2024 Quarterly Styles

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

(Updated on March 21, 2024)

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.

2024 Quarterly Styles

Q1 Historical

Beer has a long and storied history, so let's take a blast to the past! What defines a "historical" beer is a blurry line at best, so we'll leave it up to you. Come with the history of your specific style and what defined it from its other liquor counterparts.

Q2 IPA

India Pale Ales originated from the British colonial movement in India. When shipping beers brewed in India back to the British isles, it would spoil quickly. To help with this, the beers were hopped heavily, since compounds in hops can act as a preservative. What type or variety of IPA will you make? What hops did you choose, and why? (For the non-hop-heads, try brewing an English IPA instead!)

Q3 Clone

There are many commercial examples of beers that fit many different tastes. How close can you get to a commercial beer? Are there changes that you made to the commercial beer that you think made yours better or worse? Why did those changes occur?

Q4

This style has not been defined yet.