Saturday, April 17, 2010

Day 1 - Beer Judge

It was a long drive to get here. Out in the middle of Northern California in the town of Lodi.

I am here to be a part of a huge national home-brewed beer competition call the National Homebrew Competition. It starts out in several regional competitions through the US, then the winners at the regionals go on to a national judging panel to determine who has the best beer in America. I entered two beers myself, a Kolsch and an American Brown Ale.

My day here started out judging beer in the "stout" category. I tasted about 8 of these dark, roast coffee and chocolate flavored beers. Along with tasting I filled out a sheet with my comments about aroma, appearance, flavor, mouth-feel, and overall impression. I then assign a score somewhere from 13 to 50 points. I then discuss the beer with a fellow judge and we talk about the beer to make sure we had a similar experience.

After a great lunch, I acted as a judge assistant, called a steward.

It was a great and fun day tasting many types of homebrewed beer. Most of the people were great to work with.

Now I am back in the hotel about to take a nap. good night

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