Walnut Creek’s DOZE Homebrew club just won big

Homebrewing isn’t just a great hobby. It lies at the heart of the nation’s craft beer scene. At least 90 percent of professional brewers got their start at home, according to the American Homebrewers Association or AHA, brewing beer in a pot on the stove. It’s not a coincidence that the microbrewery revolution started shortly after former President Jimmy Carter signed the bill legalizing homebrewing in 1978. It was a path.

Today, more than 1.2 million people brew beer at home as a hobby, and homebrewers clubs have popped up everywhere, with more than 250 in California alone and 2,000 more across the nation. These clubs offer a great way to learn more about homebrewing, meet fellow passionate beer lovers, sample each other’s brews and get feedback on your own.

And they compete in homebrewer competitions — which brings us to Walnut Creek’s DOZE and its major win at the AHA competition this summer. Make that two major wins. DOZE — the Diablo Order of Zymiracle Enthusiasts — was named Homebrew Club of the year at the annual National Homebrew Convention, held virtually this year. Clubs submit their brews each year and rack up points according to whether they win gold, silver or bronze in the various categories. The club with the most points wins the grand prize.

It’s a big honor for any homebrew club, but DOZE also won the Radegast Club of the Year award, becoming the first club to win both awards in the same year. The Radegast — named for the Slavic god of hospitality and brewing — is based on qualities that go beyond beer: a club’s efforts toward diversity, for example, philanthropy, education and more.

I had a chance to sample some of the great beer made by DOZE members and talk with a few of the club’s recent presidents at their recent 25th anniversary celebration. Current president Jordan Reed first began brewing beer at his Martinez home more than seven years ago and joined DOZE soon after. One of his goals this year — besides those AHA victories, of course — was to help the club return to in-person meetings. They’ve since resumed their monthly gatherings at Walnut Creek’s Lindsay Wildlife Museum with as many as 50 of their 80 members attending any given session.

If you’re interested in brewing at home, “join us on the last Monday of every month,” Reed says encouragingly, “to learn about making amazing beer, mead and cider at home, while tasting and sharing some of the best in the world.”

Reed’s predecessor, Robbie Proctor, began homebrewing after he moved to the Bay Area from England in 1996 and wanted an English pale ale for his wedding. Making that ale did the trick. Proctor caught the bug. He started as an extract homebrewer — most new brewers use malt extract when they start out — in Oakland. But when his family moved to Pleasant Hill, he joined DOZE and began all-grain brewing. It was DOZE’s commitment to the community in both education and charity work that attracted him. Despite the club’s slightly rowdy reputation, he says, it’s “not just a social club for drinking.”

Yes, there is beer sampling involved, but it’s the feedback members give one another on their various brews to help them learn and improve that appealed to former president Paul Brown, who joined in 2008 after hearing about the club on the Brewing Network. This year’s first place finish, he says, was built on years of placing second, third or fourth. The club worked hard to be just a little bit better this year and become one of the elite clubs in the country. And because of the camaraderie he found, most of his friends today are fellow DOZE members.

DOZE’s most famous member was Mike “Tasty” McDole, who died last fall. A fixture in the homebrewing and beer community, Tasty won the Samuel Adams’ Longshot Homebrew Competition in 2008 and had a show on the Brewing Network. Some of the collaboration brews he designed with 21st Amendment and Russian River Brewing are still sold today. The DOZE party was not only an anniversary celebration but a tribute to Tasty’s legacy.

If you’re interested in taking up homebrewing yourself, head for the American Homebrewers Association website, which offers all sorts of resources, from recipes to a database of homebrewing shops across the country — including our own HopTech, More Beer! & More Wine! and, well, more — where you can buy beer-making kits and supplies. Join the AHA ($49) and you’ll have access to recipes, how-tos, tutorials and an online forum, as well.

If you’re already making beer, consider joining a homebrew club. They’re a great way to improve your brewing skills and meet like-minded beer lovers. The AHA site includes contact information for 2,200 clubs across the nation, from Anaheim’s Brewluminati to San Jose’s Worts of Wisdom, Livermore’s Mad Zymurgists and, of course, DOZE.