From JudgeNet Thu Apr 1 07:51:04 1993 From: "Mike Fertsch" Subject: Picking CLub Entry Daniel F McConnell asks about club competitions: [much good explanation of the Ann Arbor local club's procedure for picking a club entry omitted] >Are there any good guidelines or suggestions for performing these club >competitions with a minimum of time and hassle, at the same time insuring >quality selection? We (the Boston Wort Processors) have a tasting/runoff at a meeting separate from the usual club meeting. All members (experienced, rookie, wannabe, etc) are invited to attend; all attendees fill out judges' rating forms. The top 4 beers (or so) in the first round get moved on to the second round, where the most experienced judges in attendance pick the club entry. This system allows all members a say in picking the club entry. Judge qualification is determined by members' feet. If they care enough to show up, they get a vote. Formal test-taking qualifications don't matter; everyone gets a vote. The panel collectively picks the second round judges - the "expert" judges are picked by consensus. We usually take this opportunity to discuss among member/judges characteristics of the style, sample some ringers, learn about judging, etc. It works well for us - everyone learns and has fun. I don't know what the Ann Arbor Club meetings are like, but I can't conceive that our Club could possibly pick a representative during a meeting - there is too much socializing going on! Picking a club representative is a serious matter :-) - -- Mike Fertsch Internet: mikef at hopfen.rsi.com Internet: mikef at hopfen.synchro.com Wortnet: mikef -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Thu Apr 1 07:51:04 1993 From: chuck at synchro.com (Chuck Cox) Subject: subscriber list Several people have joined the digest recently, so here is the latest subscriber list... ################################# ## ## ## JudgeNet ## ## the beer judge digest ## ## ## ## subscriber list ## ## ## ################################# # ### Federation of Amateur Wine and Beer Guilds (FAWBG) - NL # # Master Wine Judge # victor.reijs at surfnet.nl (Victor Reijs) # ### National Guild of Wine and Beer Judges (NGWBJ) - UK # # Examiner # g.a.cooper at qmw.ac.uk (Geoff Cooper) # ### Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) - USA # # Co-Director # uunet!att!drutx!homer (Jim Homer) # # Associate Director # stroud%gaia at polaroid.com (Steve Stroud) # # Committee Representative # rad_equipment at radmac1.ucsf.edu (Russ Wigglesworth) # # Master Judge # chuck at synchro.com (Chuck Cox) # # National Judges # steved at longs.lance.colostate.edu (Steve Dempsey) digest at hopfen.synchro.com (Mike Fertsch) hersh at expo.lcs.mit.edu (Jay Hersh) glo at r.lanl.gov (Gordon Olson) darrylri at microsoft.com (Darryl Richman) # # Certified Judges # sheri at synchro.com (Sheri Almeda) #altenbach at nsspb.llnl.gov (Tom Altenbach) tony at spss.com (Tony Babinec) baughmankr at conrad.appstate.edu (Kinney Baughman) beebed at ere.umontreal.ca (Dwight Beebe) lcarter at claven.idbsu.edu (Loren Carter) devine at cory.berkeley.edu (Bob Devine) fitz at synchro.com (Jim Fitzgerald) gummitch at techbook.com (Jeff Frane) judge-relay at semantic.rsi.com (Bob Gorman) mlh at cygnus.ta52.lanl.gov (Michael Hall) stevie at spss.com (Steve Hamburg) charris at u.washington.edu (Craig Harris) doug at techbook.com (Doug Henderson) hopduvel!brewmaster at linac.fnal.gov (John Isenhour) korz at iepubj.att.com (Al Korzonas) malodah at pbmoss.pacbell.com (Martin Lodahl) resch at craycos.com (Dave Resch) srussell at msc.cornell.edu (Stephen Russell) strasser at raj5.tn.cornell.edu (Tom Strasser) # # Recognized Judges # bickham at msc.cornell.edu (Scott Bickham) bronson at ecn.purdue.edu (Edward Bronson) busch at daacdev1.stx.com (Jim Busch) gcb at fc.hp.com (Glenn Colon-Bonet) u52983 at uicvm.uic.edu (Roger Deschner) 71064.1725 at compuserve.com (Chris Folta) brew at devine.columbiasc.ncr.com (Jim Griggers) jdg at grex.ann-arbor.mi.us (Joshua Grosse) jelj at cornella.cit.cornell.edu (John Lenz) tedm at hp-pcd.cv.hp.com (Ted Manahan) rmcglew.bussys at mhssmtp.mdso.vf.ge.com (Ray McGlew) reeves at sstcx1.lanl.gov (Geoff Reeves) ross at mscf.med.upenn.edu (Andy Ross) kurt.swanson at dna.lth.se (Kurt Swanson) wrs at gozer.mv.com (Bill Slack) gak at wrs.com (Richard Stueven) gdtms at garlic.lcs.mit.edu (Greg Troxel) 72240.2510 at compuserve.com (Eric Webster) westemeier at delphi.com (Ed Westemeier) zelaznyj at woods.ulowell.edu (Julian Zelazny) # # Apprentice Judges # uunet!polstra!judge-in (Larry Barello) bash at tware.com (Paul Bash) dbeedle at rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Dave Beedle) peterb at cs.cmu.edu (Pete Berger) michael at wupsych.wustl.edu (Mike Biondo) bliss at csrd.uiuc.edu (Brian Bliss) embreed at sfovmic1.vnet.ibm.com (Emily Breed) bli at psuvm.psu.edu (Jeff Brendle) jbunn at seanews.akita.com (John Bunn) dwbutler at mtus5.cts.mtu.edu (Daniel Butler-Ehle) akcs.chrisc at vpnet.chi.il.us (Chris Campanelli) jchism%hsscam.decnet at mis.semi.harris.com (Jami Chism) psd1 at midway.uchicago.edu (Pratik Dave) jdecarlo at mitre.org (John DeCarlo) tdenny at rigel.cs.pdx.edu (Tom Denny) donham at super.enet.dec.com (Perry Donham) 8260pe at indy.navy.mil (Paul Edwards) heggers at eis.calstate.edu (Hank Eggers) jimme at ahpcrc.umn.edu (Jim Ellingson) 73627.3144 at compuserve.com (David Elliott) tee at cray.com (Tony Ernst) darren at ua1vm.ua.edu (Darren Evans-Young) charles.ewen at execnet.com (Charles Ewen) efarrell at ossi.com (Liz Farrell) 76702.764 at compuserve.com (Robin Garr) jason at gibson.sde.hp.com (Jason Goldman) agrant at mta.ca (Andrew Grant) green at hpmtaa.lvld.hp.com (Bob Green) sunilg at access.digex.com (Sunil Gupta) hall at buffa.enet.dec.com (Dan Hall) joseph-judge at joebloe.maple-shade.nj.us (Joseph Hall) cush at msc.edu (Cush Hamlen) hilliard at zookeeper.zoo.uga.edu (Steve Hilliard) dhholscl at rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (David Holsclaw) lrj at helios.tn.cornell.edu (Lew Jansen) kermit at horus.cem.msu.edu (Kermit Johnson) slamb at milp.jsc.nasa.gov (Sean Lamb) jal%adpgate at urbana.mcd.mot.com (Jim Larsen) jal at techbook.com (Jim Larsen) uunet!melkor!rick (Rick Larson) mol at jyu.fi (Mika Latokartano) jliddil at azcc.arizona.edu (James Liddil) edl at tekig5.pen.tek.com (Ed Lingel) ktl at kittyhawk.aero.rmit.oz.au (Katie Lord) v-ccsl at microsoft.com (Scott Lord) atl at kpc.com (Andrew Lynch) bmartin at iit.com (Bryan Martin) pmiller at mmm.com (Phil Miller) klm at gozer.mv.com (Kevin McBride) tim at mtl.mit.edu (Tim McClure) wtm at gr.cs.utah.edu (Tom McCollough) daniel.f.mcconnell at med.umich.edu (Daniel McConnell) frmac at cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Larry McCormick) berniem at microsoft.com (Bernie McIlroy) tmitchel at bbn.com (Tom Mitchell) cm199 at cleveland.freenet.edu (Thomas Moore) munyon at 4j.eugene.or.us (Pat Munyon) bmyers at uclink.berkeley.edu (Brian Myers) rcm at col.hp.com (Rick Myers) oconnor at snycorva.bitnet (Kieran O'Connor) jimmyp at well.sf.ca.us (Jimmy Patrick) piatz at cray.com (Steve Piatz) raudins at galt.b17d.ingr.com (Glenn Raudins) u2102952 at csdvax.csd.unsw.edu.au (Phil Reichert) roody at whzguy.shr3.dec.com (Greg Roody) roy.rudebusch at travel.com (Roy Rudebusch) lennart at btjsys.btj.se (Lennart Sandberg) dschleef at lclark.edu (David Schleef) kenneths at ai.mit.edu (Kenneth Schneider) 0004531571 at mcimail.com (Phillip Seitz) wseliger at chinet.chi.il.us (Bill Seliger) brewml at convex.com (Dave Shaver) css at tron.stx.com (Chris Shenton) smerage at icbr.ifas.ufl.edu (Jeff Smerage) 70740.1107 at compuserve.com (James Spence) envkas at sn634.utica.ge.com (Karl Sweitzer) tinsethg at ucs.orst.edu (Glenn Tinseth) mark_wallace at crd.lotus.com (Mark Wallace) swh at ll.mit.edu (Sarah White) zamick at yoko.rutgers.edu (Jonathan Zamick) ### -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Fri Apr 2 03:20:13 1993 From: bob at rsi.com (Bob Gorman) Subject: 1993 AHA NATIONAL HOMEBREW COMPETITION 1993 AHA NATIONAL HOMEBREW COMPETITION June 5th and 6th Kingston, New York Dear Fellow Beer Enthusiast, The 1993 AHA National Homebrew Competition is right around the corner. Preparations are already under way to make this a successful event, but we need your help. This year we anticipate over 800 entries from the New England/Mid-Atlantic region. This means that we need a lot of help unpacking and registering entries, and more importantly judging them. This year the judging will be held at the Woodstock Brewing Company in Kingston, New York thanks to the graciousness of Nat Collins, Owner and Brewmaster. Dates for unpacking are May 15, 16 and 22. Judging will be on June 5 and 6, with two sessions on the 5th and one on the 6th. In planning this event we realize that many judges need to drive a distance in order to participate. Therefore, we have made arrangements for local hotel accommodations and a festive party featuring regional microbrewed and homebrewed beer, snacks, raffles and door prizes on Saturday night, June 5th. To receive a registration form and further information please send mail to Bob Gorman which a subject of 'Kingston'. The registration deadline is Saturday, May 1st (National Homebrew Day). Anyone already enrolled in the BJCP will receive a us-mailing later next week, you need not reply to this message. If you are new to the BJCP or not in the program then this is you official notice. I look forward to your replies. Cheers! -- Bob Gorman bob at rsi.com Waltham MA, US -- -- Judge Registrar uunet!semantic!bob (617) 893 5655 -- -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Sun Apr 4 04:16:50 1993 From: uunet!spss.com!stevie Subject: AHA First Round Regional, Chicago 1993 AHA NATIONAL HOMEBREW COMPETITION FIRST ROUND - MIDWEST REGIONAL JUNE 11-13, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS CALL FOR JUDGES, STEWARDS, AND PARTICIPANTS As you already know from other posts to this forum, the first-round regionals of the AHA National Homebrew Competition will take place in early June. The Midwest Regional will be over the weekend of June 11-13, at the Goose Island brewpub in Chicago. Last year's regional was a great success, due in part to an excellent turnout of judges and stewards. While we fully expect the same this year, we're leaving nothing to chance. We've added some special activities to the schedule that you won't want to miss. After the second judging session on Saturday afternoon, there will be a seminar conducted by Chicago's own Siebel Institute. From there, we'll move on to dinner and the First Midwest Invitational Brewoff, an event that might attract you to Chicago even if you couldn't pick up those judging points. Last month, we invited 10 of the region's best homebrewers to brew five gallons using the same set of ingredients. A number of the area's homebrew supply stores donated the raw materials, which were recently packed and delivered to the participants. The brewers can use some or all of the ingredients, plus they can select their own yeast. The beers will be judged in a blind but in- formal judging at Saturday's dinner, and the champion brewer will receive an attractive trophy. Think you can brew as well as the invitees? Well, everyone else is welcome to participate in the Open Brewoff. To enter, you can purchase an ingredients kit (by the way, we're making everyone make an extract beer with specialty grains) from one of our sponsoring suppliers and bring the result to the event. We'll have balloting in the Open category as well, and that winner will be automatically eligible for next year's Invitational. Sponsoring suppliers are: Evanston First, Sheaf and Vine, Chicago Indoor Garden Supply, and Tim's Homebrew Thing. You only pay for the ingredients. There's no competition entry fee. The Midwest Invitational/Dinner will be open to all interested comers, but space will definitely be limited. To help defray the costs of the event (and pay for the food, of course), there will be a $25 fee to attend. Early interest is high, so we expect there will be a lot of great beer to consume. Of course, we need plenty of qualified judges and stewards. A mailing with registration form will be sent soon to all area BJCP judges, but those not in the program or not in the area should feel free to contact me directly (e-mail or phone). Look forward to seeing you in Chicago. - ---- Steve Hamburg Internet: stevie at spss.com Chicago, IL Work Phone: 312/329-3445 Home Phone: 312/878-0177 -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Wed Apr 7 04:28:29 1993 From: Jay Hersh Subject: Re: point award guarantees John Decarlo states... "Participants will be awarded at least one experience point." in his competition announcement. Um John, I hate to be caught defending the AHA :-), but I take it that means you are expecting over 75 entries (and willing to guarantee it yourself if need be :-)... We avoided making any claims as to how many points will be awarded for the 1st Round Nationals. The present system of 0.5 pts per session will (despite appeals to modify this) in fact be in effect. For those attending this event (June 5 & 6 in Kingston, NY contact bob at rsi.com) we anticipate 3-4 sessions dependent on number of entries, judge turnout, etc... JaH -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Wed Apr 7 04:28:29 1993 From: uunet!mscg.com!klm (Kevin L. McBride) Subject: Re: silence during judging > It's all too easy to just go down the checklist and bash a beer that your > partner has said "this smells like hippo dung." Also, when judging the > last few Belgian Strong Ales, you may spend more time musing how your > fellow judge learned how hippo dung smells than the flavor of the beer. Hmmm... "Hippo Dung"... Isn't that part of the expected profile of the new "American Clear Beer" category? - -- Kevin "Your horse has diabetes." -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Wed Apr 7 04:28:29 1993 From: Steve Dempsey Subject: Promising experience points (Re: "Spirit of Free Beer" Competition) In JudgeNet Digest John DeCarlo writes: >Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP) is sponsoring this AHA/HWBTA >sanctioned regional homebrew competition. AHA/HWBTA Accredited Beer >Judges are needed to judge this regional competition. Participants will be >awarded at least one experience point. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Since I've been disappointed by experience points awarded on at least one occasion, I have to say something about the above. As a competition organizer, I would be cautious about making such claims to attract judges unless I had already received the required number of entries to merit specific point awards, even if the competition has a history of large numbers of entries. ================================ Engineering Network Services Steve Dempsey Colorado State University steved at longs.lance.colostate.edu Fort Collins, CO 80523 ================================ +1 303 491 0630 -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Fri Apr 9 17:28:09 1993 From: uunet!delphi.com!WESTEMEIER Subject: Dr. Beer lab Last month I conducted a "doctored beer lab" at our club meeting. The format was basically identical to the one held at last year's AHA conference in Milwaukee. Between the info in the back of Fred Eckhardt's "Essentials" book, Jay Hersh's generous sharing of his techniques and advice, and my own interpretations, it went extremely well. One point I'd like to share with others is this: I used considerably larger quantities of the adulterants, since we had a fairly high number of novices in attendance, and I wanted to be sure that everyone got the various sensations. In fact, I used at least double the quantities recommended, since I wanted to be well over everyone's flavor or aroma threshold. Much to my surprise, even at those high levels, only a few people said the amounts were too much, almost 10% of the crowd didn't get many of them at all, and in general they seemed to be just about right for our group. The one that caused the greatest sensation was the "skunky" beer. I used Genessee, since it was cheap and available, and simply set the brown bottles in a south-facing windowsill for a couple of weeks. Fantastic effect -- the skunk aroma knocked you over as soon as you opened the bottle. This was a really worthwhile exercise, and I encourage everyone to try it at least once at a club meeting. God knows we can use a lot more people in the BJCP who know their stuff! - -- Ed Westemeier, Cincinnati, OH -- -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Fri Apr 9 17:28:09 1993 From: chuck at synchro.com (Chuck Cox) Subject: Warning: impending move Hopefully, there will be no problems, but... Over the next week I will be changing Internet forwarders (from UUNET to PSINET), and moving my office down the street (to the new, improved and spacious Riverside Garage & Brewery). Should there be a service outage, it will hopefully be brief. There is a certain element of danger and daring when moving a cantankerous 10 year old computer system. Those archaic individuals who still use UUCP addressing should use ...!psinet!synchro!... after April 16th, because it takes a while for the updated UUCP maps to propogate. Those hip individuals who use Intenet addressing should see no change. - -- Chuck Cox The Bill of Rights is not available ala carte. -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Tue Apr 13 05:35:01 1993 From: Jay Hersh Subject: Re: JudgeNet Digest #566 (Apr 09, 1993) Thanks for the feedback Ed. Our experience is that the levels we were using were in the 1 to 1.5 range of flavor threshold for a substance. If I recall right the way the ranges are defined is not a strict multiplier. 1.0 is defined as at threshold, 0.5 is below threshold, and 2.0 is well above threshold. However that doesn't necessarily mean that a 2.0 level is twice the threshold amount. I need to check my notes from Miellegard on this again though. So in any case just doubling the amount doesn't necessarily mean that it is twice as perceptable. Also the type of beer used makes a big difference. As I rudely discovered in Milwaukee excess DMS can mask other flavors, as can many other substances. It would be great if you can provide exact levels back to me on what you used, and the beer brand via direct e-mail (hersh at expo.lcs.mit.edu). The skunked beer is almost always one of the best of the samples. This is fortunate since it's such a prevelant problem. Glad this was a well received excercise. There is a possibility that Steve and I will set this up as an "add on" event since it was omitted from the official AHA schedule of events. We're presently looking into whether this is possible. JaH -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Tue Apr 13 05:35:01 1993 From: Artz Tim Subject: Nation's Capital "Spirit of FREE BEER" Homebrew Competition In celebration of National Homebrew Day and eternal quest for FREE BEER, the Brewers United for Real Potables (BURP) homebrew club is holding the Nation's Capital "Spirit of FREE BEER" Homebrew Competition on May 1-2, 1993. The competition is AHA sanctioned. Entry deadline is 17 April. The competition is open to ten classes/45 styles of beer as defined by the HWBTA. A minimum of 200 entries are expected for this contest, the largest held in the Washington, DC area. Judging will take place in a closed session at the Old Dominion Brewing Co. on 1 May and will continue if necessary on 2 May. [Dominion produces many fine German style lagers (pils, helles, dunkels, Mai bock),as well as an American Pale Ale, a fine stout, and an Irish Red ale. Their pale bock will be on line at the time of the competition.] BURP members are willing to provide places for judges to stay during the contest. Out of town judges wishing to enter the contest may send in completed entry forms and fee payments by the deadline and then bring entries to the competiton. Anyone wishing more information on the competition or any qualified homebrew judges who want to participate in the competition judging may contact Tim Artz (the competition organizer) at tima at skyline1.ads.com or telephone the judging coordinator Rick Garvin at (703) 243-7058. -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Thu Apr 15 02:00:12 1993 From: "PAUL EDWARDS" Subject: docotored beer Jay, I'd to do a doctored beer tasting for our club. I know how to skunk a beer, and I think I could handle oxidation. What additives/techniques to you use to simulate other common faults? Are the additives readily obtainable over the counter at a pharmacy or at a grocery? Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. -- Paul -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Thu Apr 15 02:00:12 1993 From: uunet!cygnus.ta52.lanl.gov!mlh (Michael L. Hall) Subject: Where to get Dr. Beer lab Ed Westemeier writes: > Last month I conducted a "doctored beer lab" at our club meeting. > The format was basically identical to the one held at last year's AHA > conference in Milwaukee. Between the info in the back of Fred Eckhardt's > "Essentials" book, Jay Hersh's generous sharing of his techniques and > advice, and my own interpretations, it went extremely well. > [...] In fact, I used at least double the quantities recommended, > since I wanted to be well over everyone's flavor or aroma threshold. I have heard several people mentioning a "Dr. Beer" list of ingredients to put into beer to give examples of various off-flavors. I must admit that I haven't looked in the literature extremely hard for this, but I do think that it would be nice to have something like this on-line (or at least pointers to where to find it). Maybe some of you who have done this in the past could point us in the right direction. It might also be good to have a table with columns of: Chemical Common Flavor Aroma Name Threshold (ppm) Threshold (ppm) What do you think? Mike Hall hall at lanl.gov -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Sat Apr 17 03:27:30 1993 From: Jay Hersh Subject: Re: Dr. Beer guidelines OK, due to popular demand and the fact we're not talking about anything else lately, here is the latest guidelines writeup I've been passing out to folks.... JaH This is a record of past guidelines used for hosting Dr. Beer Seminars. Each is slightly different as we have tried to change the seminars in the never ending task of perfecting the substances and levels used. Comments are provided to help you and us guage our success. General Info on how to do this: We normally use a light relatively flavorless beer that was free of original defects. usually Carling Black Label. It is cheap, and of the 8 or so comparable cheap beers (why trash good stuff) it is the most defect free. The importance of a fresh beer to doctor can not be stressed enough. Remember to keep undoctored reference samples for side-by-side comparison during the session. Non-drinkable samples were made with non-food grade chemicals. If you have access to FDA approved additives, these if added in appropriate quantities (we make no guarantee of the toxicity of the above specified levels, you'll have to check this out and take responsibility on your own) are probably drinkable. You'll need one bottle of doctored beer for every few people (assume 2 to 3 oz per person). You'll need bottle caps to recap after adding substances. All substances should be added less than 24 hours before, except for skunky and oxidized which need advance prep as indicated. In addition to beers for doctoring you'll need 8 to 16 oz reference beer for each person. Prepare samples as noted. The order listed is the serving order we've been using I believe. The idea is to do the strongest nastiest one toward the end. Splitting this into 2 sessions is not a bad idea as the palette can get saturated and tired. The full range of samples takes 2-3 hours. Be sure to have some type of plain munchy like French or Italian bread and water (hopefully not skanky water) for palette cleansing. Basically you can proceed similar to competitions or other tasting events. It is a good idea to serve these blind. Let people try to guess what they are tasting then after a minute or two tell them. Many people will pick this up. Stress the fact that flavor perception is devoid of the additional cues like sight that allow perceptual recognition. The idea behind doing this is to train and refresh (strengthen) the cognitive association between sensing and being able to assign (correctly) a descriptor to that sensation. Feedback is encouraged. It will help us revise this program. Good Luck. - Jay Hersh, Steve Stroud hersh at expo.lcs.mit.edu STROUD%GAIA at leia.polaroid.com snail Mail: Jay Hersh aka Dr. Beer 15 Dunbar Ave. Medford, Ma. 02155 Original Posted 10/90 reference beer = Carling Black Label size = 16 oz Flavor/Aroma Amount Drink? Comment - ------------ ------ ------ ------- 1) Alcohol 10ml pure ethanol Y could have used a little more, perhaps 12-15 ml/bottle 2) Clove 10ul eugenol N too strong, cut in half? 3) Winey 30ml Chablis wine Y Fine (make sure it is fresh) 4) Estery 2.8ul t-Amyl Acetate Y OK, maybe increase 50-75% (banana) was borderline this time previously used .028ml which was much too strong 5) Nutty 5 drops Almond Extract Y OK 6) Phenolic 4mg Phenol N Slightly weak, some people couldn't detect this. 7) Buttery 5 drops butter extract Y OK (diacetyl) 8) Sulfury 30 mg Potassium N Good Metabisulfite (K2S2O5) 9) Skunky Previously dark stored, Y Good fresh Molson in sun 3 days 10) DMS 0.08ul (made by diluting N OK 50uL pure DMS to 50ml w/ pure ethanol, then adding 80ul of this to each bottle) 11) Stale open bottles to air, recap, Y very light, needs more time heat to 100F for 10 days 12) Sour 10ml white wine vinegar Y Too sour, cut in half ul - micro Liter ml - milli Liter Comments: All amounts for 16oz. bottles. We used a light relatively flavorless beer that was free of original defects. We chose Carling Black Label. It was cheap, and of the 8 or so comparable cheap beers (why trash good stuff) it was the most defect free. The importance of a fresh beer to doctor can not be stressed enough. Remember to keep undoctored reference samples for side-by-side comparison during the session. Substitutes : Cloves or allspice can be made into a liquid extract (don't add these spices directly to beer or it will cause it to gush heavily!) and added in place of Eugenol. 2g of allspice is recommended but I have no direct experience with this (it sounds like way too much). Banana extract if you can find it will be made from food grade Amyl Acetate (just as butter extract is basically food grade diacetyl, and Almond extract is Benzaldehyde). You can add this instead. Quantity unknown though 4-5 drops is my guess. Metabisulfite tablets (Camden tablets) from a homebrew supplier can be substituted for Potassium Metabisulfite. These are used by winemakers to kill yeast. Quantity unknown. Guidelines for AHA National Conference 6/92 Reference Beer == Pabst Blue Ribbon size = 12 oz. long neck bottles Flavor/Aroma Amount Drink? Comment - ------------ ------ ------ ------- 1) Alcohol 12ml pure ethanol Y good 2) estery 90ul banana extract Y still way too low perhaps try corn spirits next time 3) nutty 60ul almond extract Y too low (was fine in Carling) 4) diacetyl 75ul butter extract Y good 5) phenol 9mg N 6) clove 2 eyedropper drops Y good clove extract 7) Stale open bottles to air, recap, Y good this time heat to 100F for 10 days 8) Skunky Previously dark strored, Y Good fresh Molson in sun 3 days 9) Sulfury 22.5 mg Potassium N only half got it Metabisulfite (K2S2O5) could be bumped up 10)Lactic 380ul 85% DSP Lactic Acid Y good (i.e. food grade!!!) 11) DMS 0.08ul (made by diluting N OK 50uL pure DMS to 50ml w/ pure ethanol, then adding 80ul of this to each bottle) ul - micro Liter ml - milli Liter Comments: George Fix suggested using Corn Spirits to replace Banana extract for the estery. He indicated that these contain 1000 times as much esters per unit volume as beer. Some scratch calculations indicate that if this is correct, to doctor a beer to raise the ester level to 2 to 3 times threshold level (as defined in George's book by the Flavor Unit terminology) one would use 1ml of Corn spirits. We have yet to try this, but plan to do so soon. Please let us know if you do try this. -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Sun Apr 25 02:30:52 1993 From: uunet!leia.polaroid.com!STROUD%GAIA Subject: Oregon Ale Tasting and 2nd Round Judging at the AHA Nationals Dan Hall just pointed out to me that the "Oregon Ale Tasting" at the AHA Conference in Portland is from 1-2:45 on Tuesday, July 27th. I will miss it because my flight doesn't arrive in Portland until 1 pm Tuesday. However, when I think about it, even if I were at the hotel in Portland on time, I wouldn't go to the tasting anyway. Why? Because second round judging starts at 3 pm. It strikes me as poor planning by the AHA to put the tasting immediately prior to the judging. There's probably no better way for a judge to trash their palate then to spend a couple of hours drinking hoppy Oregon ales just before they judge. In fairness to anybody who has entries that make it to the second round, I hope that the AHA will make a point of warning all judges away from the "Oregon Ale Tasting" event. Charlie might also point this out to the people who attend his apprentice judging lab (i.e, tell them that the best palate is a fresh one and that drinking lots of beer before judging isn't a good way to approach it). Steve Stroud -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Mon Apr 26 04:58:18 1993 From: bickham at msc.cornell.edu Subject: Second rounds in small competitions? I'm organizing an AHA-sanctioned competition in Ithaca that will be held this weekend. It looks like we're getting 75 to 100 entries, so I was wondering how the entries could judged the best. I plan to run the judging in two sessions, but I can't decide which would be better for the entrants: 1. Judge half the categories in the morning session, with 3 judges per panel. The other half would then be judged in the afternoon session, during which the results from the first half could be tabulated. 2. Judge all entries in both sessions, with two judges per panel per session. This would increase the feedback to the brewer, but it would be a little difficult matching judges with beers they have not brewed or already judged. Any suggestions? Thanks, Scott - -- ========================================================================= Scott Bickham | LASSP and Materials Science Center | bickham at msc.cornell.edu ========================================================================= -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Mon Apr 26 04:58:18 1993 From: Martin A. Lodahl Subject: 2nd Round vs. AHA Conference Planning In JudgeNet Digest #575, Steve Stroud noted: > It strikes me as poor planning by the AHA to put the tasting > immediately prior to the judging. There's probably no better way > for a judge to trash their palate then to spend a couple of hours > drinking hoppy Oregon ales just before they judge. In fairness to > anybody who has entries that make it to the second round, I hope that > the AHA will make a point of warning all judges away from the "Oregon > Ale Tasting" event. What makes this scheduling an especially egregious blunder, IMHO, is that they did the same damn thing last year, scheduling the Lambik tasting Mike Sharp & I hosted immediately before the second round. We, naturally, ended our tasting with some extremely "hard" Cantillon traditional Lambiks, and sent one hundred people off to judge the second round, who could no longer sense anything more subtle than Drano. That they should do it once was forgivable; we all make mistakes. But twice? = Martin A. Lodahl Pacific*Bell Systems Analyst = = malodah at Pacbell.COM Sacramento, CA 916.972.4821 = = If it's good for ancient Druids, runnin' nekkid through the wuids, = = Drinkin' strange fermented fluids, it's good enough for me! 8-) = -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Tue Apr 27 02:23:26 1993 From: Jay Hersh Subject: Re: 2nd Round vs. AHA Conference Planning and lest we forget that opposite the Lambic tasting (ie also before the 2nd round of the competition) was the Dr. Beer smeinar. A palette buster if ever there was one.... yet it immediately preceeded 2nd round judging.. JaH -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Wed Apr 28 02:54:03 1993 From: Jim Busch Subject: Style for hoppy pale ale? I have a question regarding the AHA style guidelines for the national competition. I brew a pretty big ale in the Sierra Nevada Celebration style. My current one is about 6% ABV (15P-3.25P) with a ton of Cascade and Centennial hops. IBUs are around 45-50, and it is dry hopped. Now I call this an American IPA, but the styles are American Pale Ale (Cascade & Centennial) and ENGLISH IPA (esters & english hops). What does the rest of the judging world think of this? The reason I ask is that I entered one of these in last years IPA category and got slammed for lack of esters and "english" character. I use American ale yeast and there are no esters like in a english IPA. Whats a guy to do? Does this mean a Celebration clone is not eligible in the nationals? I suppose I could enter it in the American Ale but the IBUs are way high. Thanks Jim Busch -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Wed Apr 28 02:54:03 1993 From: Bob Devine Subject: artificial beer judge! Oh oh! There has been a joking trend to say "get rid of the human element, just use a mass spectrometer or a to objectively judge beer!"... Business Week, April 19, 1993 British beer drinkers support hundreds of local brands, all with a subtly different taste and aroma. To maintain quality, brewmasters depend on beer sniffers with highly educated noses. Scientists at the University of Warwick in Coventry have invented an artificial nose that may rival the sensitivities of the professional smellers. The device uses a dozen polymers, each of which reacts to the presence of a particular chemical in beer. By analyzing the 12 signals, a computer can tell if the brew is ok. Bass Brewers Ltd. in Burton-on-Trent, England, is testing the nose, which Julian Gardner, a senior lecturer in electronics at Warwick, says could also be used in coffee roasting, perfume blending, and food processing. A key advantage is that the nose can be poked into temperatures or chemical concentrations unfit for human snouts. "It won't replace people," says Gardner, "but it will improve quality control in the factory." Bob "soon to be a luddite :-)" Devine -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Thu Apr 29 01:57:14 1993 From: bickham at msc.cornell.edu Subject: Re: Hoppy Pale Ale Jim writes: > Date: Tue, 27 Apr 93 14:15:42 EDT > From: Jim Busch > Subject: Style for hoppy pale ale? > > I have a question regarding the AHA style guidelines for > the national competition. I brew a pretty big ale in > the Sierra Nevada Celebration style. My current one > is about 6% ABV (15P-3.25P) with a ton of Cascade > and Centennial hops. IBUs are around 45-50, and it > is dry hopped. Now I call this an American IPA, but > the styles are American Pale Ale (Cascade & Centennial) > and ENGLISH IPA (esters & english hops). What does the > rest of the judging world think of this? I believe Anchor Liberty might also fall into this category, being slightly full-bodied for an American Pale Ale. Well, you could enter your brew in the Ithaca competition, where I have IPA as a category in both American and English style ales. That tells you what I think about those particular style definitions ;-) On a related note, I brewed a pretty nice American Pale Ale using Willamette instead of Cascade hops. It actually turned out pretty well, with an aroma and flavor that was slightly spicier and less grapefruitier than one gets with only Cascade hops. However upon entering it in a homebrew competition, I found that {apprentice an recognized} judges who had been tasting Cascades all morning really picked up on this difference and knocked it down as contamination. Has anyone else had this happen? Scott - -- ========================================================================= Scott Bickham | LASSP and Materials Science Center | bickham at msc.cornell.edu ========================================================================= -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Thu Apr 29 01:57:14 1993 From: korz at iepubj.att.com Subject: YSLA Jim writes: >I have a question regarding the AHA style guidelines for >the national competition. I brew a pretty big ale in >the Sierra Nevada Celebration style. My current one... [snip] >Does this mean a Celebration clone is not elegible in >the nationals? I suppose I could enter it in the >American ALe but the IBUs are way high. While you're wondering where you should put your Celebration-like Ale, ponder where I should put Young's Special London-like Ale. Like the original, it has 56 IBU, 1063 OG and a big East Kent Goldings nose. Much too caramelly for an IPA -- right, Steve Hamburg? Al. -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Fri Apr 30 02:02:01 1993 From: korz at iepubj.att.com Subject: Feedback to judges In an effort to improve judging overall, we as judges, should make sure to send feedback to judges who obviously misjudge our beer. A recent example was provided by Scott: >On a related note, I brewed a pretty nice American Pale Ale using Willamette >instead of Cascade hops. It actually turned out pretty well, with an aroma >and flavor that was slightly spicier and less grapefruitier than one gets with >only Cascade hops. However upon entering it in a homebrew competition, I >found that {apprentice an recognized} judges who had been tasting Cascades >all morning really picked up on this difference and knocked it down as >contamination. Has anyone else had this happen? I had a style mis-interpretation in a recent competition. I submitted a Trappist Dubbel about which one judge commented: " -- lactic acid characteristics of style are missing." and then in the Drinkability and Overall Impression section: "review style characteristics & revise recipe" The most alarming part of this story is that this was a *NATIONAL* judge who regularly teaches BJCP exam preparation courses! I immediately wrote a letter to this judge and in a conciliatory tone, suggested that this judge avoid judging unfamiliar categories. I got a friendly letter back, skirting the issue and appologizing from a organizer's point-of- view that my beer was misjudged. Hopefully this judge got the message and will be more cautious in the future. Again, I urge all of you to do as I did and provide feedback to judges. You can always call the organizer and ask for the judge's address or just send the letter to the organizer and ask that they forward the letter to the judge. Use a friendly tone (accidents happen) and cite the literature to support your argument. In my letter, I cited Rajotte's Belgian Ale book, the AHA Style Descriptions, the Styles Special Issue of Zymurgy and Jackson's Belgian Beers, New World Guide and Pocket Guide. Finally, I encourage all judges to avoid unfamiliar styles unless judging with an expert in the style (in my case the other two judges were Recognized and Apprentice -- the National judge *should* have been the expert). Don't allow yourself to be pressured by a forceful organizer. Recently, I judged Belgian Ales at a competition with a judge who admittedly didn't like Belgian Ales and had even marked this on the Judge Registration form. The organizer still put this person on this style. At the risk of sounding pompous, I believe that I'm an expert in Belgian Ales and proceeded to help the other judge throught the flight. I think I may actually have gotten him to give these unique beers another chance (it helped that only one beer was fair and the rest quite excellent). Al. -------------------------------------- From JudgeNet Fri Apr 30 02:02:01 1993 From: bob at rsi.com (Bob Gorman) Subject: First Round Nationals (NorthEast) Hi All, Just a reminder that the deadline for judge and steward registration for this years First Round of the National Homebrew Competition in the North East region is coming right up. This covers judges from Montreal to Richmond, from Pittsburgh to Portland, from Buffalo to Boston . Does this cover you? If you are interested in judgeing or stewarding and want more information then drop me a note. Don't delay. Thanks for your support, Bob Gorman 617/893-5655 --------------------------------------