Awkward reintroductions aside, I've been off the old blog-grid for some months now. Busy with work and band, not entirely unproductive, but brewing and all things beer have taken quite a backseat.
but not before a marathon brew season in the fall. Dubbel, Durin's Stout 3, Doppelbock, Barleywine and Mild. not a bad run in the wee months of the year 2011. Makes for 10 batches on the year, not too shabby.
nothing else to report much since then... until now
So, it seems the NHC booked up for registration a bit early this year, so now its all up to the local regionals for us to get our scoresheet fix. so, its been all the rage as of late
Misery Mild took second place at both the Boston Homebrew Comp. held by WORTS and the Ocean State Homebrew Comp in RI, earning 34.5 and 37 point respectively. noice.
of more importance however was at the OSHC this past sunday where I stewarded the comp for the first time. now, after 4 years of brewing, reading countless articles, listening to untold numbers of brewing and beer podcasts and being at least 40% into the Oxford Companion to Beer, I'd assume I have a pretty solid knowledge about the stuff to hold my own in right. oh how wrong i was.
Education hits hard and fast. I felt as a mere child amongst greats. The perrenial powerhouse Brew Free or Die (NH biggest homebrew club, and most feared in the northeast (4/5 last Sam Adams homebrew comp winners came from here)) had a sizable showing for the judges. The judges ability to pick apart beers of a style was uncanny, their knowledge of subtleties of each style was unreal. At one point a judge commented on his displeasure of an american amber ale lacking the proper hop presence he expected, noting that what tiny hop flavor did come through he picked out as Kent Goldings, but not East Kent Goldings. He also later commented on the presence of crystal 60, not 40, not 80 but clearly 60 in a beer. unreal stuff.
but not all was wide eyed wonder. for the second session we were down judges, so I took a flight table with only 2 judges who were gracious enough to let me sample and compare notes as they went through the flight. Irish and Scottish ales it was. very good 60/. excellent 80/ (really got a good feel for this one, delicious beer) and irish ale, then 6 wee heavies in a row. oi that was a lot of smoke and sweet. though only one of the 6 took better than 30 in our books, the rest were phenol bombs, not enough malt to backup and cover off flavors, and I swear and was backed up, one smelled of a distinct vegeteal aroma best described as canned tomato. not good.
all in all though, the comp was quite a good time. met some really cool people, sampled some good (and some seriously not good) beers, and despite the great luminaries taking the BOS honors as expected, I was proud of me mild digging out its own seat. cool stuff. highly recommened.
next local circuit comp is in 3 weeks down in Mansfeild. The bock (subbed as munich dunkel), mild, and saison brett are all going in for this one to see if I can claim top category and make a run at best in show myself. we shall see.
and then the lastest eye candy:
durin's
bismarck
until next time, enojy.
C
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