel	C2C Applewine
	M3A Fruit and Spice Mead	C2D Ice Cider
	M3B Spice, Herb or Vegetable Mead	C2E Cider with Herbs/Spices
	M4A Braggot	C2F Specialty Cider/Perry
	M4B Historical Mead
	M4C Experimental Mead

Six highly experienced BJCP judges (an award-winning mazer and Mead Judge, Grand Master I and two Masters with cider and/or mead endorsements who are also award-winning brewers, an experienced comp organizing Certified judge, and I (somehow)) judged 24 beers, meads, and ciders submitted by 12 homebrewers, mazers, and cidermakers. While the theme was very broad and allowed 28 different styles, nine styles were entered.

The winners of the Sept QUAFF COC will be announced at tonight’s QUAFF general meeting at AleSmith Brewing.

Other 2021 competition themes have been Belgian Ales, New [Non-IPA] Styles, New Hop Varieties (featuring five new varieties from Yakima Valley Hops), and Session Beers (≤5% ABV). So far this year 41 brewers have entered two bottles each of 159 beers, meads, and ciders. November’s theme will be Strong Beers (≥8% ABV), and the final competition of the year tends to bring some fierce competition as folks vie for the prizes and present long-gestating brews.

Previous themes have included Kveik Yeast, American vs. German Wheat Beer, “C-Hops”, Adjuncts (≥20% non-barley fermentables), and Obligatory Holiday/Pumpkin Beers. We are currently planning the competitions for 2022 and are excited for the increased turnout both in the number of brewers and diversity of entries.

The goal of the QUAFF COC is “[t]o foster competition and provide club members with anonymous judging feedback.” The COC judges provide the brewers/mazers/cidermakers feedback for both process improvement and validation of their hard work. This feedback helps brewers brew better beer and enter other competitions.

For over 30 years QUAFF has been an award-winning homebrew club including winning the American Homebrewer Association (AHA) National Homebrew Competition (NHS) Homebrew Club Award nine times since 2001. The Homebrew Club Award is awarded to the club with the most total points in all categories in both first round and final round of competition. Club members have won dozens of final round medals through the years. And club members who have won the big prizes at NHC have gone on to become professional brewers.

Jamil Zainasheff won the Ninkasi Award (most individual points) in 2004 and 2007, wrote books and countless articles about brewing, continues to record podcasts, and co-founded the award-winning Heretic Brewing & Distilling in 2011 which has won two medals at GABF. Paul Sangster won the Ninkasi Award in 2011 and co-founded the award-winning Rip Current Brewing in 2012 which has won five medals at GABF and the Very Small Brewing Company of the Year in 2015. Nick Corona won the Homebrewer of the Year Award in 2016 where his hefeweizen was chosen as the best of the 31 gold-winning beers. Corona opened the already-award-winning Five Suits Brewing in 2020.

Countless QUAFF members have won competitions locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Members have also become excellent beer/mead/cider judges and both judged and organized competitions locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Members have also served in leadership roles in the AHA, BJCP, California Homebrewers Association, and elsewhere. Dozens of members have opened breweries in San Diego and beyond.

I’m excited to continue my personal growth with ongoing sensory training, with giving effective critical judging feedback, and diving deeper into the process of making all types of food and drink. I also am excited to learn of and experience the breadth and depth of food and drinks styles/categories and completions. And I’m eager to continue to meet the people who both compete and who volunteer their time to judge, organize, and administer these complex competitions and their parent organizations. Being the QUAFF COC co-coordinator is another step in the road to mapping out food and drinks competitions organization and decision-making strategies. And it’s a helluva lot of fun.

I haven’t written in almost 11 months, so feel like this post is ending with a whimper. Instead of futzing with it, I’ll leave it as is and promise that the next post will be about the BJCP certification process and the mechanics of judging. I’ll also post about my ever-growing beer, mead, cider, wine, spirits, food, and history library. And, once I finally fire up my homebrew setup, I’ll post about my (mis)adventures. Thanks for reading. Cheers!