From synchro!judge-request at uu6.psi.com Sat Feb 19 06:40:51 1994 Received: from uu6.psi.com by goodman.itn.med.umich.edu with SMTP id AA05675 (5.65b/IDA-1.4.3 for spencer at hendrix.itn.med.umich.edu); Sat, 19 Feb 94 06:40:47 -0500 Received: from synchro.UUCP by uu6.psi.com (5.65b/4.0.071791-PSI/PSINet) via UUCP; id AA27305 for ; Sat, 19 Feb 94 06:18:07 -0500 Received: by synchro.com (smail2.5) id AA29269; 19 Feb 94 05:13:04 EST (Sat) Reply-To: judge at synchro.com (JudgeNet) Errors-To: judge-request at synchro.com Precedence: bulk Message-Id: <9402190513.AA29269 at synchro.com> From: judge-request at synchro.com (JudgeNet Administrator) To: judge-recipients at synchro.com (JudgeNet Recipients) Subject: JudgeNet Digest #696 (Feb 19, 1994) Date: 19 Feb 94 05:13:04 EST (Sat) JudgeNet Digest #696 Sat 19 Feb 1994 THE BEER JUDGE DIGEST Chuck Cox , digest administrator Michael Hall , archive administrator DIGEST SUBMISSIONS ONLY to judge at synchro.com ALL ADMINISTRATIVE REQUESTS to judge-request at synchro.com Send rank updates to the administrative address FTP archive information in /pub/judge/README on cygnus.ta52.lanl.gov Sponsored by SynchroSystems and the Riverside Garage & Brewery Contents: Re: Comments on a beer I can get? (Jay Hersh) Specialty Beer Judging (Michael L. Hall) Specialty Beers (stevie) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 Feb 1994 11:06:22 EST From: Jay Hersh Subject: Re: Comments on a beer I can get? >Can some experienced judges critic a beer that we >novices can find on the market. Compuserve does this in an online manner on various occasions. The one problem I do see with it however is that being purchased at various places and in various conditions the beers with, well, vary.... I don't think this is necessarily a show stopper to the idea, but it does make it far more difficult to concur on flavor defects or more subtle flavors present in a given beer. JaH ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 10:14:50 MST From: mlh at cygnus.ta52.lanl.gov (Michael L. Hall) Subject: Specialty Beer Judging Chuck Wettergreen asks about how to judge specialty beers. I think that the most important thing to look for in a fruit/herb beer is balance. In other words, it should be a *good beer* with additives, and both the "beeriness" and the flavors of the additives should be apparent. Neither should overpower the other, but both should be well-balanced. This part is similar to judging the hop/malt balance. The things which I think are important in judging a fruit/herb beer are: 1. Defects. 2. Balance. 3. Adherence to the beer style specified, if any. 4. Balance. 5. Expression of color of additive, if appropriate (e.g. a cherry wheat beer should be pinkish red, but a ginger stout shouldn't have any particular ginger-related color). 6. Balance. 7. Fresh, real additive taste, instead of a fake extract (fruit) or stale (spice) taste. This can be achieved (sometimes more easily) with an extract. Some extracts are better than others. 8. And finally, balance :-) Mike Hall Los Alamos Atom Mashers ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 15:02:25 CST From: stevie at spss.com Subject: Specialty Beers Chuck Wettergreen asks about judging specialty, fruit, and herb beers. Indeed, for entries in the 'classic-style' subcategories, the beer must exhibit the signature characteristics of the specified style. If not, it'll get knocked down a tad. In fact, I distinctly recall judging Herb beers at the AHA National 2nd round a couple of years ago. We all fell in love with one entry and were ready to concede it 1st place. But then we noticed it was entered as a classic-style herb beer, targeting an IPA. Unfortunately, the beer had little/no IPA character, so it ended getting dropped to 4th. I am sure this was the highest score I have ever given to a beer that didn't win a ribbon. The lesson to brewers is, if you are at all unsure about the 'classic-style' character of your herb/fruit/specialty beer, you're better off entering it under the more general heading. This leads to Chuck's second question: >Which brings me to specialty beers which are not a classic style. >It would seem, that without a standard or style to compare to, all >the judge can do is first look for defects, and then look to >"drinkability". Could someone please comment on the judging of >these styles? This raises the issue: When you've got such HUGE acceptable ranges for gravity, IBUs, and color, what else can you go by? Well, actually, you CAN look for something. Above all, check out the expression of the special ingredient(s) or fruit. If these are imperceptable, then you've got a big prob- lem. Also, I know I like to look for at least some "beer-like" qualities. I've judged many a fruit beer that might have passed for fruit soda, shandy, or even mead! At the very least, some malt character will do the trick. +------------------+---------------------------+------------------------+ | Steve Hamburg | Internet: stevie at spss.com | "Life is short, and so | | SPSS Inc. | Phone: 312/329-3445 | are some brewers." | | Chicago, IL | Fax: 312/329-3657 | | +------------------+---------------------------+------------------------+ ------------------------------ End of JudgeNet Digest ************************