[COHO] COHO dominates Hop Madness 2007

[brett thomas]

Greetings all COHOers,

We have returned from Hop Madness, and once again COHO had an ultra strong showing.  We were by far the largest, and most organized, of any club in attendance.  This is a great accomplishment considering that almost every club in the state, along with some folks from Southern Washington, were representing.  My last count gave us 19 participants, including a couple of non-member associates.  The other clubs were blown away by our solidarity.  There were a bunch of their folks that were only miles away in places like Salem, Corvallis, Eugene, and Albany, but yet they couldn't muster the energy or desire to participate.  Nonetheless, those clubs' members that did manage to show up were some great individuals, and solid brewers.  Let me just say one thing though, we should be proud of ourselves that we could put on the the showing that we did, and managed to make established, entrenched clubs scratch their heads.  Good job to all those COHOers whom participated.

COHO cleaned up in the Best Damn Hoppy Beer in the Pacific Northwest competitions, winning in both people's choice and judged categories.  Kris Cate took first place in people's choice for the second straight year, this time pouring his awesomely hoppy Alpha Hawg Ale to the top spot.  Kris' Alpha Hawg also grabbed the second place spot in the judged category.  Your humble President managed to walk away with the first and third spot in the judged category with my Master Blaster Imperial Red Ale.  It was the same batch of brew that I won both spots with, half with Amarillo dry hopping, and half with Simcoe dry hopping.  Just an FYI this beer was brewed on Kris' Wort Hawg system, so a big thanks goes out to the Cates!  Another interesting fact to keep in mind was that all top five beers in both competitions were Simcoe heavy.  That was the hop of choice at this years event.

I personally want to throw out another big thanks to the Wort Hawg Brew Crew (the Cates' and the Nicholls') for hauling the Wort Hawg halfway across the sate for us to use for our group brew this month.  Kris and Matt brewed up a wicked fresh hop beer utilizing fresh Nugget, Crystal, Mt. Hood, and some "experimental" fresh hops personally donated by Dave Wils from Freshops.com.  Even with all the COHOers around these guys were stuck manning the brew kettles for a good long time, and did an awesome job with this beer, please make sure you give them a thank you at the next meeting.

We had great food at this event, with another special thanks going out to master chef Chuck Pickle.  Chuck worked some incredible food magic such as grilled corn on the cobb, made to order omlettes, grilled veggies, and maple sausage.  Back at the main camp we thrilled with offerings like fresh coffee and juice, homemade coffee cake, eggs, pancakes, tamales, kebabs, hot dogs, pounds of bacon...it was absolutely great.

On top of all this, we had belly dancers.   Yes living, breathing, belly dancers, that gave a great performance after the beer competitions.  Thanks to Michelle and Sic for the good work.  This really just blew away the entire crowd at the park.

All this just re-affirms what I already knew about us - that we're the best club in the state, and a great, dedicated group of people.

Cheers!

Brett
COHO President

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