Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

I disagree. A beer can smell close but be lacking a flavor component. Just giving them a scale of 1 to 10 for example won't tell much. We still need to give meaningful feedback.

My biggest gripes with NewBo where the range in quality of judges and comments.

I think the most fair way is to go through them all together. It's not that different than judging 6 Bocks or IPA's. We just have a narrower "style". I'm more concerned about such a large group of judges getting bogged down. I recommend limiting each beer to 10 minutes. Should be doable for a clone comp.

whitedj wrote:With 6 entries [Chris I included yours in the first number] it doesn't save too much tasting to do 2-flights, as the only way to do it properly is a mini BOS to declare the winner. My initial thought was that judges would only need to judge 3 samples, and then have a judges meeting afterwards where the best samples are decided and scores are calibrated.

It does not matter to me which way we go... just thinking that my pallet does not quite have the stamina to last more than 5-7 samples [remember we need to taste the real thing, too, which reminds me that I need to find some...]

I have a couple bottles of the real thing left if you have any trouble finding some.

I wasn't suggesting not providing feedback, just not breaking the scores down into the individual categories on the score sheet and writing something on every line. That's what takes all the time in judging to the standard. Think of it this way, we'd just be filling out the "Overall Impression" section of the score sheet and providing a final score. You'd still be providing comments on what was good/bad about it and helpful suggestions, just not spending a lot of time fretting over whether the aroma score should be a 4 or a 5.

But, if folks think we can do full judging sheets and limit this to under 10 minutes a beer, I'm willing to try it. However, for this to work, the steward will need to be the "Clock Master" and call time - one minute warning @ 9 minutes and @ 10 minutes - discussion over/pens down. Then, maybe have a 15 minute open discussion at the end of the individual judging to obtain a consensus on a winner and "true up" the score sheets.

crcyclone87 wrote:

whitedj wrote:With 6 entries [Chris I included yours in the first number] it doesn't save too much tasting to do 2-flights, as the only way to do it properly is a mini BOS to declare the winner. My initial thought was that judges would only need to judge 3 samples, and then have a judges meeting afterwards where the best samples are decided and scores are calibrated.

It does not matter to me which way we go... just thinking that my pallet does not quite have the stamina to last more than 5-7 samples [remember we need to taste the real thing, too, which reminds me that I need to find some...]

I have a couple bottles of the real thing left if you have any trouble finding some.

No worries. I stopped at hyvee and picked up a 4 pack for the judging. there is still a good amount of this stuff around.

tony b wrote:I wasn't suggesting not providing feedback, just not breaking the scores down into the individual categories on the score sheet and writing something on every line. That's what takes all the time in judging to the standard. Think of it this way, we'd just be filling out the "Overall Impression" section of the score sheet and providing a final score. You'd still be providing comments on what was good/bad about it and helpful suggestions, just not spending a lot of time fretting over whether the aroma score should be a 4 or a 5.

But, if folks think we can do full judging sheets and limit this to under 10 minutes a beer, I'm willing to try it. However, for this to work, the steward will need to be the "Clock Master" and call time - one minute warning @ 9 minutes and @ 10 minutes - discussion over/pens down. Then, maybe have a 15 minute open discussion at the end of the individual judging to obtain a consensus on a winner and "true up" the score sheets.

If you are looking to save time, you may want to reduce the number of judges to lead to a more efficient discussion. Score sheets are helpful to direct constructive and consistent judging. Typical local BJCP comps have two judges per category and then all participate in BOS where they try all the contendors. If all 6 want to judge, that is cool, just want to help if time is a factor. You know the old saying, "Too many cooks in the kitchen." I think a steward keeping time to push along is a good idea.

For your consideration. Here is an official BJCP scoresheet that uses a simpler checklist approach. They use it when they have a lot of entries to judge.

Seems like that would work.

Yes, that's the one we've used in other cases.

I have a ton of these printed. Can someone bring a case of tasters?

We're going with 7:30?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah. Let's plan for 7;30 at lionbridge.

OK, see you guys at 7:30...

Do you want one or two cases? If we have 6 judges, 7 beers + the reference beer, that's 48 glasses.

I'll probably be there by 7pm to have a "warm up" beer; you know, to condition my palate!

Does Lionbridge have live music tonight?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, it looks like they do from 5-8. I can ask if we can use the brew room or we can wait til 8. I'll probably get there a bit before 7 to get some food.