Subject: Digest for the period 3/12/2007 - 3/13/2007 Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:01:22 -0400 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Call for Judges - AHA NHC Southeast (John Larsen) 2. RE: glass versus plastic (Joel Plutchak) 3. Recycling (Spencer W. Thomas) 4. Slurp and Burp (Ted Hausotter) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Larsen Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:43:56 -0500 Subject: Call for Judges - AHA NHC Southeast The North Florida Brewers League (www.nfbl.org) in Tallahassee, Florida is hosting the Southeast region of the AHA National Homebrewing Competition. We need judges. Judging will take place on Saturday April 21 and Sunday April 22. We have arranged a great rate at a nice hotel - The Cabot Lodge. Call 850.386.8880 to make reservations. Call by April 6 and tell them you are with the AHA National Homebrew Competition to receive the special rate - $65 for a king or two doubles. You can have up to 4 people in tbe room at that rate. Did I mention that we will need lots of judges? If you can help, please contact our judge director, Thomas Crawford, crawfow`at`comcast.net. John Larsen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Joel Plutchak Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:46:23 +0000 Subject: RE: glass versus plastic I, too, prefer glass, and would rather reuse/recycle than dispose. However, nobody yet has mentioned consistency in judging. I believe judges get accustomed to evaluating color, clarity, and aroma using a particular size and shape of glass/cup. We've all seen how color and clarity can look quite different in different size containers (laboratories use standard size vessels for color evaluation), and any more-than-casual wine aficionado can tell you the shape of the glass can really impact perception of aroma. If that is true, using different styles of glasses/cups from one competition to another, or even from one judge at a table to another, could be detrimental (at least mildly). Just a thought. -- Joel Plutchak _________________________________________________________________ Get a FREE Web site, company branded e-mail and more from Microsoft Office Live! http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/mcrssaub0050001411mrt/direct/01/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Spencer W. Thomas Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 12:33:54 -0500 Subject: Recycling I am extremely doubtful that a "recycling" program that accepts #7 plastic is actually recycling it. #7 is the "composite" category and includes multilayer products. I don't know of any recycling technology that can reliably separate multilayer plastics and sort out the fragments by plastic composition. See http://www.ecologycenter.org/ptf/misconceptions.html for a list of misconceptions about plastic "recycling," (also http://www.ecologycenter.org/recycling/recycledcontent_fall2000/plastics_qa.html). One more link, http://www.recyclenow.org/r_plastics.html, explicitly states that although they collect plastic types #1-7, #7 is not recyclable, and that "Recycling centers almost never take #5 plastic." Although you may feel good about putting all that plastic out for "recycling," some of it is still ending up in landfills, and the bits that are "recycled" do not reduce the use of petroleum resources for making new food-contact plastic items. The Ann Arbor Brewers Guild purchased several cases of glasses for use in competitions over a decade ago. They worked well for us for many years, and although they sometimes had to be backstopped with plastic for large competitions, and sometimes we had judging delays while they were being washed, I still preferred them to plastic glasses overall. Hard plastic glasses do have a few benefits over glass, IMO. The sharp corners of plastic glasses somewhat enhance head formation and retention over the smooth surfaces of glass. You don't have to worry about whether the dishwasher (particularly if a home dishwasher was used) had a "rinse aid" added that would kill head retention. You don't have to store the plastic glasses and haul them to the competition site. Hard plastic glasses have very low odor, usually, and don't pick up a "cardboard" smell from the storage case. On the other hand, I much prefer the feel of glass, and I'm much less likely to accidentally knock a glass glass over than a plastic one. :-) =Spencer in Ann Arbor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ted Hausotter Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:33:03 -0800 Subject: Slurp and Burp Judges, we need your help at the Slurp and Burp 3/17 in Estacada, OR Email Duane at dwyounger`at`comcast.net to register. The Slurp and Burp is one of the largest competitions in the North West. We are expecting 300 entries. Great lunch and a beer from the brewery on us for helping out judge. Ted Hausotter Baker City, OR _________________________________________________________________ Play Flexicon: the crossword game that feeds your brain. PLAY now for FREE.  http://zone.msn.com/en/flexicon/default.htm?icid=flexicon_hmtagline ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** 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. 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