The beer judging seminar we did for San Francisco Beer Week at The Englander in San Leandro was a huge success. We’re happy to see the event sold-out with demand from more people who inquired late. We did admit some last-minute beer enthusiasts, so we know the demand is there for more. We’re glad the Celebrator party did not interfere with out attendance. We covered many styles and flavors as well as discussing some of the finer points of beer evaluation. The 101 course was meant to be a basic class covering sensory analysis (“Did you get the artificial butter in this beer?”) as well as some really good beers that many of the audience never had  or heard of. Descriptive ability (“What kind of” and “how much” of these perceived flavors were also discussed). For 201 we got more into depth and covered some of the sources of flavors and what it takes to be a good beer judge. We expected some people to be a bit shocked at what they were tasting. Sour beers, smoky beers, hoppy, malty, fresh, and aged beers were covered that day. Those that attended both sessions got a full day’s worth of beer diversity.

We got good audience participation with many beginner questions answered as well as some insightful and thought-provoking questions being addressed.

Much thanks to Brian Cooper, Gail Williams, and Steve Shapiro for making this run so smooth. I was quite impressed this came of so well for our first time. Next year will be as good if not better. Hopefully we’ll do another one this year but in a different area. 

If you own the video now (Thank You!) you’ll see there’s a holder in the cover for inserts, like with most DVDs. What I did with mine is I printed out the Feedback Worksheets and the Word List, trimmed them down to size, and fit them inside my cover. These are the essential

handouts. The other two pages are OK, but the other three pages are worth carrying with you or having close at hand when viewing.

Hope to see you at the next beer competition. For me it’s World Cup (final day).

David