It’s been fun! As Roxy noted, we are in the middle of some of the biggest competitions of the season here in Canada. But, let’s start with some smaller competitions first.

The second annual BURRP! contest was a big success with 13-16 entries (depending on how you count the KGB’s entries.) Surprising, it was the newcomers to the competition who pushed out the last year's BURRP!ers. And, like last year, it was an opportunity to create something special with the potential of winning in other competition. The Cocoa Puffs Porter earned a silver medal in the Extreme category at the ALES competition right behind a barley wine-style wheat wine. If they haven’t done so yet, all of the BURPP!ers should definitely get their entries into the Experimental category for ABC.

The other exciting time for me at ALES in Regina was judging for the first time. I had volunteered to be a steward but due to the overwhelming number of entries, Roxy informed me that I would be judging! What! I’m supposed to try and pick out the “barley from the chaff” while sitting next to the more experienced judges? Well, it wasn’t a difficult time at all since I was paired with some more experienced judges who were very willing to guide me through my first flights. It turned out to be a wonderful time and a very good learning experience.

To be honest, I think my experience as a university professor helped with marking the entries, as the process is very similar to when I would mark student projects. But I am confident anyone who has been involved in some type of assessment or evaluation process will not have any trouble at all.

I am finding a big advantage of judging is being able to hone the skills in determining the “off flavours” in beers and recognizing when a good beer has been made. I found I was even developing a more discriminating taste for craft and macro-brewed beers including some not-so-good beers at a brewpub outside of Edmonton. With those skills, I am now seeing where I need to improve my own brewing techniques including being more “Mr. Clean”.

See you at ABC and Hotbreak...