Author: Ken Carman

By Ken Carman

 I didn’t take any pictures this year, but my cousin Joyce did, so I decided to edit this and add them in. (Later info came in, Dorothy Joyce’s daughter actually took them. Probably the weird angles had to do with WAY too much beer? A joke.) Hence the second posting. She is standing there with a beer she was serving. I was grateful she walked around and helped. Next year I may shift this event until the Twitchell Lake people come up towards the end of September, or even Columbus Day because we were competing with a chicken dinner this time and next year. That’s an event that I’ve been going to since I was a kid, but it was always on Saturday. I have to ask Mark Franey and do some footwork asking others.

Joyce Lovelace
 I was going to post a picture of Mark Franey, who made it again, but I forgot for some reason the site dumped all pictures last year. He always does a great job and whatever animal he chooses for a hat that day helps too. I think one year a helpful beaver undam-ed a tap.
 There’s a dirty joke there, but I’m NOT going to use it!
 There is one of him here from cousin Joyce’s stash.
 My cousin Joyce, her daughter and husband: Dorothy and John made it again, as well as friends Lisa and Matt. They tented in my yard, Joyce stayed at Norridgewock along with her grandson. Max, JR.

How most of our tasters made it to this quaint railroad town with no roads going to it!

 Mark has many beers including, but not limited to, a light ale with various fruits like cherry. We started out with a simple brown ale. I introduced the London Brown Braggot I brewed in Eagle Bay this year. Immediately everyone who tried it morphed into John, Paul, George and Ringo. Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe showed up but since they were Beatles rejects we fed them to the Stillwater shark with just a light coating of Gray Poupon. I served two beers from Nashville breweries and Marcy, NY. Jitter Juice was a fruit coffee beer. I don’t remember the other two.

Mark in chair.

 One beer from Empire had lavender in it was an unremarkable ale, but the lavender was interesting. One quaffer said he’d never had a good beer by them. I’d rate this as not bad, but not great.
 Last year I listed this affair as the 11th. I think it is actually the 13th.
 It was a good time for all.

 We joined Music City Brewers around 1998. I can’t remember

for sure, but I think Tom Vista aka/Hop God, aka/Hop Tyrant, aka/Hop to Wit… yes, I made that last one up, was already a member. Either that or shortly after he joined. We were faced with a loud, boisterous, opinionated hop fanatic whose voice echoed in the acoustically horrendous beer hall known as Boscos. (And they didn’t even use Boscos’ chocolate syrup! SHAME!)
 Coming from a family filled with loud, boisterous, opinionated people I was suitably impressed. Tom doesn’t just add color to the club, he’s worked his garbanzos off in past competitions and provided lots of direction. Like his passion for hops. Continue reading “A Beer-y Good Story: Hop to Wit”

  I asked to wait for this to be published until after I got the results because I didn’t want there to be even the slightest chance I’d influence scoring. I want to thank the graders. They have a tough job and I, unintentionally, may have made it tougher. (See my grader comments at the end of the column.) I got a 72. Considering my experience I am by no means proud of that, but I do think they did well.
 Do I have a problem with writing about moments in my life that some may think I should be embarrassed about? Apparently, in this case at least, not. And hopefully this might help those who haven’t taken it yet understand more about the tasting portion of the test.

 This is partially a story of a beer judge sleuth trying to figure out what went wrong. Kudos to my personal Holmes who outsmarted her not as clever as Sherlock husband. Millie set me on the right path: as always. (Sometimes? Maybe? Or “maybe” I should stop digging a hole for myself and get on with the story?)
  I’m BJCP legacy Certified, but I have never been happy with my tasting score. Both times I took it I focused way too much on defects so my final score was in the 60s. On the written exam I did better, obviously.
 When I came home from the Adirondacks in November I found out I had a chance to retake in December, so every day I studied the 2015 Guidelines and judged beer at home. I did this for many reasons. Without the Guidelines my memory is what it is. It’s always been weird what sticks in my head and what doesn’t. And because my writing sucks I wanted to work on that. My elementary teachers passed me because they could see how hard I was trying. I have Gene Wilder’s Blazing Saddles writing hand. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: How I Studied for 6 Months, Drove 600 Miles and STILL Botched the Exam”

 I’ve seen the word used so many times in judging. I thought I knew what it means and that includes what, to me, is only one contradiction. I had thought “clean” meant no fermentation by products that stand out and interfere with the malt, the hops and whatever else defines a style that has no yeast funk. The contradiction? Well, it’s the Germans who, as the cliché’ goes, must have everything precise, exact, just so. OK, I know that’s stereotyping but I’m only mentioning the perception, I have known plenty of Germans who are definitely not that way.
 To be clean and be German in this sense seems to be defined as no fruity, funky, significant DMS or buttery/diacetyl-like esters. Unfortunately that often doesn’t seem to be include a light sulfur-sense to some Germans, which I find their much treasured lager yeast sometimes provides. Not all the time, but a lot.
 OK, I admit: like some are sensitive to butter maybe I’m sensitive to sulfur? Possibly because a little butter bothers me not, but I REALLY dislike sulfur? Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: What Do We Mean by “Clean?””

 My regular readers may remember my column on AHA scoresheets. I admit: I wasn’t too kind when it came to the check off judging sheet used mostly at Nationals. My opinion hasn’t changed. Now there’s a new BJCP/AHA score sheet. I like it, but…
 One change they never seem to consider is to scoring: drop the top aroma point value from 12 to at least 10 and maybe add it to mouthfeel?
 Oh, I understand aroma contributes a lot to beer. How many entries have I judged with almost no aroma that otherwise are to style and phenomenal? Yes, the link between the two is substantial, but is it so important that the range be so wide that might punish an otherwise great entry? Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: New Scoresheet Anyone?”

 This ABJD is even more “diary” in nature than some because the story behind the adventure is as interesting as the event itself, and admittedly I know less event specifics than I should. For a complete list of winners please keep checking Erie County Fair’s Facebook Page. According to a recent post the first in show was Kevin DiTondo of Cheektowaga, NY with his Vienna Lager. Part of his winnings are having his beer brewed at Flying Bison Brewery in Buffalo.

  It’s April and I have a situation. I have lots of situations: story of my life, but I’m already veering off course. It’s Ken writing this, right?
 Anywhosie, like some fool writer who makes up his own words, Ken tends to make his own “situations,” and is good one. We have a boat to tow up north and, this year, a car too. The somewhat obscene sounding two ball rule means I can’t do the more dangerous thing and tow both. And for many unmentioned reasons that would extend this tale towards tedious, some of a somewhat self sabotaging nature, I need to tow the boat first.
 On the bright side, with my increasingly buff 64 year old body I’ll be able to fulfill my not so wet dream fantasy of flipping the 90 horse Evinrude upside down, use it like a propeller, and slide across the ice of Stillwater ten miles to Beaver River. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: Erie County Fair Home Brew Competition”

 This edition will be short. Stay tuned: I will explain why.
 I have never judged at this competition before for various reasons. I used to tour through Atlanta with my kid shows and educational activities. I stopped touring because of Atlanta traffic is wild and crazy, rush hour traffic amounting to parking lots and many of the places hiring me kept shifting ownership almost weekly. I’d book a program and three weeks later I’d walk in to new owners and, “Who are you?”
 Atlanta is a crazy busy, exploding outward town. The closer you get to Atlanta the harder it is to find reasonable motels more than questionable quality. There are plenty of great places, but very pricey. Why? Demand is high.
 The resorts I used to stay at were far out of town. There used to be free camping on Allatoona Lake to the north, but to save money the state shut them down. The short but simple face was, business-wise, it started to make less and less sense. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary- Peach State Brew Off”

 Without intent, I have collected well over 1,000 beer bottles since the early 70s. When something finally had to be done about the cheap paneling in this old modular, I had a choice: tear down the walls while, oh, so carefully, replacing the often rotted 1X3s; OR, cover them with…

The Bottle Collection.

Written by Ken Carman

 I know, I haven’t written for a while. I have no excuses. And this hasn’t been brewed for quite a while. I’m sure they have plenty of “excuses;” better known as “reasons:” formerly brewed in Dubuque, Iowa, like they went out of business in 2006? This has been on my best of shelf for a long time. Continue reading “From the Bottle Collection: Silverback Gorilla #9”

 No, I won’t tell you where I heard this.
 No, I won’t tell you when I heard this.
 No, I won’t tell you who said it.
 And I must ask, is this some change somehow I’ve missed, or just hasn’t reached the many places I judge? I suspect the last.
 This not a commentary on any competition I’ve judged, any fellow judge, or any organizer. These days I find competitions almost always run quite well, and having started two myself: it’s hard work you do for the love of competitions and judging. No, it’s about how someone can find themselves suddenly considering arguments they once dismissed. It’s about how scoring ‘logic’ can spin around and bite someone in the… beer judge. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: 17? When the ‘Logic’ I Use Bites Me in the… Beer Judge!”

Our Judges: Ken and Millie Carman

 I am hoping to have at least a few editions of this. I already did this once using one of my regular columns. What I am hoping for here is to display just how different judge palates can be: even day to day and referring to one judge. However most editions will be two BJCP judges. Different beers will be judged: mostly commercial, however I may be able to sneak in at least a few homebrews. And I will endeavor to contact judges who might be interested in this project. Unlike a competition scores are NOT consensus, since the purpose is to show differences.
 For this edition we chose Sierra Nevada’s Hazy Little Things. Nothing on the can tells us what style IPA it is, but we both agreed New England IPA.
 Millie and I are both Certified. Continue reading “Counterpoint: Sierra Nevada’s Hazy Little Thing”