Sudz started as California Beer Collective, having a hard time picking up and and being specific to one location we changed our direction. We rebranded our name to Sudz with the meaning of suds in the bubbles of your beer glass. Our vision was to encompass anything and beer related world wide. That gained some ground but again we felt it was restrictive to one audience. We wanted to bring the world of beer, wine, meads, ciders, and bubbly together. Anything and everything related from products that makes the drinks to the reviews of store bought products. So, at that point we became Sudz, Bubbles, Grapes and are close to 1000 members and climbing. 

WE DONT JUST POST ALCOHOL IN OUR GROUP! WE POST ALCOHOL RELATED TOPICS INCLUDING FOOD LIKE BELOW. 

DOUBLE BASTARD ALE SALTED CARAMEL CORN

YIELD: 4 SERVINGS | BASED ON ORIGINAL RECIPE FROM JACKIE DODD

• ⅓ cup popping-corn kernels
• ⅔ cup light brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp light corn syrup
• ½ cup plus 2 Tbsp Double Bastard Ale
• ¼ cup unsalted butter 1 tsp coarsely ground pink Himalayan salt (or coarse sea salt to substitute)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 250 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course) Pour the corn in a paper sack, fold it shut and lay it in the microwave. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Keep your distance to prevent radiation poisoning, but stay close enough to listen for when the popping slows to about 1 pop per second. Remove from the microwave, measure out 7 cups of popcorn and transfer it to a large bowl. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, ½ cup of the Double Bastard Ale and butter. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from the burner and stir in the remaining Double Bastard Ale. Spray the silicon portion of a spatula with cooking spray and use it to plop the caramel mixture into the bowl with the popcorn. Stir everything around so that the corn gets coated with the thickened Liquid Arrogance, then spray a large baking pan with cooking spray, and spread the popcorn out in an even layer. Bake for 20 minutes, stir, and bake for 20 more minutes (the waiting is the hardest part). Remove from oven and spread into an even layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Immediately sprinkle with salt, then let cool and go make some friends.

We have everything from beer/wine reviews from here to Australia. We trade from time to time with people all around the world from Italy to Germany and many more locations. We love the beers to get, the beers to avoid, breweries to check out, some to avoid, and some good conversation.  

 
HOPS 

Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to which, in addition to bitterness, they impart floral, fruity, or citrus flavours and aromas. Hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine. The hop plant is a vigorous, climbing, herbaceousperennial, usually trained to grow up strings in a field called a hopfield, hop garden (nomenclature in the South of England), or hop yard (in the West Country and US) when grown commercially. Many different varieties of hops are grown by farmers around the world, with different types used for particular styles of beer.

The first documented use of hops in beer is from the 9th century, though Hildegard of Bingen, 300 years later, is often cited as the earliest documented source. Before this period, brewers used a "gruit", composed of a wide variety of bitter herbs and flowers, including dandelion, burdock root, marigold, horehound (the old German name for horehound, Berghopfen, means "mountain hops"), ground ivy, and heather. Early documents include mention of a hop garden in the will of Charlemagne's father, Pepin III.

Hops are also used in brewing for their antibacterial effect over less desirable microorganisms and for purported benefits including balancing the sweetness of the maltwith bitterness and a variety of flavours and aromas. Historically, traditional herb combinations for beers were believed to have been abandoned when beers made with hops were noticed to be less prone to spoilage. 

 The most important ingredient in brewing was the last one discovered, because yeast is a single-celled organism that is invisible to the naked eye. Still, brewers have long known that some unseen agent turned a sweet liquid into beer. Long ago, the action of yeast was such a blessing, yet so mysterious, that English brewers called it "Godisgood."

Modern brewers usually brew with purified strains of yeast that give exactly the result they want. Some yeast strains are fairly neutral, creating alcohol and little more. Others add a whole range of complex side flavors that make beer more interesting.

How does yeast work? When it is added to a sugar-rich solution, it immediately begins to consume the sugars and create more yeast. But from the brewer's point of view, the important thing is not the growth of more yeast, but the waste products of yeast metabolism: alcohol and carbon dioxide, that gives beer its fizz.

As the food supply runs down and the alcohol levels rise, the environment becomes literally toxic to the yeast, which becomes dormant. The brewer may draw off some of the yeast for the next cycle of brewing.

Ale or Lager?
Different strains of yeast behave differently, so that it's possible to divide the world of beer according to the yeast. The sixty or more defined beer styles in the world can all be sorted by their yeast into two broad families: the ale family and the lager family.

Beers in the ale family are produced by yeast strains that operate better at warmer temperatures. Ales are ready to drink in days rather than weeks, and the yeasts produce extra flavors in addition to creating alcohol: fruity, spicy, or earthy flavors are not unusual. Ales are the traditional beers of England and of Belgium.

Beers in the lager family are fermented by yeast strains that operate better at cooler temperatures. These beers need to be conditioned or cellared ("lager" is German for a storage place) for several weeks or more to reach peak drinkability. The lager beers are the traditional beers of Germany, the Czech Republic and central Europe.

The action of yeast can generate a range of interesting beer flavors and aromas as varied as apple, pepper or apricot. Some, such as banana or clove, are the typical flavors of particular beer styles; others, such as butterscotch, may be considered defects.

Yeast may be invisible, but without it, there would be no beer.