Dayton DRAFT Brewfest Judging

It is that time of year again. Already. DRAFT Brewfest. The name may have changed, but the sound remains the same. And like last year, I foolishly agreed to be the Cellar Master. Next year, would some one please tell me to NOT to be Mr. Happy Volunteer? Although when the time comes, I’m certain someone will be happy to throw me under the bus. Thanks in advance for that, by the way. I will say, with a year of previous experience, dealing with all of the beer was a hell of a lot easier. And I mean a lot. You know what they say about practice, don’t you? That’s right, it makes an ass out of you and me. Anyway, we had 214 beers total this year, so an increase from last year. The final results are posted here.

Highlights included watching Jeffrey McElfresh utterly destroy the competition (he won four categories and got second in three others), trying to figure out how my Rockit Cup Saison ended up getting third place (which means it did better here than in the Rockit Cup, where I was fourth out of four, although I will attempt to validate my performance there through noting the quality of the competition), and drinking all of Jule Rastikis’ leftover beers. That’s right, being Cellar Master has its perks, and drinking all the leftover 16E entries is one of them. And that man knows how to make some tasty, tasty beers. The one with service berries, blue berries, honey, orange peel, and dark candi sugar was a pure delight. So thank you, Jules—your beer was one of the highlights of my day. Sadly, however, there were no underground catacombs to tour after the competition...

And I’m still waiting for my poetic complaints from last year, dammit. Jeffrey, get to work.