And The Winner Is....

Rob giving the 'Judge' look

Last night we had the pleasure of drinking some fantastic beers - from some great homebrewers.

Last night me, Zak, Rob from Copper Dragon and Ol from Roosters got together at North Bar to judge the entries for the Beer Ritz/Copper Dragon homebrew competition me and Rob set up together a while back.

Credit where credit is due, Matt from North was extremely hospitable and accommodating for us. With this week seeing North's anniversary celebrations, it was so kind of him to offer us the space to host this little shindig, so thanks again Matt. Chris should also get a special mention for being our excellent server for the night making sure we tasted all the beers blind. We only used one bottle each for judging so the others have been given to the North Staff as a little gift for their anniversary.

Down to business though...

Zak explaining the score sheets

Zak brought along some official (very comprehensive looking) beer judging score sheets which were handed out to the 4 of us and used for each beer. These completed forms will be handed back to the brewers soon enough as a method of giving our own personal feedbacks.

We managed to get through all the entries with relative ease. I personally thought they were all very good, with a couple that were a little strange, but not in a bad way. It was interesting to see the different ways brewers took the same ingredients and played with them to create such a range of different brews. It's very important to note again that these were all tasted completely blind. It was in the interest of fairness, after all, we know many of these brewers personally and we didn't want that to effect our decisions.

Beer drunk, totals collated, senses satisfied and fears of major flaws quelled. There could only be 3 winners of prizes though, and that's probably what you came here for so without further rambling here's the winners in ascending order:

3rd Place goes to Simon Tucker - a late entry creeps in at the end to steal the 3rd place ribbon - a great take on Copper Dragon's Black Gold with an 8.1% bruiser.

2nd Place goes to Matt Lovatt - Another classic Lovatt brew - a twist on Golden Pippin with a Belgian kick. The most balanced beer of the night.

1st Place goes to David Bishop - A brewer who's going from strength to strength. A deserved winner - it was after a few sips that Zak stated; "I'm sorry, we have to talk about this". Another Belgian Golden Pippin that stole the show.

Congrats to these 3, but also congrats to everyone who took part in the event - you should be proud of what you've made and should keep it up.

Prizes will be making there way to the winners shortly. And let's not forget that Rob has promised an evening of drinking at the Copper Dragon brewery for everyone who took part. The date for this little trip is still to be decided.

I believe that's all I have to say for now. Brewers, you'll be hearing from us soon enough. It's been a great experience, I'll give my thanks to everyone who took part, and to the judges for making my first official beer judging so much fun - hopefully it won't be the last.

Another competition you say??