Well, the first annual Beer Pageant is in the books. After what seems like months of preparations and drinking, it all came down to last Friday night. With a last minute change of venue, and scrambling for judges, we managed to pull it all off. Before we get to the bottom line, allow me to re-cap and fill in some details:
“Fearless” Fred Kennedy and decided to run a home-brew contest via our beer break on the Edge. All non-professional brewers were welcome to submit a beer for our highly untrained criticism, and the shot to be in the final (aka, judged by legit people). The winner would get to talk about their beer and home-brewing on our break. We had an immensely good time judging the beers head to head, even involving some celebrity judges in the form of The Pack A.D. In every case, the beers we had were at least decent, and some were really great. Our gold standard was that if we had paid for any of the beers, we wouldn’t have been disappointed. But, like life and the playground, some people have to be winners, and we chose our five to make the final.
Originally we had intended to host the final at Indie Ale House the (soon to be) newest beer addition to the Junction. But, like many that have gone before, Junction is caught in the bureaucratic nightmare that is business ownership (particularly related to alcohol) in our city and province. As the day ticked closer and closer, we knew an alternate was needed. As we had been advertising Junction as the locale, we turned to our insider, Jason Fisher, owner of Indie. He recommended 3030, which is just down the road from Indie, and which I had encountered in conversations about craft beer places. After a few phone calls, it was all set.
Now we just needed some with actual credibility to critique the beers. Crystal Luxmore, beer writer for The Grid, had already agreed to take part. She has done two levels of Prud’homme certification and drinks at least as much beer as Fred and I. Jason was a given, as he is a brewer, would-be host, BJCP judge and generally decent dude. I knew home brewers would value the opinions of professional brewers, and I know a few, so I reached out to Sam Corbeil, of Sawdust City. As a guest of the beer break and excellent brewer, he was an obvious choice, and thankfully, he agreed. Originally, Iain McOustra from Amsterdam was going to judge, but he awoke Friday morning with a serious head-cold and wouldn’t have been much help, so at the last minute, Josh Rubin, beer writer for The Star, tagged-in and rounded out the numbers nicely.
So at 8pm, everybody arrived, got a cold one (or two) and settled in for some social time while the judges got to it. If I had known getting the beers ready for the judges would have been the hardest part, I totally would have gotten Fred to get us an intern. As it was, I spent about 45 minutes running around, pouring beers to look identical, checking glasses for sanitizer solution aroma, getting water, and doing some level of glad-handing while I was at it. I have no idea how servers do this for hours at a time. Not only that, but then I had to go do math, totaling all the score cards. Nightmare.
And when the dust settled, we had a clear winner, a decent middle pack, and one bottle that was spoiled (sorry, Doug!). And of course, you want to know who won, right? Well, with his Russian Imperial Stout that gave hime a clear 8 point lead, Jeremy Skorochid. Due to some bureaucratic issues, we traded out the grand prize, so Jeremy will be brewing a batch of beer, with Fred and I, under the eye of Jason at Indie Ale House. The beer will then be served at Indie, so everybody gets a chance to head up and try it. I actually didn’t keep any notes, but I know that the two-way tie for second and third place were Jeff Manol, Brian O’Donnell and Jordan Rainhard, I just can’t remember who was where. Friend of the show, Doug Appeldoorn placed last, mainly due to the fact the bottle was off. Due to the format, it was a bit of crap-shoot if the bottle was spoiled, as I wasn’t taking feedback from the judges during the evening, just serving and leaving. Doug took it well though, and the beer we had in studio was lovely. Heck, it beat a guy we call Mr Perfect!
We had a great night, and an awesome few months working through the process. We’ve learned a good bit about doing this, and are already working on our format next year. It won’t be through the summer (as we were both away lots), and I’ve gotten a better handle on the logistics behind the contest. Next year will be bigger and better, to be sure. So get out your BJCP style guide and refractometer. If you’re really planning ahead, you’ll be getting the sour mash ready now, or the Imperial Stout into oak before Christmas!
Thanks to everyone, not just the finalists, because (obviously) the contest wouldn’t have happened without entrants. Seriously, the beers were all quite good. Keep up the great work, and we look forward to seeing you all enter again in 2013!
