Got out to the Guild picnic last week at Patapsco Valley State Park with time to sit down at the judging table for the wheat beer competition that was held.
While I’m not an examined judge, the event wasn’t sanctioned, and my votes wouldn’t have counted toward an official result, it was good experience for my exam in August.
I got to taste the finalist round of beers, all of which were pretty good.
My scoring was within four or five points of both Les’s scores and Walter Ames’ scores. Both of these guys have taken the exam, and both of them know what a wheat beer should taste like, hopefully this bodes well for my chances on the exam.
I used my BJCP app for the iPhone to check over styles as I was judging, and it was pretty awesome to be able to do that. I know I won’t be able to on the exam, and that has me thinking hard about what I need to focus on in order to be successful with my practical scoring considerations.
The judging came down to identical scores on the top two beers — a Hefeweizen and an American Wheat — so we had a taste-off, with my novice vote being the tie-breaker if Les and Walter differed. Luckily, we all agreed that the American Wheat was the superior. It was just a fine example of the style, and ultimately a better beer than the hefe.
My fellow wootown member, Kevin Ervin won third prize with his pretty damn good Witbier.
Great time all around.
