Saturday, September 14, 2013

Dayton DRAFT Brewfest 2013 Beer Judging

Ah, the home club competition. Where I have to take on an organizational role, and can’t just roll in, judge beer, and roll out. I like that latter option so much more than having to clean up after the unwashed hoards have left the building. But, no, I have to keep agreeing to play the role of Cellar master. Dumbass.

Overall entries were up this year; I didn’t remember to count the entries from out of town judges at the time, but we ended up somewhere in the neighborhood of 255 as a final count. Give or take. Which is a nice increase from the previous three years (168 in 2012, 214 in 2011, and 186 in 2010). As is my wont, I self-righteously claimed all of the second entries from Jule Rastikis—all except his entry in 23A, Coal B’ Tappin’ The Maple, which won the flight and was awarded Best of Dayton. Deservedly so—I had that beer last year, and was already coveting this year’s version. Stupid winning. Other highlights from the day include Frank Barickman getting second place in IPAs for the second year running. I did forget to grab his second bottle to drink during the competition as I did last year, but I can’t always be perfect. The Rockit Cup sponsored a plaque this year, so congratulations to Dan Lechner for winning Scottish & Irish Ales. As well, watching the Gordon Strong show during the BOS is always a delight for the Twitter-perfect one-liners doled out like free bread, like the beer he described as smelling like a stripper. My beers fared moderately: my fresh hop beer and saison were treated with the due diligence of beers only moderate in their production, while the brett blend I entered in category 23 (138a, by the way) got second to that dang Rastikis fellow. Double foiled!

Thanks to all of the out of town judges who made time to help us out. I’m happy to reciprocate when the time comes. Oh, and the final results are here. Go team!

(9/14/2013)

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