Subject: Digest for the period 6/2/2006 - 6/3/2006 Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2006 01:01:59 -0400 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Indiana State Fair Brewers' Cup competition (Dr L A Swihart) 2. Re:subjective flaws in judging (David Houseman) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dr L A Swihart Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 07:31:45 -0400 Subject: Indiana State Fair Brewers' Cup competition On July 8. It's a Saturday, the one after July 4, which is a Tuesday. It's in Indianapolis. Heads up for judges and brewers to MARK YOUR CALENDARS if you think it sounds like a worthwhile judge gig and/or competition to enter, and my experience says OH YEAH, it is. Neither the judge volunteer form nor the entry form are open for business yet, but it won't be long and somebody will post it here when they are. Plus, judges get paid! (OK so it's $12.50 a session if I recall correctly, not a princely amount, it's still kind of cute. All Indiana State Fair judges get paid, no matter what they judge. And you get a very nice ISF pin.) July 8 is the official event day, although depending on entries and judge availability it might be necessary to put on a small Friday night session. Camping at the Fairgrounds sounds like a very good deal to me, a no-hook-ups site is $16 per night and there are indoor showers and flush toilets! I'm planning on doing that this year too rather than bicycling the mile back to my sister's in Broad Ripple. I know I'm not the only judge who likes to camp and would enjoy an inexpensive spot within walking distance of the event location. Camping info is at . TWO DIVISIONS: Last year there were 370 homebrews and 142 pro brews entered. No meads or ciders. (I suspect *that* was a decision influenced by the Indiana State Fair Wine Competition, an older event which has mead and cider categories. But I'm guessing.) Also a pretty impressive label contest. I can send judge contact info on to the judge organizer for anyone who wishes. And maybe try to answer questions. Would love to see you there! Linda swihart`at`purdue.edu Entries accepted from Saturday, June 10 - Saturday, June 24,2006. No late entries accepted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Houseman Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 07:46:41 -0400 Subject: Re:subjective flaws in judging Nathaniel, Graders to see the proctors judging sheets. The specific scoring of examinees compared to the consensus scores only counts for 20% of the tasting score. Graders use the proctors judging sheets also to assess perception, descriptive ability, feedback and completeness. In the unlikely event where one proctor says high hop aroma and the other says no hop aroma, there is sufficient latitude by the graders to consider these variances in scoring the examinee's exam. Once again, we try to take the whole in account, not just the parts, and give both partial credit and the benefit of doubt. Obviously though, we want the best judges we can get as proctors so that we can make the exams as objective as possible. But you are correct, there is a good deal of subjectivity in the exams. The Exam Committee is currently revamping the exam and making it more objective has been a prime consideration. David Houseman ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** Important Subscriber Information ***** To post a message to JudgeNet, send it to judge`at`synchro.com. Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments. Make sure you use a meaningful subject. Quote only as much material as is needed for context. To manage your subscription, go to http://synchro.com/judge/subscriptions.html or send an email to judge-request`at`synchro.com with the subject: help judge. JudgeNet is also available as an NNTP newsgroup, go to news://news.synchro.com/synchro.judge