Merry Christmas!

Quick Tip: Don't Over Pitch

We always talk about under pitching. However, over pitching can be just as bad. According to the Lagering/Aging episode of Brew Strong, the Brewing Network's technique show staring Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer, if you over pitch, the yeast can produce too much acetaldehyde, which is characterized by a green apple or cut grass flavor in the final product.

Running an SCA Brewing Competition

Last time, I talked about judging an SCA competition. This time, however, I'm talking about running the whole thing. I have only done it once, a number of years ago, and this how it went.

I had gotten tasked with running the Highland's War competition. Starting months before the competition, I contacted the Highland's War autocrat, to see about setting it up. I had gotten the contact information off the website. They put me in contact with two people: the person in charge of the gate book, and the merchant autocrat. The gate book person was needed to get the competition in...well...the gate book (obviously). The merchant autocrat, on the other hand, was needed to set aside some space in merchants' row for the competition.

The next thing I had to prepare for was prizes. Now, I had entered in competitions before and gotten equipment as prizes. Unfortunately, in all those cases, I already owned the equipment. As a result, I did not want to do that. What I wanted to do instead, is give some sort of trophy. I looked at all sorts of things, including ribbons, and etched glassware. None of it was cost effective. What I settled on was this: I found an SCA member who was willing to sew and embroider favors for a small fee. That was perfect.

In addition, I needed volunteers for judges. I found who I needed on the Atenveldt Brewers' Guild Yahoo group. I was set in that department.

Finally, the day of the competition arrived. I had brought with me a borrowed shade tent, some tasting glasses, a wash tub, crackers to clear the pallet, judging forms, clip boards, stickers to write numbers on to stick to bottles, and so on. In addition, I had made arrangements to meet the nice lady who had made the favor. That went without a hitch.

I did have a small conflict with the merchants' autocrat on where to put my tent. When I met her, she claimed that she had never heard of me. Fortunately, I had printed out all our email correspondence. When I confronted her with that, she suddenly remembered me. As a result, that got all squared away. All was going to plan.

Starting at 10 o'clock in the morning, we collected entries. That went till about 12:30 PM. At 1 PM, all the judges showed up. We began judging.

The first real hiccup happened at that time. I had forgotten to bring a cork screw. So, I ran back to camp. After asking around, we found one. Unfortunately, it was one of these fancy lever types that did not work very well on hand corked bottles. It kept pushing the corks all the way into the bottle. This only proved to be an issue for people who wanted their bottles back at the end of the competition.

Judging was done by 5 PM, and competitors returned for their results. I made it a point to have judges available in case people wanted to discuss the results.

All was well and good. Unfortunately, the second issue popped up that evening. At court that night, we gave out the awards. I, being the competition autocrat, had the great honor of doing that. Sadly, though, I screwed it up. As I called out names and presented the awards, I gave the wrong favor to the wrong winners. Two of them got mixed up. Crap.

After the event, one of the winners, who was a good friend of mine, gave back his favor right away. The other one, unfortunately, was not so easy. I was lucky in that I had made each competitor give contact information on the entry sheet. After contacting the person, I sent them the correct favor, and a large vanilla self address stamped envelope for them to send theirs back. Nothing. Nadda. It was like they disappeared. Years went by, and I had written it off.

Strangely, one day I got a large envelope in the mail. I had long since forgotten about it. To my surprise, when I opened it up, I found a blue cloth favor inside. It finally had returned. I gave it to the other winner right away. Problem solved.

That is about it for my one and only autocratted brewing competition. I hope that it gives you a little insight as to what goes on.

Judging In a SCA Competition

I have never judged in a AHA sanctioned competition. In fact, I have never even taken the BJCP exam. However, I do have some experience judging brewing competitions. That experience is in the SCA.

The SCA, in case you are not a regular reader, is a worldwide medieval re-enactment organization. In the SCA, I belong to and hold a rank in the Atenveldt Brewer's Guild, and have judged many Atenveldt Brewer's Guild sponsored competitions.

Typically, a competition is split into three categories: beer, mead and wine, and cordials. I often enter in the beer category, so I generally get recruited to judge meads.

When judging, usually, there are at least two, sometimes three, judges for each category. The meads, in our case, are assigned a number, so that judging is blind. We judge them in order, first to last.

We judge the meads on a standard judging sheet, that has been assembled by Atenveldt Arts and Sciences, on categories such as taste, appearance, periodness, and so on. Judging is done on a scale of one to 10.

More important than the numeric score, however, there is a comment section of each category. Often times, when someone enters a brew, they are looking more for judge's comments than actually winning a competition.

Judging is not perfect, however. Here are common problems with judging: First and foremost, palette fatigue is common. With up to 40 to 50 entries in a category, the last entry does not have the same chance as the first entry. Also, along those lines, judges do not spend as much time on the last entry verses the first, especially when time is short and the judging results are supposed to be in. Another issue: because there is a discussion by the judges for each entry, another judge can bias an otherwise blind contest (this step, though, is important for new judges, who are learning). This can also make it so the comments are simliar between judging sheets.

I hope that this post gives some insight into an SCA brewing competition. Though, not perfect, it is all we've got, and it works pretty good.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Choices at Disney Parks in California

So you are going to Disneyland, and you think that you might be out of luck beer-wise. You might be right; as far as I know, there is no alcohol in that park. However, you are not necessarily that out of luck. You see, there is a California themed park right next door: California Adventure.

As it turns out, California is known for something: wine. To celebrate California's wine industry, California Adventure has a small section devoted to wine. There they have a small vineyard, and a bar that serves -- you guessed it -- California wine.

While there, I tasted a couple of California Syrahs. It was quite nice.



It does not stop there, though. Not far away from that, they serve craft beer from one of California's most famous microbreweries: Karl Strauss. I guess that is would have been nice to have beer from all over California, like The 21st Amendment, Russian River, San Diego Brewing Company, and so on. Even so, I was not about to complain. It was nice to have something -- anything -- other than an American macro-lager.

I stopped in and had an Amber Lager.



So, you do have some choices at the Disney parks of California.

Quick Tip: Adjust Mash pH not Water pH

I was listening to the second Brew Strong episode on water, for the Brewing Network, and they mentioned something interesting. Water pH is simply a balance of the chemicals in water. John Palmer, in the episode, said the following:

You can look at [water pH] as a balance, like on a seesaw, of your positive ions to negative ions. You can have two kindergarteners on that seesaw, or you can have two gorillas, and you can have the same pH.

In other words, you can have a lot of minerals and a little bit of minerals and have the same pH. The pH of the water will not directly affect the pH of the mash. When you make adjustments, you should read a water report for your area and look at the ions rather than the pH of the water.

Mash pH should be between 5.2 and 5.6. When you add minerals or acid, that is what you are aiming for. In fact, those additions should be made to the mash, not the water.