Date: Tue, 18 Mar 1997 08:54:59 -0500
Message-Id: <199703181354.IAA01669 at synchro.com>
From: owner-judge-digest at synchro.com
To: judge-digest at synchro.com
Subject:   judge-digest V1 #1408
Reply-To: judge at synchro.com
Errors-To: owner-judge-digest at synchro.com
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judge-digest               Tuesday, 18 March 1997       Volume 01 : Number 1408

 ============================================================================
       J u d g e N e t   -   t h e   b e e r   j u d g e   d i g e s t
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 Moderator:        Chuck Cox          <chuck at synchro.com>
 Archivist:        Spencer Thomas     <spencer at umich.edu>
 Publisher:        SynchroSystems     <info at synchro.com>

 Submissions:      judge at synchro.com
 Subscriptions:    judge-request at synchro.com
 Archive:          http://realbeer.com/spencer/judge
 BJCP info:        geninfo at bjcp.synchro.com

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 contents:

 Computers, again
 6th. ann NY City Spring Regional Competition
 Computers
 AHA sanctioning
 Gemstate Homebrew Contest
 Re:Too many beers per panel

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From: "Kieran O'Connor" <koconnor at cnyric.org>
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 09:22:35 -0500
Subject: Computers, again

I tell ya, the longer you're on this list, the more the same topics come up
again and again! Anyway, here's my view of using a computer at a comp. Take
what i have to say, weigh it, and then do what works for you.

We enter all the entrant data in before the comp: name, address, phone,
style, special ingredients, entry #, etc. That helps us generate pull
sheets with the style and entry number and special ingreds for the judges,
as well as master sheets for the "back room."

As scoring sheets come back, the back room has a copy of each "table sheet"
and the back room fills in the score on the copy of the "table sheet".
Please note: at our comp a "judging table" does a complete style, say
Stouts and Porters. So when they are done, they know the winners for that
category.

[One thing I heard recently. A competition used the database it created to
make labels for the judges. So instead of writing your name, judge rank and
the style of beer you judged, you peel off a label and stick it on the
scoring sheet. I may try this next year, but only with the style and
ingredients as judges get shuffled around last minute].

At the end of the day, or as the day progresses, all that needs to be done
is to look at each "table sheet" and see who was the first place in order
to pull the beers for BoS.

As an added bonus, we make up manila envelopes with entrants names and as
the sheets come back we stuff the judge forms into the envelopes. Judges
and stewards may pick up unreviewed sheets if they wish. We can then review
the other before they go out, but they are already stuffed!

The day of our comp, we don't even bring a computer since it's not
necessary. We've done this for 2 years now: first year with 270  entries,
second year (Nov 96) with 316 entries. This system may not work with larger
competition, but from what I read 316 entries is bigger than most comps on
Judgenet, so it's doable. The competion software we use is a simple
database (ClarisWorks!).

Again, take out of this what you want and make your own decision. I'm a
computer weenie by trade, and i don't think you need a competition at the
comp: it's good for the background stuff, but not necessary for the day of
the comp.


Kieran

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Kieran O'Connor
Cortland City Schools/OCM BOCES Systems Consultant
Syracuse, NY USA                 email: koconnor at cnyric.org

(607) 753-6061 x2177 (M,W,F)     (315) 433-8335 (T, Th)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


------------------------------

From: Ken <kbjohns at oscar.peakaccess.net>
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 09:23:51 -0500
Subject: 6th. ann NY City Spring Regional Competition

Just a reminder. 

Competition date is Sun 3/23/97 Entries are due by Thurs 3/21. 

We still need judges & Stewards.

Complete information, entry and judge/steward forms can be found at URL
http://www.wp.com/hosi/companno.html


------------------------------

From: "Keith Looney" <looneyke at lims.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 11:43:11 -0500
Subject: Computers

I just ran the Knickerbocker Battle of the Brews 2 weeks ago, and while all
of the entrant and entry information was in a database, the database itself
was not used on the day of the competition.  It was a great help, however,
in generating pull sheets, making category and judge assignments, and
organizing the entry information for the organizer's reference prior to the
day of the competition.  This is the second year that our competition has
been run this way and it has worked well for us.  Maybe next year the
database will be capable enough to accept the assigned scores and print
winner reports on the day of the competition, but even if it had that
capability, I would still have printed forms on hand to use as a backup.
This year we had a computer at the competition, but it wasn't used (I
actually thought of the computer as a backup).  It was actually faster for
us to look up information from the reports that had been generated the day
before, and in one or two cases, I had to look at the original entry
information anyway (data entry/transcription errors can occur with or
without a computer).  Also, a computer is harder to move around that a
handful of paper, impeding the organizer's mobility, unless there is another
person available to work with it as needed.

I created our competition database for our competition last year, modified
it for use this year, and will modify it again next year to add features and
make it easier to use.  I am not familiar with the competition software that
is available, but this is what we have done and plan to do for next year
since we can configure the database to conform to the way we want to run our
competition and not the other way around.  The combination of
pre-competition database and day-of-competition paper forms has worked well
for us.

Keith
________________________________________________________________
Keith Looney			Moonstruck Brewing
looneyke at lims.com		(518) 482-2135


------------------------------

From: Caroline Duncker <caroline at aob.org>
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 14:56:57 -0700
Subject: AHA sanctioning

In response to Bryan Gros's comments from #1405 regarding AHA
sanctioning and the calendar of events.

I must clarify Bryan's post. The AHA does not exclude BJCP registered
competitions or BJCP exams for that matter in the Zymurgy calendar. When
a competition is sanctioned with the AHA, it is entered directly into
the calendar and on the web page. The difference lies in my awareness of
such events. For example, BJCP only events are not sent to my attention
for inclusion in the calendar. If such events are sent to me, I do my
best to include them. In fact, we have enlarged the Zymurgy calendar in
order to accommodate the growth in beer-related events. All beer-related
calendar requests may be sent to calendar at aob.org. I receive a copy and
so does our systems administrator.

Cheers,
Caroline


- -- 
Caroline Duncker
Project Coordinator
American Homebrewers Association  (303) 447-0816 x 116   (voice)
736 Pearl Street                  (303) 447-2825         (fax)
PO Box 1679                       caroline at aob.org       (e-mail)
Boulder, CO  80306-1679           info at aob.org           (aob info)
U.S.A.                            http://beertown.org    (web)

------------------------------

From: "Loren Carter"  <lcarter at claven.idbsu.edu>
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 15:41:38 +0000
Subject: Gemstate Homebrew Contest

The eleventh annual Gemstate Homebrew Contest will be held April 25(last day for
entries).  Information at www.idbsu.edu/chem/Lcarter.html.  Or send me your 
snail mail address and I will send the rules etc.

Judging will be Saturday May 3. If you live near Boise, Idaho and would like to 
judge,  let me know and I will send you details.

Loren Carter pH.D
Chemistry Department
Boise State University
Boise, Idaho 83725


------------------------------

From: "Mark S. Johnston" <msjohnst at talon.net>
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 19:59:55 -0500
Subject: Re:Too many beers per panel

In JD 1407 Dion Hollenbeck wrote:

>Well, at the AFCHBC we just finished, we had 40 judges and 267 beers.
>This works out to 13 beers per judge with two judge panels.  Of
>course, we could not divvy it up exactly that way, so we had some
>judges with up to 16 beers to taste.  They said it was too much and I
>agree, but there was not much we could do about it.

(snip)

>So how do people handle this?  I would hate to have to go to a 2 day
>event, as we would never get as many judges as we did if they had to
>spend the entire weekend.  Then again, I don't think I could get the
>competition staff for two days either.

We dealt with a similar situation at the Moon Madness comp last week. We
had a slightly better ratio of 252 entries and about 44 judges--including
about a half dozen novice and apprentice judges. One panel had 17 beers.
Another had 15. The rest had between 11 and 13--or at least that's how we
planned it. 

We collapsed into 17 categories and made sure that we had two BJCP judges
at each table. (There was one exception due to a no-show. But the
apprentice at the table had judged at three previous comps, so I felt okay
about the pairing.) In addition, we were fortunate enough to be able to
place a Certified or above at nearly every table. Where we couldn't do
that, we were able to tap Recognized judges with 10+ points (no interest
in retaking the exam).

The largest cat by far was the Belgian Ale/Lambic with 24 entries. We
placed four judges there and told them to split the cat 12 a piece, with a
mini-BOS between the 2 groups. Imagine my surprise to find that the four
judges all wanted to sample all 24 entries (!?!) and proceeded to do so in
spite of instruction to split. Apparently there is still some debate over
how many entries is too many. It may be in the palate of the taster. :-|

One other trick was to take the judges from two panels with few entries
(in this case 11). They then divided the remaining category to be judged
(in this case herb/spice with 11 entries) between their tables and had a
mini BOS for this category. This last category was judged after the lunch
break. So while each judge had to sample 17 or 18 beers, they were not all
served in a single session. 

In all but this last case, the judges essentially had all day to sample
the beers in their category. Most were about 2/3 or more through their
flight when lunch was served. The BOS panel certainly earned their extra
point by having to pare down 17 beers after judging all day.

BTW-We did not use a computer at the comp. (Although there is talk of
trying it next year.) The BOS pull sheet was developed as the individual
cat results were brought back to the head table. By the time the last
table finished, only their winner had to be found. We were able to go
straight into BOS. Although it does help to have a few people working the
table.

While I'm at it, I want to once again thank all those who did judge at
Moon Madness this year, and commend them for their professionalism. I
reviewed a large number of the score sheets and found the vast majority of
the comments to be constructive, courteous, legible, and complete. Well
done.


------------------------------

End of judge-digest V1 #1408
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