Judgment Day 2011

Gimm' sumdat...shh* hic! Gone judg's sum berrrr

Here's what a pro beer judge looks like as he's plying his craft in competition.

Actually it's a little more like this:

I was priveleged to have been selected to serve as one of 15 or so judges for this competition, which is an official AHA sanctioned event. I and two others judged three categories: IPAs, Ambers/Dark lagers/Bocks, and Strong ales/Barley wines. Compared with last year there were fewer entries, but the overall quality of the entries was quite a bit higher. We were especially impressed with the quality of the IPAs. We enjoyed some most fine samples of these big hoppy brews.

The JP crew lookin' good

The event lasted around seven hours, with a lunch break in the middle in which our hosts at DevilCraft beer pub and pizzeria lavished us with salad and non-stop Chicago-style deep dish pizza. What a treat!

Goodfellas: Owners John and Jason; Mark, Lee, Chuwy, Neal

After a long day of taking baby sips, studious analysis, heated debate, and ruthless scoring, we all retired to the tiny first floor bar where the pints started flowing in earnest. I can't recall what all they had on tap, but I do know they're doing it right, and once they get the brewery up and running, DevilCraft is gonna be downright dangerous.

Getting 86'd or just getting some take-out

The evening descended rapidly into blissfull chaos.

It was a fantastic day, and I learned much from my esteemed colleagues about how to fully experience and comment on the experience of drinking a beer, to the extent that even styles that I don't 'like' per se--Belgians, Barleywines--I could really get immersed in the experience of drinking, and not only comment critically and accurately about them, but also find new appreciation for them both in the skill of the brewer, and the actual taste/aroma/etc.

This had wider implications to me too, as I somewhat woozily ruminated on it later, that if you could apply this sort of intense 'being there' focus to everything in your experience, you'd probably just naturally become a much more calm and awesome person in general. This thought brought back these vague recollections of an ancient Asian art I used to practice way back when, where I'd just sit there and breathe, and let things come and go without criticizing or commenting on them, and then when I got up I'd be really calm and awesome for a while. Made me think. Should start doing that again.

Half full? Half empty? 2/3 drunk?