Last Saturday was a day of firsts for me. It was the first time I have attended a beer competition in person, the first time I have judged beer at a competition, (Drunk Monk in Aurora, IL), and the first time I have ever been there in person to accept my ribbons :-) The competition was great. It is really a unique experience to get to meet so many people that are as excited and passionate about beer as I am. I judged two categories of beers, in the morning I judged American Amber & American Brown Ales and in the afternoon I judged Old Ale, English Barleywine, and American Barleywine. Since I haven't taken the Beer Judging Certification Program's (BJCP) exam yet, I judged as a 'novice' essentially someone who knows something about beer, but isn't certified to judge it. In both instances, I also judged with some folks who have passed the certification process, so my opinions were tempered / weighted with theirs. And to think I probably wouldn't have attended at all had it not been for the fact that A) I forgot to send my entries to DMC, and if you attend in person, you can walk entries in at the last minute and B) a good friend of mine, Joshi, strongly encouraged me to go for the experience (plus I am the organizer behind our local club's competition this year). I walked in five entries and won ribbons with three of my beers (1st place for an Ordinary Bitter, 2nd place for a Cream Ale, and 3rd place for a Northern English Brown). The results were very respectable considering that DMC is one of the biggest contests in the midwest with some of the best (toughest) judging around as well. Another great part of the competition was the raffle. I spent $15 for raffle tickets and brought home $50 or $60 worth of cool beer stuff (a hat, t-shirts, bar towels, a pint glass, 2 really nice German liter mugs, 3 beer faucet tap handles, and hops. It was a great experience and I only hope I can put on a competition here that is as fun for all involved (It will be quite a challenge because Sam Adam's Longshot regional judging takes place on that same weekend).
This next weekend, Anna and I are going on a much needed vacation for her Spring Break. We are going to spend the first part of the week visiting my family in Colorado, and the latter part of the week at Mount Elbert lodge. We are really looking forward to it. My one beer-related mission for the trip is to bring back some La Folie (oh so good!).
Not much else is going on. Last night I brewed up a 5 gallon batch of Vanilla Porter for Anna's graduation party, it was the only beer she requested for the event. I will likely have 3 or 4 others on tap that day as well (probably a lighter beer [Cream Ale], some sort of fruit beer [Raspberry Cream Ale?], some sort of a hoppy beer [American Amber?] and another malty beer [Scottish or English ale?]). So if you are looking for something to do mid-May, the party is at our house! Come celebrate Anna's graduation from Law School and her entrance into the 'real' world with us!
The weather finally seems to be improving around here. We had a stretch where it was raining or snowing every other day. I am really looking forward to spring, something about that first couple of months of getting out into the yard and cleaning everything up is relaxing (of course that last couple months of cleaning up leaves isn't so fun). This year will also be my first year attempting to grow hops, so we'll see how that goes.