The World Cup homebrew competition attracted 439 entries and was completed April 4th. The Trumer Brewery in Berkeley was the location for the final round. As the Best Of Show winner, Michael Frenn of Placerville will be making his Robust Porter at the Linden Street brewing for sale to the public. Having take the BJCP exam in 2007, Michael has advanced his brewing (all-grain brewing started around this time), and won a few awards that day. Nate Smith, a 2008 graduate of Brian Cooper’s preparatory course in Pleasanton, was another judge who received a mention on the BOS round. His Imperial IPA was in the top four beers.

I e-mailed Michael and Nate to get some input regarding the effect that being a beer judge has had on their brewing.

“Judging has helped me become much more sensitive and perceptive to flavors and off-flavors.  I can more quickly target a flaw or off-flavor and with pretty good accuracy point out what's wrong.  My beers that didn't place on Saturday came back with many of the comments I would have made myself about those beers.”

“(I have) a much better understanding of off-flavors and a knowledge of what causes them; much better understanding of what defines a style; a better understanding of ingredients and processes needed to achieve desired flavor and palate effects.”

I certainly did not lead them to these comments. Being a beer judge will help with your brewing. That might be of importance to you.

Also on the calendar is our next beer judging seminar. To coincide with the AHA conference that starts later that week, Brian Cooper, Gail Williams, and I (with some more help) will have our event at The Englander in San Leandro. As before, we’ll keep our capacity to 35 students per class. We’ll follow the “101 and 201” concept we did last time. We recommend pre-payment to reserve your seat. This will be Tuesday June 16th.

Contact: Brian Cooper at: brewerbrian@sbcglobal.net for more info.  

See you at the next beer competition. For me it will be the AHA round in Lodi CA on Sunday April 19th. I’m sure there is plenty of room for more judges and stewards.

David