Commander SAAZ 2009 – Mission Complete

Commander SAAZ Interplanetary Homebrew Blastoff 2009 Final Report….

We did it!! All 403 entries have been judged and scored. The Bos Panels have met and rendered their decisions after lengthy (believe me, it was lengthy!) debate. All of the score sheets are sorted and will be going into the mail along with awards this week. We also managed to squeeze in some great events including the Mini FL Beer Fest on Friday night, featuring beer from every Florida brewery we could lay hands on, and amazing food from The Broken Barrel Tavern, one of our premiere sponsors this year. Trust me, their smoked wings are freaking amazing, and so was everything else!! We also had the “Name that style” event sponsored by Sunseed Food Co-op on Saturday to keep folks entertained while the BoS panel was working through things. And of course Saturday Night’s Commander SAAZ Splash Down Party and awards extravaganza was a huge success again this year!

Once again team SAAZ pulled together to put on one of the biggest and (IMHO) best competitions around. We also have the coolest venue on the Florida Circuit. There is just nothing like kicking back with all of our homebrew friends from around the state and sharing great beers under the tiki hut while the ocean breeze cools things down. Once again Mike fouch provided the music, and we even had some late night entertainment thanks to some underage Homecoming revelers and the Cocoa Beach PD!! If you missed it, start making plans for next years after hours tiki event now….

As usual there are many folks to thank. Because without the support of a great team there is no way we could pull this off time and again….

• First of course are our sponsors. These folks provided prizes for the winners and the raffle, and without them we could not do this event. They also provided the beer for the FL Mini Beer Fest and the “Guess that style” event (which were both fabulous!!). Please visit the sponsors page here and remember, these folks support homebrewers so please support them back.
• Out of town judges – We asked and you all came to support us. You all came through for us AGAIN! Hopefully you all had a good time and we made you feel appreciated. Special thanks to EVERYONE who helped out with early round judging. We really try to make sure to mix in judges from other clubs for all judging sessions to help alleviate any “club biases”. Your fabulous support on the first weekend allowed us to actually have a Sunday off before the competition for the first time in several years. I can’t tell you how much we appreciated that!!
• Chris McCall – Chris is the head brewer/Owner at the Cocoa Beach Brewing Company who has not only agreed to brew the BoS Beer commercially at his place, but also came out to help judge Rocket Fuel. Due to a small scheduling conflict he ended up doing two small flights before lunch, but then sat down with the rest of the panel for a flight of eleven (11) high octane rocket fuel entries. It was grueling, but he made it through…. barely…

• Chet Sparks – perennial “Cooler Ape” and all around great guy. Chet once again opened his home for two weekends of critical judging, received all the beers, sorted, organized, toted, lifted and generally did anything that needed doing. There is no way we could have done it without him (and Sonya who stuffed the majority of the results envelopes!!)
• Anne Gregg – Anne was responsible for coordinating all the fabulous food we had over the three weekends of the event. We had LOTS of compliments this year, including a couple who said they had been to many homebreww competitions around the country and have never had food as good as what we served. WELL DONE!! 
• Sean Gregg – For helping out where ever we needed, sorting, hauling, judging, stewarding, you name it, Sean was there and willing to help out. He’s going to make a great SAAZ President next year!! (SAAZ Memebers don’t forget to vote early and often….)
• Dani Exline – Not only running the database (which is enough to drive anyone nuts), but organizing just about everything having to do with the whole damn event. For those of you who made comment about Dani’s organizational skills, she has to make up for both of us on that front. (P.S. We just placed an order for concertina wire and a pack of 50 ravenous Chiuaua’s to place around Dani while she’s inputting the scores. You’ve all been warned…)
• Mike and Michele Ellis – Pitching in everywhere, selling raffle tickets, judging, stewarding, cooking, and anything else that needed doing. Plus Michelle is the one who keeps us in line when we tried to design the Judge-o-matic 8000 and reminded us it would put us over budget (and possibly lead to the eventual takover of the beer scene by evil robots who only let us judge Light Lagers!!)

• Mac “Mac Daddy” Monroe – “Mac Daddy” who graced us at the Splashdown party as the evening’s MC. Mac’s company OBP LLC is the sponsor of our Rocket Fuel category. So it’s appropriate that he was responsible for that keg of OBP² that showed up at the Splashdown party and the Mini FL Beer Fest. A nice refreshing lite 11% ABV beer (what the hell did you all expect at SAAZ, the home of ‘Rocket Fuel’ )
• Ron and Paula Sup – Ron and Paula did SOOOOO many things and are always there to help out. Ron was also responsible for creating and nurturing this year’s Commander SAAZ commemorative beer, Bleary Eyed Bourbon Barrel Breakfast Stout (Yummy!). They also judged, made hop masks for the judges, dressed up in funny costumes for the Splashdown Party. Wow, what a great couple of folks to have around!

• The Bennett’s  –  For pitching in wherever they were needed, and once again for lending a hand whenever asked or wherever they saw the need. Robin and Robert both judged, chipped in with the Splashdown, and everything else. Dave was there every minute we needed making sure things got done. These are the bedrock on which we have built our competition.
• Everyone else who pitched in – You know who you are. THANK YOU!!

The Results are here.Thanks again to all who entered, and attended and congratulations to all the winners! Results and prizes will be mailed out this week.