Return-Path: judge-owner at synchro.com Received: from srvr20.engin.umich.edu (root at srvr20.engin.umich.edu [141.212.2.26]) by srvr5.engin.umich.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id CAA08429 for ; Mon, 3 Aug 1998 02:26:36 -0400 (EDT) Received: from synchro.com (cccox.ne.mediaone.net [24.128.144.90]) by srvr20.engin.umich.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id CAA07607 for ; Mon, 3 Aug 1998 02:26:34 -0400 (EDT) From: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" To: "Digest Recipients" Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" Subject: Digest for the period 8/2/98 - 8/3/98 Message-ID: Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 02:03:03 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Hops: 1 Table of contents ------------------------------------------------------ Some judging questions (Gregory A. Lorton) Call for Judges (Steven Lichtenberg) competition results variability (MJRiddle) -------------------------------------------------------- From: Gregory A. Lorton Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 12:17:31 -0700 Subject: Some judging questions I have three questions that maybe I can get some comments and/or guidance on. First - Admittedly this isn't a major criteria in evaluating a homebrew, but what is an appropriate fill level for a homebrewed beer? At a recent competition, I was part of a panel of four judges in which we got into a friendly, but rather spirited discussion of proper fill levels, based on some discrepancies as we filled out "Bottle Inspection" comments. The range that we each said was desirable ranged from 3/4 inch to 2 inches. (I personally think that 2 inches would leave a beer susceptible to oxidation if the beer wasn't purged with CO2 during filling.) After the contest, I checked a couple of books. Dave Miller says 1/2 inch in one of his books, and TNCJOHB says 3/4 inches. At a local homebrew club meeting several months back, someone had anecdotal evidence that bottles filled to within 1/2 inch of the top did not carbonate well. Comments appreciated! Second - We all know that rings at the neck of a homebrew are an indication of trouble. How predisposed are judge's to knocking down a beer if they see a ring? I've made two meads that after six months have each developed a ring. If you swirl the bottle, the ring either dissolves or breaks up, but several days later reappears. The mead doesn't have any obvious signs of infection or significant off-flavors. Is anyone aware of what might cause a ring to form that isn't evidence of a bacteria problem? (I guess this is a two-part question? Comments appreciated!) Third - The 1998 BJCP Style Guidelines mention (under American Light Lager) that "'Light' beers have 1/3 fewer calories than Standard;..." Shouldn't this description also say "Tastes great, less filling."? Comments not necessary! 8^) Greg Lorton Carlsbad, CA -------------------------------------------------------- From: Steven Lichtenberg Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 09:56:43 -0400 Subject: Call for Judges The 3rd annual Montgomery County (MD) Fair Homebrew Competition will be held on August 22, 1998. We are still looking for judges/stewards to help with this competition. Judging will begin at 9:00AM and continue until we are finished. Last year we successfully judged ~100 entries and this year we expect a larger turnout. Those people that volunteer in this effort will be rewarded with the following: FREE admission to the fair for you and your family. Reserved parking. Lunch at the famous JOE'S grill Nifty prizes and lots more If you are interested in joining us for this event, you can register on the web at http://members.tripod.com/~G_A_B_S or via email to mailto://slichten at mnsinc.com Please include your snail mail address so we can send you the fair passes and parking permits. In order that we can get judge assignments and return passes/parking permits etc to you, we ask that you register by 15 August. Additionally, Any judge or steward that wishes to enter beers in he competition will be permitted to register in advance and bring their beers with them on the day of the event. Thank you for your interest. We look forward to seeing you on the 22nd. Steven Lichtenberg Judge coordinator BJCP Recognized **** ---- "There's always time for a Homebrew!" ---- **** O| | -------------- Steven Lichtenberg ---------------- | |O \__/ ------------ slichten at mnsinc.com ------------- \__/ ----------- Programmer at Large ------------ ---------- Lichtenberg Consulting ---------- ----------- Gaithersburg, MD ------------- --------------------------------------------- ENJOY LIFE -- THIS IS NOT A REHEARSAL -------------------------------------------------------- From: MJRiddle Date: Sat, 01 Aug 1998 13:19:36 -0700 Subject: competition results variability Hi, This is my first posting to JudgeNet. I've been analyzing judge feedback on a variety of beers I've entered in several AHA and/or BJCP sanctioned competitions over the past 8 months. Some of the comments have been excellent and have really helped me focus on improvement areas. Other comments have been unhelpful. Of more critical interest is the diversity of scoring you can get on a single batch of beer. The table below shows the range of scores I got on 5 different batches of beer. Each of these batches was judged in either 7 or 8 different competitions. In most of these competitions, the judge panels were directed to give individual scores for a beer that have a spread of 7 points or less. None of these beers had more than very minor defects. The score spreads represent how the judges in the different contests felt that the beers exemplified the style. (There was no significant effect of beer age at judging, for example.) Variability of Judge Scores Across Contests Beer Style Average Min Max Spread Spread/Average Dry Stout 29.9 22.5 39.3 16.8 56% Altbier 30.0 22.3 36.0 13.8 46% Amer. Pale Ale 30.4 25.0 37.2 12.2 40% Robust Porter 31.3 24.0 41.0 17.0 54% Imperial Stout 38.5 31.0 41.8 10.8 28% How do folks feel about these spreads? I'd welcome any comments. --Mike Riddle, MArin Society of Homebrewers (MASH) Return-Path: judge-owner at synchro.com Received: from srvr20.engin.umich.edu (root at srvr20.engin.umich.edu [141.212.2.26]) by srvr5.engin.umich.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id CAA08429 for ; Mon, 3 Aug 1998 02:26:36 -0400 (EDT) Received: from synchro.com (cccox.ne.mediaone.net [24.128.144.90]) by srvr20.engin.umich.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id CAA07607 for ; Mon, 3 Aug 1998 02:26:34 -0400 (EDT) From: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" To: "Digest Recipients" Reply-To: "JudgeNet - the beer judge digest" Subject: Digest for the period 8/2/98 - 8/3/98 Message-ID: Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 02:03:03 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Hops: 1 Table of contents ------------------------------------------------------ Some judging questions (Gregory A. Lorton) Call for Judges (Steven Lichtenberg) competition results variability (MJRiddle) -------------------------------------------------------- From: Gregory A. Lorton Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 12:17:31 -0700 Subject: Some judging questions I have three questions that maybe I can get some comments and/or guidance on. First - Admittedly this isn't a major criteria in evaluating a homebrew, but what is an appropriate fill level for a homebrewed beer? At a recent competition, I was part of a panel of four judges in which we got into a friendly, but rather spirited discussion of proper fill levels, based on some discrepancies as we filled out "Bottle Inspection" comments. The range that we each said was desirable ranged from 3/4 inch to 2 inches. (I personally think that 2 inches would leave a beer susceptible to oxidation if the beer wasn't purged with CO2 during filling.) After the contest, I checked a couple of books. Dave Miller says 1/2 inch in one of his books, and TNCJOHB says 3/4 inches. At a local homebrew club meeting several months back, someone had anecdotal evidence that bottles filled to within 1/2 inch of the top did not carbonate well. Comments appreciated! Second - We all know that rings at the neck of a homebrew are an indication of trouble. How predisposed are judge's to knocking down a beer if they see a ring? I've made two meads that after six months have each developed a ring. If you swirl the bottle, the ring either dissolves or breaks up, but several days later reappears. The mead doesn't have any obvious signs of infection or significant off-flavors. Is anyone aware of what might cause a ring to form that isn't evidence of a bacteria problem? (I guess this is a two-part question? Comments appreciated!) Third - The 1998 BJCP Style Guidelines mention (under American Light Lager) that "'Light' beers have 1/3 fewer calories than Standard;..." Shouldn't this description also say "Tastes great, less filling."? Comments not necessary! 8^) Greg Lorton Carlsbad, CA -------------------------------------------------------- From: Steven Lichtenberg Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 09:56:43 -0400 Subject: Call for Judges The 3rd annual Montgomery County (MD) Fair Homebrew Competition will be held on August 22, 1998. We are still looking for judges/stewards to help with this competition. Judging will begin at 9:00AM and continue until we are finished. Last year we successfully judged ~100 entries and this year we expect a larger turnout. Those people that volunteer in this effort will be rewarded with the following: FREE admission to the fair for you and your family. Reserved parking. Lunch at the famous JOE'S grill Nifty prizes and lots more If you are interested in joining us for this event, you can register on the web at http://members.tripod.com/~G_A_B_S or via email to mailto://slichten at mnsinc.com Please include your snail mail address so we can send you the fair passes and parking permits. In order that we can get judge assignments and return passes/parking permits etc to you, we ask that you register by 15 August. Additionally, Any judge or steward that wishes to enter beers in he competition will be permitted to register in advance and bring their beers with them on the day of the event. Thank you for your interest. We look forward to seeing you on the 22nd. Steven Lichtenberg Judge coordinator BJCP Recognized **** ---- "There's always time for a Homebrew!" ---- **** O| | -------------- Steven Lichtenberg ---------------- | |O \__/ ------------ slichten at mnsinc.com ------------- \__/ ----------- Programmer at Large ------------ ---------- Lichtenberg Consulting ---------- ----------- Gaithersburg, MD ------------- --------------------------------------------- ENJOY LIFE -- THIS IS NOT A REHEARSAL -------------------------------------------------------- From: MJRiddle Date: Sat, 01 Aug 1998 13:19:36 -0700 Subject: competition results variability Hi, This is my first posting to JudgeNet. I've been analyzing judge feedback on a variety of beers I've entered in several AHA and/or BJCP sanctioned competitions over the past 8 months. Some of the comments have been excellent and have really helped me focus on improvement areas. Other comments have been unhelpful. Of more critical interest is the diversity of scoring you can get on a single batch of beer. The table below shows the range of scores I got on 5 different batches of beer. Each of these batches was judged in either 7 or 8 different competitions. In most of these competitions, the judge panels were directed to give individual scores for a beer that have a spread of 7 points or less. None of these beers had more than very minor defects. The score spreads represent how the judges in the different contests felt that the beers exemplified the style. (There was no significant effect of beer age at judging, for example.) Variability of Judge Scores Across Contests Beer Style Average Min Max Spread Spread/Average Dry Stout 29.9 22.5 39.3 16.8 56% Altbier 30.0 22.3 36.0 13.8 46% Amer. Pale Ale 30.4 25.0 37.2 12.2 40% Robust Porter 31.3 24.0 41.0 17.0 54% Imperial Stout 38.5 31.0 41.8 10.8 28% How do folks feel about these spreads? I'd welcome any comments. --Mike Riddle, MArin Society of Homebrewers (MASH)