From synchro!judge-request at uu6.psi.com Mon Mar 21 08:10:32 1994 Received: from uu6.psi.com by goodman.itn.med.umich.edu with SMTP id AA03072 (5.65b/IDA-1.4.3 for spencer at hendrix.itn.med.umich.edu); Mon, 21 Mar 94 08:10:25 -0500 Received: from synchro.UUCP by uu6.psi.com (5.65b/4.0.071791-PSI/PSINet) via UUCP; id AA19140 for ; Mon, 21 Mar 94 07:11:03 -0500 Received: by synchro.com (smail2.5) id AA20132; 21 Mar 94 05:11:52 EST (Mon) Reply-To: judge at synchro.com (JudgeNet) Errors-To: judge-error at synchro.com Precedence: bulk Message-Id: <9403210511.AA20132 at synchro.com> From: judge-request at synchro.com (JudgeNet Administrator) To: judge-recipients at synchro.com (JudgeNet Recipients) Subject: JudgeNet Digest #719 (Mar 21, 1994) Date: 21 Mar 94 05:11:52 EST (Mon) JudgeNet Digest #719 Mon 21 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: Re: Judge style assignment (Rick Garvin) re: Exam turnaround / Club competition judging (darrylri) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 15:27:45 -0500 (EST) From: Rick Garvin Subject: Re: Judge style assignment Kieran saidL > 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. This is a tough one. I did this for the HWBTA National, but I have generally had the following problems: 1) 10% no show. At the HWBTA this was 10 out of 78. That is 12.8% no show. This only counts the ones that did not call or write about not coming after sending in registration forms. THIS REALLY STEAMS ME!!!! This included a Master and a National judge. 2) 50% of the judges do not register on time. 3) Who is this judge and what does she know? 4) Who are you going to assign to Specialty and Herb? Add to this the, ahem, algorithm for judge/style assignment. What I believe the reals solution is for judges to note preferences on their registration forms and then gracefully accept what you are given. If you have any styles that you cannot or will not judge it is your responsibility to communicate that prior to the competition, not at 9:05 AM on the day of the competition that starts at 9:00 AM. Cheers, Rick ------------------------------ Date: Sun Mar 20 06:18:02 1994 From: darrylri at microsoft.com Subject: re: Exam turnaround / Club competition judging "Phillip R. Seitz" writes: > 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 The official number has always been 12 weeks to get scores returned. Because there are 4 or so different people involved in scoring the exams, and because the transfers occur between them by snail mail, it can indeed take the full 12 weeks. I don't think that anybody is happy about the amount of time that goes by. - ------------------------------ "J. Andrew Patrick" writes: > 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. Well, perhaps your club could use some new ideas for running their judging. The Maltose Falcons have, in previous years, judged these beers at the board of directors meetings with BJCP judges only, and they begin with a reading from the AHA style guide and from Fred Eckhardt's Essentials of Beer Style and one of Jackson's books. Discussion follows to try to come to a concensus over the differences that inevitably show up. The Seattle Brews Bros. hold the tastings at their meetings, and recruit as many judges, certified or not, to taste. They also nearly always include "ringers" in the tasting. The tastings at both clubs are generally quiet until after everyone has finished their own judging. The beers are all announced at the end of the tasting so the judges have some feedback as well. Didn't like the commercial example? Maybe your understanding of the style isn't as deep as you thought. Or, maybe nobody liked it because it really did have a fault or was off style. > 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!). Astringency can come through as bitterness, highly carbonate water can amplify what hop bitterness there is, and fruitiness can sometimes be mistaken for hop aroma. An infection could make the beer cloyingly bitter (butyric) and thin. Not that your beer has these qualities necessarily, just that ingredients alone don't tell the whole story. Process can make huge differences on the end result. It's these sort of things that you'd like to have the judges be able to tell you. > What's a brewer to do in the face of something like this? Now, thank > goodness, _most_ of these people are not certified judges. This is exactly the problem. They need to take the initiative to become judges. Can you help them get going? --Darryl Richman ------------------------------ End of JudgeNet Digest ************************