London and Southeast Competition

Meetings, Beer Festivals, etc.
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alikocho
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Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:31 am

London and Southeast Competition

Post by alikocho »

This took place today. Categories got condensed to 7 tables, with some sensibly collapsed and others being run into a clusterf**ck category of everything that didn't have many entries but wasn't a specialty beer......

In any event, it was a fun day and my Smoked Porter took 3rd in the clusterf**ck (Wheat/belgian/fruit/spice/veg/smoked/altbier) with a score of 50 out of 60.
Ali

BJCP National Judge
BJCP Assistant Regional Director (North-East/Europe)
American Homebrewers' Association International Subcommittee
Organizer, National Homebrew Competition
CBA UK Competition and Training Coordinator

http://serenbrewing.com
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I_used_to_brew
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Re: London and Southeast Competition

Post by I_used_to_brew »

Well done Ali.

How did you think the event compared to the (Bristol) national as this was more of a 'festival' (the 6 bottle malarkey) as I understood?
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MapperMatt
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Re: London and Southeast Competition

Post by MapperMatt »

2nd place in Bitter and Mild for me :)
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I_used_to_brew
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Re: London and Southeast Competition

Post by I_used_to_brew »

Nice one too Matt.
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alikocho
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Re: London and Southeast Competition

Post by alikocho »

MapperMatt wrote:2nd place in Bitter and Mild for me :)
Well done! I judged that class. They only announced Dave as the winner though, so I hadn't realized that it included you!
Ali

BJCP National Judge
BJCP Assistant Regional Director (North-East/Europe)
American Homebrewers' Association International Subcommittee
Organizer, National Homebrew Competition
CBA UK Competition and Training Coordinator

http://serenbrewing.com
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alikocho
Posts: 1540
Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:31 am

Re: London and Southeast Competition

Post by alikocho »

Trunky wrote: How did you think the event compared to the (Bristol) national as this was more of a 'festival' (the 6 bottle malarkey) as I understood?
It was more of a social occasion, which was nice. Other points:

The quality of judging, and the collapsing of categories, was compromised by the need to get all of the judging done by 1pm. It wasn't a disaster, but the constraint did cause problems.

6 bottles is too much - there was an awful lot left, although the award winning beers vanished - and talking to people it had clearly discouraged entries and multiple entries.

It was busy in the afternoon though, and there was plenty of space.

The quality in depth of entries that we saw in Bristol wasn't there accross some classes.

No raffle, and fewer prizes.

People had entered very good beers in the wrong classes. The People's Choice winner was an outstanding American Stout, but had been dinged by judges as it had been put in as an Imperial Stout. Education will get us further with this one.

It was interesting to talk to the NGWBJ lot who were there, and see them in action.

Still it was fun, and the festival aspect meant that as a judge I got to taste a greater range of beers than just those I judged. I got to talk to entrants about where their beers had merits and flaws vis a vis the style guidelines, which I hope helped. The shortfall was the number of people trying to have judges give an opinion on something that another judge had criticized, which is neither appropriate nor fair.

Oh, and another dozen or so people say they want to be judges now....
Ali

BJCP National Judge
BJCP Assistant Regional Director (North-East/Europe)
American Homebrewers' Association International Subcommittee
Organizer, National Homebrew Competition
CBA UK Competition and Training Coordinator

http://serenbrewing.com
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