Cleaning out at the Bank Brewery in Hendricks, MN

This past week I didn't have the kiddo, so when Richard asked me if I'd be interested in going out to the Bank Brewery in Hendricks (where he is the head brewer) I said absolutely! I was going out there to get a more in-depth look at the brewery (since the first time that I was there was during the open house where I was chasing my son around) meet the founder/owner - Jason, and to help with some cleaning.

Richard and Jason working
on the maze of pipes

So we showed up and after some introductions, put some gloves on and went to work. After being overwhelmed by the piping of all the equipoment with all the different valves and control boxes, Richard gave me a slightly less technical task. I was to wash out all the soda kegs that have been used at the brewery and his house for test batches. We brought some with but had to run down the block to the old Bank/New Tap Room to get some other kegs (and of course made another trip later to get some different beers to have). Simply rinse each keg out - fill it full with cleaner (PBW) and let it soak for 30 minutes - rinse and then let them dry. I came up with my own little assembly line to keep it all organized.

Assembly Line

While doing this, it was pretty cool to see the new kegs on pallets right next to me with the Bank Brewing labels on them - really makes it feel like a brewery seeing kegs on pallets that are waiting to be filled.

 

We also had to add 10 oz of Simcoe hops to the test batch of Hop Bandit.

10 oz of Simcoe Hops

Rich adding them into the test batch.

While I was letting the cleaner sit in the kegs for 30 minutes I would go over and watch Richard and Jason work on heating up water and cleaning all of the different tanks. It was really nice talking to Jason and hearing him tell me about all the rework that creamery has been through in order to get it where it is today. How the roof was caving in, and all the tear down work that was needed before they could even start to build it back up. It really makes you appreciate what's been done to keep such an old building like this standing instead of letting it whither away.

There was an occasional hose pulling loose from a clamp and shooting hot water out - with one instance managing to hit Richard pretty good. This led to him having to take a break from cleaning to run upstairs to the loft and clean himself off with a shower to make sure he got all the chemicals off.

I had not been up to the loft during the previously mentioned open house, and all I can say is wow is that place amazing - Jason had just simply said "Welcome to our Office!". Just having space like that above the brewery for everything from a place to chill out on couches, sleep in the bed rooms, or make some food in the kitchen up there (which we ended up making a pizza at the end of the night there). It was a little too cold and windy out (mid 30's in April which is ridiculous) to take the next set of stairs and see the deck/patio up on the roof.

It ended up being a long night and a lot of work, but in the end I'm very glad that I went with. It was really cool to see it the progress being made, talk with Jason, and then seeing that loft upstairs. This definitely makes me want to take the 30-35min drive out there more often - especially when the tap room opens up later this year. Good ways to stay in touch are to follow Bank Brewing via Facebook (www.facebook.com/bankbrewing) and Twitter (@BankBrewing).

Cheers,
Matt

Indeed Brewing Company

For this week's escapade in brewing for the AnderHoff crew we are testing out one of the newest breweries in Minnesota - Indeed Brewing Co.

Let's just start with the fact that Matt and I are partial to canned beer. I mean come on, you can stack em, pack em, crush em, and chuck em. Not only do they sound cool when you open them, but you can golf, bring them to the softball fields, and hang out at the lake with them.

They also have a great track record of being delicious in the craft segment.  The benefits that the brewers advertise about the can protecting the beer better from oxygen and light seems to shine true.  Everything from Surly to Tallgrass have proven to be great beers.  Let's hope that this trend continues with Indeed!

We have in front of us three f'n cool looking cans of Minnesota Craft Beer:

1. Stir Crazy
2. Day Tripper
3. Midnight Ryder

Let the Tasting begin! We will go from light to dark so it will be Day Tripper, Stir Crazy then Midnight Ryder for the flight tonight. There will be some general comments from the both us, followed by an overall cap reading (for Untappd).

(It should be noted that we had a PreBeer - Miller Fortune 6.9% - 3 Cap rating for both of us)

Day Tripper

Canned on January 12, 2014 (6 weeks ago) **Paired with Boneless Buffalo Wings**

Comments

They describe it as a hopped up pale ale in the west coast style with 4lbs of hops per barrel.  Mitch Steele from Stone Brewing company was explaining the IPA style at the National Homebrewer's Conference in 2013 and stated that American IPAs use from .5 lb to 1.5lbs of hops per barrel in the Kettle and .25lb to 1.5lbs per barrel in the Dry hop, add that up and you only have 3lbs of hops per barrel in a typical IPA in the US in 2013.  This one is hopped to 4lbs per barrel so our taste buds are ready for the hop explosion to come at only 6 weeks old in this pale ale.

Love the smell, Jumps out of the glass from across the table.
Grassy, raw hop flavors reminding us of some extreme hopped homebrew Citra and centennial pale ales of our past.  Matt is especially reminded of his Citra Yard Sale and Rich is reminded of a Dead Ringer IPA that features the Centennial hop.
Not the bitter punch you would expect but there is some lingering bitterness on the back end.  Light body and malt flavor for the most part, which is one of the more desirable aspects of the this pale ale.
Almost feels like they overdid it with the hops.  Taking such a nice light body, adding a lingering bitterness, with too much raw (overly dry hopped?) grassy hop flavors coming through.  The comments on the can say a malt background prevents this beer from being a one hop trick pony but we disagree this one is a one hop trick pony for sure.

Pouring Day Tripper (and a little spillage)

Matt - 2.5 Cap Rating.......Rich - 3 Cap Rating

Midnight Ryder

Canned September 23, 2013 (5 months ago)

Comments

• Coffee, maybe some hints of an oatmeal stout in there?
• Smooth
• Some piney hops coming through on the back end.
• Easy drinker, would be interesting to try fresher but its tasting good now.
• Not thick like a porter or stout.
• Tasty hop flavors hidden in there that come through as the glass empties
• Overall its a nice, easy drinking hoppy, lighter version of a stout.  Very good.
• **Perfect for this season, late winter. We both agreed this isn't a summer activity beer but more of a nice hoppy refresher for the season in between stout and IPA time.

Pouring Midnight Ryder

Matt - 4 Cap Rating.......Rich - 4 Cap Rating

Stir Crazy

Canned January 9, 2014(6 weeks ago)

Comments

• Two words jump out....VANILLA and COCOA.
• So light and smooth. Not sweet, or thick, which makes this one an amazing surprise!
• Not a style we tend to grab but this one is a diamond in the rough.
• Digging the balanced, light mouthfeel.
• Aroma is prominent with vanilla and cocoa. Not getting raisin or brown sugar but is that a flavor/ aroma that would carry through usually?  Brown sugar would just ferment out, wouldn't it?
• A great beer for this time of year with below zero nights and mid teen highs.  Freezing cold outside and this drinkable, 6.5% winter ale keeps you warm with the punch of fresh vanilla following from the smell to taste.

Pouring Stir Crazy

Matt - 4 Cap Rating.........Rich - 4 Cap Rating(in the winter ale style, else 3.5 Caps for untappd)

Well, We can't automatically go and grab an Indeed beer and be sure that they are all amazing but we have found out that they do darker beers very well.  The pale ale could maybe get better as its ages and some of the hops dropped out.  The Midnight Ryder could probably better when fresher with a little bit brighter hop flavor but not much more is desired.  For the stir crazy it is good now and should continue to be good into the future, great beer there.

Cheers!

-Rich and Matt

Full Day of Brewing at Wooden Legs Brewery

Brewing with the SABCO system at Wooden Legs Brewery

It all began one fateful Saturday morning, I got up early to make sure I had my carboy cleaned, sanitized and ready. I headed out early to swing by Ramsdell's to get my propane topped off and ready for a day full of brewing at Wooden Legs Brewery. They were nice enough to let three homebrewers come in and use the SABCO system that they used before the brewery opened (and if you've been there, this is the system you see right away when you walk in the door). Richard had put together and organized all of the ingredients we needed and who was responsible for what.

SABCO System

This Saturday morning was also the time that my 3 year old son was getting his professional photos taken in Elkton, SD (about 20 minutes away from the brewery). So the plan was to meet up with Rich at the brewery and drop off the 10 gallons of distilled water and propane tank that I was responsible for bringing, and head out for his pictures. So I met Rich there, and we both looked at the brewery and the lights were off and we started to wonder if anyone was going to be there to let us in. The idea was to get most of the brewing done before they opened for the day at noon. Luckily Brant was in the back either fixing or putting up a new light fixture and was able to let us in. I was running a little late and ended up being late to my sons pictures (not by much), and about an hour or so later when they got done I drove right back to the brewery to join back in on the fun.

I got there after the grains were crushed and they had started heating up the sparge water to use for the mash (I think I explained that right). I'm still getting familiar with the all grain process so I just looked for ways to help and to keep learning. The first thing that I had helped out with was stirring with the mash paddle to help break up any clumps to get the mash loosened up. We did use a lot of grain in this batch, which lead to probably the main reason this ended up taking most of the day...getting stuck. I think Rich had said a total of about 5 times the system got clogged up with the grain. Each time turned into what looked like a high school chemistry class where people started swarming around the system and trying everything from blowing in the tubes to messing with the pumping system to figure out where the stuck had occurred.

Rich and Ethan working on the mash

The dip tube in the mash tun ended up being the main problem area we kept getting stuck in. It was getting clogged with the grain that made it under the false bottom. Rich thinks it's because we put all the grain in first and that's how it got under the false bottom right away at the beginning.

So because of all the clogging we ended up staying later than expected, but it's not like eating the Wooden Legs deli sandwiches (which are amazing) and drinking craft beer on an early Saturday afternoon is a terrible thing.

Great sandwiches

Craig's side batch

Once we got everything into the next keg to start the boil, we realized there was still quite a bit left, so Craig seized the moment and went home to get some of his home brewing equipment, to start a side batch. Everyone was in agreement that we shouldn't waste this, so we might as well try to ferment it out and make more beer from it! So we ended up having 4 total home brewers involved with each taking home their own batch to ferment/bottle/keg/drink.

All 4 homebrewers pouring in the D 180 extra dark Belgian Candi Syrup

It can't be said enough how helpful the Wooden Legs staff was to us on this day, not only did they let us use the SABCO system, and use the brewhouse to brew in, they also helped out through the entire process. Everyone from the founders (Seth and Brant) to one of their head brewers (Ethan - who wasn't even scheduled to work that day) ended up giving us advice and helping us through the entire process. I almost think there is something appealing to them about seeing homebrewers using that system and takes them back to the days where that was them, before the brewery opened. This shows how much people actually care and love brewing beer, that on a random Saturday they are willing to help out a group like us, strictly  because of the fact that they love brewing. Just another reason why I love the homebrewing/brewing community, everyone is all about helping each other.

Cheers,
Matt

Learn to Homebrew Day with the BrewKings

On October 27^th, the BrewKings hosted a “Learn to Homebrew” event at the Innovation Village Apartments.  Rose was gracious and offered up the patio at her apartment complex which was a great venue for the event.  We had a wide range of brewers in attendance.  There were a couple people that were just interested in getting started, a couple people made very simple batches, while some decided to go all out and haul the full system out to the patio to brew full grain batches.

Fastest Brewed Beer Award: Six beers and two ciders were made from 9am to 3pm on Sunday.  The award for fastest brewer goes to Dale with his simple cider recipe.  He dumped two gallons of apple juice into a sanitized carboy and inoculated it with the White Labs Edinburgh Ale yeast, took him longer to drive to Brookings from his home east of Aurora than it did to mix up his cider.

All-Grain Brewers: On the other extreme were the all-grain brewers which worked hard for an average of 5 hours over multiple burners, pots, and a mash tun.  John P brewed up a Vienna Lager, Craig M brewed an IPA, Kris B made a Maibock, and I (Rich) made a Smoked Ale.

Extract Brewers: Then the extract brewers found the happy medium with about a 2-3 hour process with Jim B making an ESB, and Rose H making a Dark Side Vanilla Porter clone recipe.  Rose also mixed up a honey cider.

All totaled up I believe about 40 total gallons were brewed at the gathering.

Among the audience were new brewers looking to learn more and aspiring brewers that were trying to familiarize themselves with the process and get an idea of what equipment they need to get started.

If there is one thing any new brewers will learn fast is that brewing is a very capital intensive process and there will be a significant investment on the front end before you will begin to reap the rewards after a few batches are in your glass.

All brewing aside there was also some sampling to go along with the fun.  Rose brought her fresh hopped ale, and a cranberry/chokecherry wheat.  Dale brought a Juliet from Goose Island.  I (Rich) brought a couple variations on the Zombie dust clone brew, a couple different batches of sour bomb, and a Barrel Aged Single Malt Sour from Brau Brothers.  Craig shared a WarMullet from Three Floyd’s.  Angie brought some of her Dark Singularity from Wooden Legs Brewing.  Dale also brought some Brooklyn Lager. 

Many beers were brewed and consumed among old and new friends.  We will continue the fun on November 14^th at the next BrewKings meet-up.  The meet-up will be spearheaded with the battle for the golden keg Stout Edition.  All homebrewed stouts are eligible, come one, come all.  

Next Event Details:
When: Thursday Nov 14^th at 7:00pm
Where: Innovation Village Apartments Community Room

Cheers, Rich

The Great Zombie Dust Brew-Off

There is this hop phenomenon that is currently occurring in craft beer.  There have been several new varieties of hops developed in the last 5 years that are being selected for their intense tropical fruit aromas and high alpha acids.  Among these varieties are the likes of:

• Mosaic

• Nelson Sauvin

• Calypso 

• Citra

The one that has really taken off the most from what I have seen is the Citra.  It’s name says it all, and that’s exactly what the hop heads are looking for, a big citrus fruity aroma to balance out the bitterness of the big hoppy pale ales, IPAs, IIPAs, IIIPAs, Rye IPAs, Black IPAs, Belgian IPAs. You name it, if it’s hop forward, brewers are piling in the Citra hops by the truck load and the masses are loving it.

One of the newest beers on the scene that features the Citra hop alone as a single hop beer is Three Floyd’s Brewing Company’s American Pale Ale entitled Zombie Dust.  Zombie Dust, with its clever name, and amazing zombie cartoon packaging packs a wallop with 60 IBUs and 6.4% ABV with aroma that jumps out of the glass and slaps you with tropical hoppy goodness.  Before even tasting this beer you are in belief that it is one of the best beers ever, and it is.  This beer garners a perfect 100 rating on RateBeer.com, 4.5 caps on Untappd, and a perfect 100 on BeerAdvocate.com.  Making it basically the best pale ale on the planet, which we have come to expect from Three Floyd’s reputation, being voted best brewery in the world 3 times.

So, obviously this is a beer that we all would love to drink right?  Well, we can’t,  because they literally cannot make enough of the stuff to go around.   We must brew our own!  And this is what lead us to the "Zombie Dust brew-off".  There are a couple different recipes available on the home brewing forums but we basically all settled on the same grain bill and hop schedule:

• 81% 2-row Pale Malt
• .75oz Citra First Wort Hop
• 7.5% Munich 10L
• 3.5% each of Melanoiden, Dextrine, and Crystal 60L
• 1.25oz Citra @ 15, 10, 5 & 1 mins left in the boil
• 3oz Citra Dry Hop

Varying yeasts were used from S-04 English Ale, to London Ale 3, and one other that escapes my memory. 4 entries were entered in this bi-monthly brewing competition, to the winner goes the Golden Keg. The beers were rated by ten people blindly, grading them on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being an exact clone, and 1 being brew-worthy of a golden toilet, not a golden keg.

Results

1. Bud Molyneax (75 pts of 100)
2. John Page (72 pts)
3. Richard Drawdy (53 pts)
4. Derek Soukup (52 pts)

The consensus was that Bud’s batch was the closest to the real example for its great citrusy aroma and smooth hoppy flavor that's not too bitter, similar to how the commercial example presents itself.  A conclusion was drawn as to why Bud won and John came in second by such a large margin of victory:

John and Bud both used Pellet hops, while Derek and myself used whole cone hops.  We all got our hops from Taylor’s Pantry in Sioux Falls, and they were all Hop Union packages.  I had always read about the effects of age on hops and shelf stability is greater in hops that are pelletized as opposed to being in whole cone form.  Hop Union packages their hops in nitrogen flushed opaque packages and Taylor’s Pantry stores their hops in the cold box for optimal preserving, however the pellet hops definitely proved themselves to be superior in this brew with having the more distinct Citra aroma that everyone was looking for in this brew.

Now there are several other factors that could have played into this which are out of our control.  Hops are an agricultural product and consistency is impossible, so all I can do is assume that the top quality and similar quality hops were put into those packages which were similar in characteristics on the day they were packaged, but one was pelletized and one was left in its whole leaf form and the pellets win in the shelf stability contest.

In conclusion I plan to be purchasing pellet hops in the future and dealing with their down falls of ease of use in the kettle if I am unaware of their quality or freshness, since pellets will most likely be more shelf stable and yield a better product.

Whew, now on to brewing this one again with some fresh 2013 hops since these were undoubtedly 2012 crop. Absolutely amazing recipe and I recommend anyone that likes hoppy pale ales to give it a try. You may not brew Zombie Dust but you will end up making something delicious with some similarities to the real Zombie Dust.

Cheers - Rich

My First Home Brewing Disaster

Last week was a busy home brewing time for me, as I was trying to get the most in during a week where I didn't have my son. So first on Wednesday I bottled a Russian Imperial Stout that has been sitting in the secondary fermenter for around 6 1/2 months. My friend Josh came over to help me out, and I'm extremely thankful for that, as anyone who has bottled before knows, it's a long and tedious process. So by Josh helping me out, he definitely saved me a couple hours of work.

All ready to bottle!

Then I followed it up the next day on Thursday by brewing up a new batch of beer. This was going to be a clone of 3 Floyds - "Zombie Dust", and I was going off of the recipe that is posted on HomeBrewTalk.com. If you can't tell by the name of this post....it was an absolute yard sale.

Zombie Dust Clone Recipe:

• 6 lb Extra Light Dry Extract
• 1 lb Munch 10L
• .50 lb Cara-Pils or Carafoam
• .50 lb Crystal 60L
• .50 lb Melnoiden Malt
• 9 oz of Citra Hops
• S-04 Fermentis SafAle dry yeast (I went with S-05 instead via recommendation at Taylor's Pantry in Sioux Falls, SD)

"Grocery shopping" at Taylor's Pantry for ingredients

This was probably the most organized and confident I've ever been on a brew day, I had all my equipment cleaned, my checklist of everything I needed, so I was all set to brew this thing up right after work. After filling up my propane tank after work (just in case my other one ran out) I went home and ate something really quick because I wanted to get started. Now take in mind this was my first time ever doing the entire brewing process by myself, however I am getting more and more confident with the process as I brew more beers, so I wasn't too scared about doing this alone. So I got my garage all setup and the ingredients on hand, utensils and the kettle and burner ready to go. Now this was the first time I've had to crush grains as a part of an extract recipe, so I had to borrow Rich's mill to do it. Rich said all I needed was a drill to turn the mill and crush the grains, so I didn't worry about it, I have a drill in my garage. Well as I'm sure Blake would attest to, my drill is not the most powerful one on the market. So when I hooked it up to the mill after measuring my grains out, it wasn't even strong enough to turn the mill at all. I tried charging it up for awhile to no avail, it still wouldn't crush any grains. So I had to get on the phone and start texting all my friends because I have to get these things crushed in order to move on, so I was stuck in limbo. Finally Wade was able to bring over a drill that he had, and he helped me crush the grains and dump them into a steeping bag. AT this time I'm already running about 1 1/2 hours later than I had hoped.

Thought I was all set and ready to go...

Rich's grain mill.

Wade stuck around for awhile and the next few steps weren't too hard, we steeped the grains for about 45 minutes, then cranked up the heat and got it boil, then stirred in the DME and added the first addition of hops and set the timer for a 60 minute boil. Wade ended up leaving after awhile to go back home, but this part wasn't too tough, I just watched the timer, kept to the hop schedule, stirred the wort and made sure I didn't have a boil over. So aside from just being delayed a long time, I was starting to feel good again about brewing because I had calmed down and actually opened a beer to drink.

Steeping the grains.

Where everything started to go down hill, was cooling the wort down after the 60 minute boil was over. I have a stainless steel wort chiller and had already cleaned/sanitized it, but I finally got the hoses hooked up and the water turned on. I sat there dunking that wort chiller in there for a long time back and forth and was struggling to get the temperature any lower than 73-75 degrees....which wasn't good, I was aiming for mid to upper 60s. I started looking up home brewing tips on my phone and came across someone saying that when it's really hot outside, it's common for the water coming out of the ground and through the house to not be cold enough to cool the wort down very far. It then went on to suggest putting your remaining water that you have to add to the water, in the fridge, so I ran inside and I put one gallon in the fridge, and one in the freezer. So finally after a couple more minutes of using the wort chiller, I brought the kettle into the house and set it in the kitchen.

I am now coming to the part that I had not thought through, of how I was going to get the wort from the kettle, through a filter and a funnel and into the glass carboy. After several different awkward attempts, I finally got into a system of sitting above the glass carboy, put the kettle up on the table, and used the siphon and tubing to pour through the strainer and funnel that I was holding. The next problem was due to all the hops there was a lot of muck built up in the strainer, so I had to bring in a clean/sanitize spoon and the garbage can so that I could keep moving it around in order for the liquid to drain through. This became a very long process, and during the middle of it, I had heated up a glass container to get ready for hydrating my yeast, and while I was transferring, I heard the glass container shatter into a million piece in the kitchen. This caused me to jump, which resulted in me losing control of the tubing so it shot wort on the floor and all over my lap before I got it back towards the carboy. This was pretty much my breaking point where I was so close to just saying "Screw this!" and going to bed.

Even thought I was never really able to calm myself down, I got up and cleaned up the kitchen and swept/vacuumed the floor from all the glass that shattered, finished transferring the beer, and boiled up some more water to hydrate the yeast. Then I was able to add the cold water that I had put in the fridge, and it definitely helped bring the temperature of the wort down to 66-68 degrees. My OG turned out to 1.048 which was a lot lower than the recipe had indicated (1.066 I believe). After some brief/quick clean up efforts following pitching the yeast, I went to bed with my heart still pounding and slept like absolute crap. I kept thinking that I just messed up this beer, and that's $70 wasted in ingredients.

I have calmed down since, and have realized that there were three main things that I learned from this whole process that would've made it gone smoother:

1. Need to have a backup plan in case it is really warm outside and the wort chiller isn't able to get the temperature down far enough.
2. Get a more powerful drill.
3. NEVER BREW ALONE.....EVER!!

While I may be familiar with the entire and process of home brewing, I will never do it alone again due to the all the different awkward processes I encountered. I am still paranoid on how this beer is going to turned out (especially since I was gone all weekend so I wasn't able to see fermentation activity in the airlock), but after talking with several other home brewers, it seems like everyone has a disaster story like this at some point during their home brewing journey.

Home Brewed Beer Judging Experience from the Sioux Empire Fair 2013

Judging  Beer

Beer judging sounds like a dream job right?  Well I had the opportunity to judge an amateur brewing competition in Sioux Falls this past weekend. It was a blast and I met several amazing people. Out of the 56 beers entered in the competition I judged 9 the first evening and 8 in the second round on Saturday afternoon.  This was both a challenge and a great learning experience. Frustrating at times and mouth numbing at others the competition judging environment is quite the experience.  At first you think this is going to be a walk in the park, "oh hey yeah I like beer, I brew beer, I am pretty sure I know a lot about beer" but, boy was I wrong.  Not only do you need to know a lot about beer you need to know every little intricacy of about 52 different beer styles, several of which I have never had.  The task was given to not only drink the beer but to critique it on 5 different categories, 4 of which are out of your control you must discern how accurately that beer in front of you adheres to a strict or sometimes loose set of guidelines.  You can see how this could get interesting. Twelve of the fifty points are for the aroma alone, adjectives such as diacetyl, sulfur, and DMS can describe the aroma, if you are baffled you are not alone! Imagine being the guy who has to decide if be does or does not smell something that he has no idea what it is! But we soldier on,  next is the appearance for 3 points. The trifecta can be converted easily if it looks like the beer, has the right color and head, may as well be a layup for a well brewed beer.  After the appearance comes the flavor. This is the mother load if you will worth 20 points.  What you are looking for here is for that beer to taste like the style that it was brewed to, on the bottom of the style guides they have a nice list if commercially brewed versions of the style that you can use as a guide to know what you are shooting for. For example if you are judging pale ales then the beer should taste like a Sierra Nevada pale ale or something similar in order to be considered "to style" and remember here that is what we are trying to do. We are not trying to decide whether we like the beer or not, only if it matches up with what is supposed to be. Common off flavors that you are looking for in the flavor of a beer can be things like hot/burning alcohols, harsh hop bitterness, or the buttery diacetyl flavor. Then comes 5 points for mouthfeel: does it feel like it has the right carbonation, body, and finish that you are looking for in the style? For instance Belgian tripels can be highly carbed, light-medium bodied, with a warming finish.  While on the other hand pale ales should be medium carbonation, light bodied, with a clean crisp finish for example.  So now we have 40 of the possible 50 points complete, last is the section where you can be more subjective and decide whether you like the beer personally or not and comment on why or why not you think you would drink this beer again if given the opportunity.  And we are done! 45-50 point beers are rare, they are one of the few world class examples of the style. 38-44 is an excellent beer, 30-37 is a very good beer, 21-29 is a good beer but struggles to match the given style, 14-20 is a fair beer and may exhibit several minor to major flaws, then finally 0-13 is a problematic beer that is most likely undrinkable and probably shouldn't even be called a beer.

I believe that the bulk of the beers that were entered in the competition I judged were in the 30's which I would assume is a commonality among competitions then if a beer scored in the 40's it most likely is an outstanding beer and made it to the second round of 15 of 56. There were a few duds that I judged but nothing that got below a 20 from what I remember.   We were encouraged to converse with the judges around us that were tasting the same beer and help us coach ourselves through the process which was a huge help. We were then also encouraged to ensure that our scores were not wildly different and within about ten points of each other at least.

So all in all judging a beer competition is fun, and most of them in the area are open to the public with all volunteer non-bjcp sanctioned judging so next time you see a competition pop-up don't be afraid to go volunteer and try your hand at judging! It was a fun and exciting learning experience for me and I look forward to the next opportunity I have to try it again.

Beer Judge Certification Program

Cheers! Richard Drawdy