Hello Zymurgists! This is a reminder that the MCZA April Meeting will be Thursday, 5/21/2025 starting at 6:30pm (business will begin at 7pm) at Moonshot. Address: 8804 W Victoria Ave Unit 140 Kennewick, WA 99336 United States
Monthly Meeting Style of the Month: Belgian Beers This is a reminder that the MCZA March meeting is this Thursday, 3/19/2026 starting at 6:30pm (business will begin at 7pm) at Blackthorne Pub in Kennewick.🍻 Mid Columbia Zymurgy MeetingTheme: Belgian Beers – Tradition, Yeast, and Complexity🧭 OverviewBelgium’s brewing heritage is legendary—steeped in monastic tradition, wild fermentation, and expressive yeast. This meeting explores the core styles, brewing techniques, and flavor profiles that make Belgian beers a homebrewer’s playground. 🇧🇪 Belgian Beer Styles (Organized + Explained)🍺 Trappist & Abbey AlesThese are the spiritual backbone of Belgian brewing—monastic, malt-forward, expressive yeast.• Single / Enkel – Light, sessionable monastic table beer.• Dubbel – Dark fruit, caramel, rich malt; 6–8% ABV.• Tripel – Golden, spicy, fruity, dry; 7–10% ABV; Westmalle is the prototype.• Quadrupel / Belgian Dark Strong Ale – Deep, complex, raisin, fig, plum; 9–12%.---🍯 Strong AlesBelgium’s high-gravity masterpieces.• Belgian Strong Golden Ale – Dry, spicy, deceptively strong (Duvel-style).• Belgian Strong Dark Ale – Rich, fruity, warming, layered.---🌾 Wheat & Farmhouse StylesRustic, expressive, and often yeast-driven.• Witbier – Wheat, coriander, orange peel; hazy and refreshing.• Saison / Farmhouse Ale – Peppery, citrusy, effervescent; originally brewed for farm workers.• Grisette – Light, minerally, sessionable cousin of saison.---🍏 Sour & Wild FermentationBelgium’s most unique contribution to world beer.• Lambic – Spontaneously fermented wheat beer from Pajottenland; funky Please bring your own brews to sample, and be sure to support Blackthorne that’ll have Belgian beers on tap! As always, we will try to have some industry examples for you to taste through. Please feel free to bring anything else you've been working on lately. Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday!
Home brewers turned pro brewers, at least for the day. We'll be brewing an imperial stout at Sage Brewing in Pasco from 9am to about 2pm. Brewers can take home a 5.5-gallon fill of the cooled wort, ready for fermentation. Add whatever yeast, spices, flavorings or hops you want to when you bring it home. Only a twice-a-year opportunity! Sign up in the link sent out on facebook and email. If you have any questions, please email publicist@mcza.org
Please sign up for the spring MEGABREW here: Spring 2023 Megabrew Sign Up This year's spring MEGABREW will be held at Atomic Ale Brewing on April the 22nd 9am- until we're done! (usually around 5pm). Rough draft of recipe below:
March (3-16-2023): IRISH BEERS (Irish Red Ale, Irish Stout, and Irish Extra Stout) June (6-15-2023): Pale Ales September (9-21-2023): Octoberfest Style Lagers (Marzen and Festbier) December (12-21-2023): Winter Ales
Please sign up for the spring MEGABREW here: MCZA Spring 2022 MEGABREW This year's spring MEGABREW will be held at Atomic Ale Brewing on April 16th from 9am- until we're done! (usually around 5pm). The style brewed will be a cold IPA, however you'll need to get your own lager yeast and have lagering conditions to do the "cold" style. Otherwise the beer can be fermented as a regular IPA or by using a "warm lager" yeast such as White Lab's San francisco lager yeast: White Labs San Franscisco Lager yeast Or a "warm lagering" method as described here: Homebrew academy warm fermented lager method
April (04/21/2022): Girl Scout Cookie brews. Open competition, must be made with REAL girl scout cookies. Cookies for pairing with your entree highly encouraged. July (07/21/2022): Honey brews. Open competition, must be made with REAL honey. October (10/20/2022): Stouts
If you have suggestions or comments for MCZA sponsored activities and events please submit your thoughts here for officers to discuss at our next meeting!
We have a new Vice President! Welcome Josh Smith to our officer crew! We look forward to working with you this year! 2022 Full list of officers: Riley Zionce- President Josh Smith- Vice President Shawnee Kasanke- Publicist Anthony Cutrona- Treasurer Dan Howe won 2021 Zymurgist of the Year (ZOTY) with 23 brews, and a couple of seltzers. His focus was primarily on mastering his wheat beer recipes as he's preparing to open Wheat Heads Brewing company soon! He also hosted our own mini "Beerstock" this year, which was a great success. Congratulations Dan! We took suggestions for style of the month and styles for the MEGABREWS of 2022, which will be announced soon. Please reach out to publicist@mcza.org with any questions or comments! Cheers!
Since our holiday party got pushed into February this year, we figured we'd still meet up at the new Sage Brewing Company tap room on our normal meeting date/time: February 17, 2022 at 7pm. 910 S. Columbia Center Blvd. in Kennewick WA. Come join us for a brew or two and some friendly chatter. Cheers, Shawnee