Subject: Digest for the period 2/22/2004 - 2/23/2004 Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 01:02:14 -0500 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Tmave beers (Jesse Stricker) 2. RE: Posting Points (Alan Hord) 3. Re: Posting Points (Travis Dahl KE4VYZ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jesse Stricker Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 17:01:12 -0500 (EST) Subject: Tmave beers > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > From: Richard Stueven Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 15:57:01 -0600 > Subject: Ceske tmave pivo > > > Anybody here have experience with Czech "tmave" beers? > Are they similar to Munich Dunkel? Schwarzbier? Something > else entirely? I'm not finding much help in the standard > references. I was in the Czech Republic in 1999 and drank a lot of tmave beer. Tmave means "dark", if I recall correctly. They have a touch of dark roasty character, but it's soft and not at all harsh. There's lots of malt, and the diacetyl you get in Czech pilsners. There's less hop bitterness than in a Czech pilsner. Same water and yeast as Czech pilsners. You might think of it as a schwartzbier with Czech water (i.e. neutral), Czech yeast (diacetyl) and Czech techniques. In fact, that's not a bad place to start cloning the style, although the dark component of the grain bill has always puzzled me. If you can find it, there's a brand called Herold that we can get in NC that immediately took me back to Prague. (I think Herold is the brewery, and I can't remember the beer name, but it's the dark one.) There was a recipe in a St. Patrick's catalog a while back -- it supposedly came from a Czech brewer, but I brewed it a couple of times and it wasn't particularly close. I can dig out that recipe and any other notes I might have. I'm in the process of unpacking after a move, so it'll be a while. They're wonderful beers. Jesse -- Jesse Stricker jds19`at`duke.edu ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Alan Hord Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 23:40:54 -0800 Subject: RE: Posting Points Denis Barsalo writes: How much could it possibly cost to put something together to facilitate posting points???? I have developed a better method: Given - we are dealing with the laborious issue of the BJCP typing in hand-written reports into their database; anyone that does data entry should be respected. _I_ certainly DO NOT have that kind of patience! I am compelled to write macros and applications instead ;o) Sadly the process for getting points into a useable form is still with us: pen & paper, scribbling away, hoping we write legibly enough, callused stubby fingers pounding away transcribing that literal ink, and all the while listening to the dearth of a few thankless citizens that want to throw the baby out with the bathwater... That's crazy man! Methinks that those of Woe & Fun should use automata and help are barley Bros & Sisters in this processing. Volunteer my services I did, and once again I promote an honest effort to resolve many issues: http://www.HordsOfFun.Com/hbc/ The Organizer's Final Report can still be printed (dusty old method) or kindly sent back to the BJCP as an XML file in email (very mod and trendy). By using XML, the clever gurus at the BJCP can directly uptake the report with much less human processing; the energy involved I dare say is 100-fold less! That leaves more time for beer appreciation :o) ~YAH! I dunno about you but that sounds just dandy to me! On a sidebar: I am running my HBC just now; the Cascadia Cup in Western Washington. The folks up my way already know my system. I had probably one of the best complements of the whole new year given to me just yesterday by Larry Lawrence, owner of NW Brewers Supply in Anacortes, WA. Larry acts as a collection point for our Club; he processes the competition entries of his region for us. Larry digs the Online Registration! When he gets a paper entry he uses his own store computer to transcribe the person's info into our system. It makes our job so much easier! I have to say that the adoption of Online Registration was a long time coming. It's really cool, and all very slick. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think. Cheers, Alan Hord - Organizer of the Cascadia Cup http://www.cascadebrewersguild.org/competition/2004cbgcontest.asp National near Seattle; where recycling is a joyous activity and an afternoon sunbreak is worth a week of rain PS - Steve Casselman: I liked your song too :oD ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Travis Dahl KE4VYZ Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 14:13:18 -0500 Subject: Re: Posting Points Denis Barsalo asks: >How much could it possibly cost to put something together to facilitate >posting points???? You would be amazed what hiring a professional database programmer costs! (Not to mention how long it might take them to do something.) Definitely an area where motivated volunteers could be useful. I suspect, based on what I've seen posted here, that the real problem is a volunteer finding the time to sit down and enter all of the information in a database. I can certainly understand how this can take a while and why a well-meaning volunteer may end up with a backlog. My suggestion would be to create some standardized format electronic format (a MS Excel file or a text file) that gets filled out by the competition director and emailed to the BJCP. The file could then be directly read into a program that would check for errors and enter all valid points into the database. (This is similar to what many amateur radio contests are doing now to calculate point standings.) Obviously, this would require some significant volunteer effort, but I think it is manageable. (And I would be willing to volunteer a part of the time and effort myself, even though I'm not yet a member of the BJCP. It might be worth it to just to see this line of conversation die out :) -Travis A2, MI ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** Subject: Digest for the period 2/22/2004 - 2/23/2004 Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 01:02:14 -0500 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Tmave beers (Jesse Stricker) 2. RE: Posting Points (Alan Hord) 3. Re: Posting Points (Travis Dahl KE4VYZ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jesse Stricker Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 17:01:12 -0500 (EST) Subject: Tmave beers > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > From: Richard Stueven Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 15:57:01 -0600 > Subject: Ceske tmave pivo > > > Anybody here have experience with Czech "tmave" beers? > Are they similar to Munich Dunkel? Schwarzbier? Something > else entirely? I'm not finding much help in the standard > references. I was in the Czech Republic in 1999 and drank a lot of tmave beer. Tmave means "dark", if I recall correctly. They have a touch of dark roasty character, but it's soft and not at all harsh. There's lots of malt, and the diacetyl you get in Czech pilsners. There's less hop bitterness than in a Czech pilsner. Same water and yeast as Czech pilsners. You might think of it as a schwartzbier with Czech water (i.e. neutral), Czech yeast (diacetyl) and Czech techniques. In fact, that's not a bad place to start cloning the style, although the dark component of the grain bill has always puzzled me. If you can find it, there's a brand called Herold that we can get in NC that immediately took me back to Prague. (I think Herold is the brewery, and I can't remember the beer name, but it's the dark one.) There was a recipe in a St. Patrick's catalog a while back -- it supposedly came from a Czech brewer, but I brewed it a couple of times and it wasn't particularly close. I can dig out that recipe and any other notes I might have. I'm in the process of unpacking after a move, so it'll be a while. They're wonderful beers. Jesse -- Jesse Stricker jds19`at`duke.edu ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Alan Hord Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 23:40:54 -0800 Subject: RE: Posting Points Denis Barsalo writes: How much could it possibly cost to put something together to facilitate posting points???? I have developed a better method: Given - we are dealing with the laborious issue of the BJCP typing in hand-written reports into their database; anyone that does data entry should be respected. _I_ certainly DO NOT have that kind of patience! I am compelled to write macros and applications instead ;o) Sadly the process for getting points into a useable form is still with us: pen & paper, scribbling away, hoping we write legibly enough, callused stubby fingers pounding away transcribing that literal ink, and all the while listening to the dearth of a few thankless citizens that want to throw the baby out with the bathwater... That's crazy man! Methinks that those of Woe & Fun should use automata and help are barley Bros & Sisters in this processing. Volunteer my services I did, and once again I promote an honest effort to resolve many issues: http://www.HordsOfFun.Com/hbc/ The Organizer's Final Report can still be printed (dusty old method) or kindly sent back to the BJCP as an XML file in email (very mod and trendy). By using XML, the clever gurus at the BJCP can directly uptake the report with much less human processing; the energy involved I dare say is 100-fold less! That leaves more time for beer appreciation :o) ~YAH! I dunno about you but that sounds just dandy to me! On a sidebar: I am running my HBC just now; the Cascadia Cup in Western Washington. The folks up my way already know my system. I had probably one of the best complements of the whole new year given to me just yesterday by Larry Lawrence, owner of NW Brewers Supply in Anacortes, WA. Larry acts as a collection point for our Club; he processes the competition entries of his region for us. Larry digs the Online Registration! When he gets a paper entry he uses his own store computer to transcribe the person's info into our system. It makes our job so much easier! I have to say that the adoption of Online Registration was a long time coming. It's really cool, and all very slick. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think. Cheers, Alan Hord - Organizer of the Cascadia Cup http://www.cascadebrewersguild.org/competition/2004cbgcontest.asp National near Seattle; where recycling is a joyous activity and an afternoon sunbreak is worth a week of rain PS - Steve Casselman: I liked your song too :oD ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Travis Dahl KE4VYZ Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 14:13:18 -0500 Subject: Re: Posting Points Denis Barsalo asks: >How much could it possibly cost to put something together to facilitate >posting points???? You would be amazed what hiring a professional database programmer costs! (Not to mention how long it might take them to do something.) Definitely an area where motivated volunteers could be useful. I suspect, based on what I've seen posted here, that the real problem is a volunteer finding the time to sit down and enter all of the information in a database. I can certainly understand how this can take a while and why a well-meaning volunteer may end up with a backlog. My suggestion would be to create some standardized format electronic format (a MS Excel file or a text file) that gets filled out by the competition director and emailed to the BJCP. The file could then be directly read into a program that would check for errors and enter all valid points into the database. (This is similar to what many amateur radio contests are doing now to calculate point standings.) Obviously, this would require some significant volunteer effort, but I think it is manageable. (And I would be willing to volunteer a part of the time and effort myself, even though I'm not yet a member of the BJCP. It might be worth it to just to see this line of conversation die out :) -Travis A2, MI ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * **********************************************************************