2023 Quarterly Styles

Sunday, January 1, 2023

What are quarterly styles?

Each quarter of the year, the MVBC chooses a quarterly style. It is optional to brew a beer or beverage according to the style, though it is suggested! The quarterly style is intended to expand your brewing knowledge and give you an opportunity to speak with others about the style in a constructive way.

In the first month of the quarter, we will talk about the quarterly style. What does the style entail? What ingredients might you want to look for? What flavor components should be present or not (including taste, aroma, texture, appearance)? In this meeting, feel free bring in anything to share (homebrewed or not)!
In the second month of the quarter, we will taste commercial examples of the style. How do our observations while tasting the style line up with the knowledge that we got when discussing the style? Are the commercial examples well executed? What style elements do we like and not like, and what might we try to replicate? In this meeting, feel free to bring in a commercial example of the style.
In the third month of the quarter, we will bring our homebrewed examples of the style. How do our homebrewed version line up with the theoretical style definition and with the commercial examples? What did we achieve and what style elements might we want to improve? In this meeting, feel free to bring in your homebrew for the group to taste.

2023 Historical Styles

Q1

This style was not defined.

Q2 Fruited

Throw some fruit (or fruit product) into your beer! Let's see how changing the fruit used, when the fruit is added, what form the fruit is added in, and the amount of fruit used affects the product.

Q3 Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest beers fall into the larger category of German Festbiere, or celebration/festival beers. Let's see how the style varies between the different malts that can be used to brew an Oktoberfest and what exactly qualifies as one.

Q4 High Gravity

Winter has come! High gravity beers generally refer to very high alcohol beers, since they contain many sugars that increase their specific gravity. When we say "high gravity," we are normally referring to something above 8% ABV.