From synchro!judge-request at uu6.psi.com Sun Mar 20 06:16:47 1994 Received: from uu6.psi.com by goodman.itn.med.umich.edu with SMTP id AA24759 (5.65b/IDA-1.4.3 for spencer at hendrix.itn.med.umich.edu); Sun, 20 Mar 94 06:16:42 -0500 Received: from synchro.UUCP by uu6.psi.com (5.65b/4.0.071791-PSI/PSINet) via UUCP; id AA21103 for ; Sun, 20 Mar 94 05:52:10 -0500 Received: by synchro.com (smail2.5) id AA15734; 20 Mar 94 05:11:38 EST (Sun) Reply-To: judge at synchro.com (JudgeNet) Errors-To: judge-error at synchro.com Precedence: bulk Message-Id: <9403200511.AA15734 at synchro.com> From: judge-request at synchro.com (JudgeNet Administrator) To: judge-recipients at synchro.com (JudgeNet Recipients) Subject: JudgeNet Digest #718 (Mar 20, 1994) Date: 20 Mar 94 05:11:38 EST (Sun) JudgeNet Digest #718 Sun 20 Mar 1994 THE BEER JUDGE DIGEST Chuck Cox , digest administrator Michael Hall , archive administrator digest submissions to judge at synchro.com administrative requests to judge-request at synchro.com send rank updates to the administrative address messages sent to the wrong address will be ignored FTP archive information in /pub/judge/README on cygnus.ta52.lanl.gov Sponsored by SynchroSystems and the Riverside Garage & Brewery Contents: just a thought: pre-judging (Kieran O'Connor) Judge exam scoring ("Phillip R. Seitz") Bad Judging in "Club Competitions" ("J. Andrew Patrick") ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 08:20:48 -0500 (EST) From: Kieran O'Connor Subject: just a thought: pre-judging i read Scott's note in the digest about consistently low scoring. I judged at this contest--but (luckily) was not a judge in the categories mentioned :-). Anyway--one of Scott's cocerns was that judges did not know enough abouot the category and/or have enough experience tasting that style. now I admit I havent set up a competition--but is it possible for organizers to set up judges before the competition? that is--let these judges know that they will be judging Pale Ales or Porters? or is it too tough to do with the logistics of it all--and are there a lot of judges who commit and then dont show. Anyway--just a thought. Kieran O'Connor E-Mail Address: koconnor at mailbox.syr.edu Syracuse, N.Y. USA ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 94 11:26:32 -0400 From: "Phillip R. Seitz" Subject: Judge exam scoring I'm starting to hear horror stories about how long it takes to get exam scores back. Our exam group was told 6 weeks (which has already passed), and another recent group was told 12. At the AWHBTA in early March I met someone who had taken the exam in November and STILL hadn't gotten the scores back. (However, this person did call the AHA, which told him that he'd passed.) I'm more than aware of the vicissitudes all-volunteer organizations experience when taking on programs like this, but wonder 1) if other people are also waiting very long times and 2) if there's any remedy for this (assuming it applies). ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 12:05:05 -0600 (CST) From: "J. Andrew Patrick" Subject: Bad Judging in "Club Competitions" I have recently encountered some pretty bad beer judging in "Club Competitions". You know the kind, where all Club Members sit around and taste beers entered in a given category, then ceremoniously pick one to send off to the AHA's "Club Only" competition. This happened most recently with an all-grain Helles Bock that my brewing partner and I had made. It quickly became clear from the "judges" comments that they had no idea what a Helles Bock was supposed to look or taste like. I suspect that many were not even aware that there is even a style called Helles Bock. Consider some of the following comments. Remember, this is for an all-grain Helles Bock: "This is Pilsner, not a Bock!" "Not bad, but not to style. A nice Pilsner style." "Very hoppy." "Pretty color, but inappropriate for style." "This is not really a bock." If there seems to be a remarkable consensus, it is only beacause the "judges" discussed each beer in depth as they were "judging", thereby allowing the ignorance of the few to be reproduced upon the score sheets of the many. Now, there was only ONE ounce of Hallertauer hops in 5 gallons of this beer. (and virtually all of that was added right at the beginning of the boil!). The beer had an OG of 1.066, about 20 IBUs, and SRM around 4. Everybody who thought it was "hoppy" and a "pilsner" was sadly mistaken. Interestingly, at a different club competition, another expert "judge" said that this exact same beer needed "...a lot more hops!" to qualify as a Bock!! What's a brewer to do in the face of something like this? Now, thank goodness, _most_ of these people are not certified judges. |Sysop | Andrew Patrick | Founder| |Home Brew Univ| AHA/HWBTA Recognized Beer Judge |Home Brew Univ| |Midwest BBS | SW Brewing News Correspondent | Southwest BBS| |(708)705-7263 |Internet:andnator at genesis.mcs.com| (713)923-6418| ------------------------------ End of JudgeNet Digest ************************