Club Competition One Report

By Chris De La Rue, Competition Secretary

The first 2012 club completion was judged on Sunday 18 June 2012, with a fine sunny day and everyone arriving at the venue on-time.  Judging of the 24 entries commenced at 10am sharp and concluded just after 12 noon.

While the number of entries was well down compared to last year, expectations were still high for some quality beers to hit the judges’ palettes.

Two judging flights were setup comprising of:

Flight one: Kurtz at the helm, Dicko and Semaphore, judged 11 beers in the following categories… Low Alcohol (<4%Abv), Porter, India Pale Ale and Brown Ales, and

Flight two: Stagger at the helm, Mozzie and Mashhead, judged 12 beers in the following categories…Pale Ale, Amber & Dark Lager, Bitter Ale and Farmhouse Ale & Wild Beer. (Keenan Fahy  also Apprentice judged on this flight).

As hoped, the quality of the beers was high and by the end of judging four Gold, nine Silver and seven Bronze medals were awarded.

The top three beers were;

Bruce McIntosh          English Extra Special/Strong Bitter (ESB)     120 Points (Gold)
Megan Watson            Saison                                                                     116 Points (Gold)
Chris De La Rue         Düsseldorfer Altbier                                             115 Points (Gold)

Right on the cusp was Peter Collins with his Irish Red Ale with 114 points (Gold)

Listening to the judges’ feedback, it was indicated that several of the silver placed beers were very close to the mark, so a little tweak here or there could see those beers move to gold medal status in the future. Congratulations to everyone who placed.  Your score sheets will be emailed to you very soon.   

Competitions don’t run themselves and, as we all know, we require the assistance of judges and stewards to make the day a success. That said, I wish to send a big thank you to the following members for taking time out of their valuable weekend to help out, your assistance was very much appreciated!

Judges: Stephen Neilson, Craig Webber, Paul Haesler, Ben Harmer, Richard Fitzpatrick, Tom Dixon and Keenan Fahy (Apprentice)

Pourer: David Gilks

Stewards: Brendan Linton-Smith and Peter Collins

 The next club comp will be held on 16 June 2012 (Location TBA).

Entries close 12 noon Sunday 10 June 2012 (Monday 11th is a Queen's Birthday holiday)

Candidate Flights:

            • #1 Low Alcohol, Pale Ale and Strong lager

            • #2 Pilsener, Amber & Dark Lager and Belgian Strong Ale

            • #3 American Pale, Stout and Strong Ale

Traditionally our second competition receives a large number of entries, with this in mind, I ask members to make every effort to keep Sunday 16 June free because I will be looking for 9 judges and 3 stewards.

I’ll sign-off now and leave you to peruse the full results of club competition #1 (below).

Kind regards
Chris (Growler)
Competition Secretary

Flight #1 > Low Alcohol (<4% Abv), Porter, India Pale Ale and Brown Ales.

Flight #2 > Pale Ale, Amber & Dark Lager, Bitter Ale and Farmhouse Ale & Wild Beer.