Written by Ken Carman for Professorgoodales.net
Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.
One of the most difficult things regarding judging beer is not all the categories, or assessing the style vs. the beer you’re judging at the time. Not even sensitizing you palate to defects you sometimes have to suffer through, or beers you must give lower scores simply because they are so bloody out of category.
(I mean, really, how can you even think of submitting a Pale Ale in Oatmeal Stout category? But I’ve seen worse.)
The hardest thing is something no course in the exam, or study effort, can teach you. Think of it like CSI: putting a “team” together that works well and finds common ground.
I came to this realization last competition…
Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All”
America: Baseball, apple pie and pumpkin ale.
When you look at the pioneers of the craft beer movement, many trailblazing men and women spring to mind. But this weekend marks an important anniversary: Former Navy engineer Jack McAuliffe incorporated his New Albion Brewery, the first modern microbrewery, in Sonoma on Oct. 8, 1976.
The Stone Brewing Company brews brash, hoppy, bitter and big in-your-face beers.