Rockit Cup Mini-Cask Fest Recap

Again with the with Rockit Cup hijinx. But I can’t help myself. For the Rockit Cup Mini-Cask Fest, we had six gullible suckers participants willing to remake a mini-keg of a previous recipe, including Brian Gallow with the December 2012 Northern English Brown, Jake 

Our beardless winner.

Browning with the February 2011 Alt, Wes Davis with the February 2013 Grinder’s Mild, Jeff Schell also with the February 2013 Grinder’s Mild, Jon Vanderglas with the April 2013 Single-Hop Session IPA (he used Galaxy), and myself with the December 2012 Northern English Brown. Two beers got doubled up. 

Because the Rockit Cup is kind and just and willing to indulge seasonal holiday good feelings, we let everyone judge this Rockit Cup even though they didn’t brew. Being kind hurts, doesn’t it? Smaller numbers allowed us to rank all six entrants. Yes, I like the shaming, even when it comes my way, as it undoubtedly does:

1st: Jon Vanderglas
2nd: Brian Gallow
3rd: Jake Browning
4th: tie between Jeff Schell and Wes Davis
6th: myself

Jon’s decision to brew, in his own words, “something everyone would like,” i.e. and IPA, certainly paid dividends here. I thought Brian’s beer was the best, but it will do him good to get second once in a while. I also do find it appropriate that the two versions of Grinder’s Mild tied. And I scored another last place finish with a barely carbonated beer. That’s what I get for trying to rush it and carbonate it in the mini-keg in a week. Still, I brewed, which means I did better than everyone else who was too lazy to try something new. And since the beer I brewed was under carbonated, I just closed the bung at the top of the mini-cask to let it actually carbonate. Hopefully, the yeast will scrub out most of the oxygen that got in the headspace while it was open, and won’t oxidize the beer too much. And if it does, well, after all, it is a British beer, so no one will notice.

P.S. Maybe the new motto should be “Join, or Get Shaved by This Guy.”

(12/13/2013)