
Attention Music City Brewers: the version of this column appearing in the March-April edition of the Music City Brew-Score is a different version from the one appearing here. The MCBS edition, for example, is filled with more local references. There are also other variations that may make reading both interesting.

In this column you will find pictures of the judging forms. On top the sheet used for First Round NHC. Next your standard BJCP judging form, then an example of a highly questionable: supposedly completed, standard form. And the last has somehow been deleted from the server: the AWOG judging sheet from this year’s Amber Waves of Grain, sponsored by Niagara Association of Homebrewers, and several other clubs, if I remember right from my online interview with Terry Felton last year. If I get a chance I will replace it ASAP. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: Judging Forms”
Did Lager Yeast Come from Patagonia?

Patagonian galls such as these harbor the cold-adapted yeast Saccharomyces eubayanus, a parent of the hybrid yeast used to make lager or cold-brewed beer. A field survey has confirmed that the parent yeast S. eubayanus, which somehow made its way to Bavaria 500 or so years ago, is easily isolated in Patagonia. A Wisconsin team recently isolated the yeast, although at low frequency, near Sheboygan, Wis. — the first time it has been found in nature in North America.
And how did it travel to Bavaria hundreds of years ago? OK, this story from
the University of Wisconsin, Madison on the mysterious origins of bottom-fermenting lager yeast is a little “inside baseball” — for the anorak brigade, as the Brits might say — but it is interesting to brewers and beer lovers.
SCIENTISTS FIRM UP ORIGIN OF COLD-ADAPTED YEASTS THAT MAKE COLD BEER
MADISON, Wis. — As one of the most widely consumed and commercially important beverages on the planet, one would expect the experts to know everything there is to know about lager beer.
But it was just a few years ago that scientists identified the South American yeast that, hundreds of years ago, somehow hitched a ride to Bavaria and combined with the domesticated Old World yeast used for millennia to make ale and bread to form the hybrid that makes lager or cold stored beer.
Want to read more? Please click…
HERE
Beer Praise and Prose from Maria Devan

I didn’t have it yesterday like I wanted because some times life does not conform to our ideas of it or our plans. I had it today and it is sensational. The original whale. When I joined my first beer website THIS is what everyone wanted and I know why.
Ultimately I do not believe in hallucination as truth.
That is a big premise of hype.
The real story goes something like this.
They, the tribe of native peoples, were cooking what they thought was harmless beer
and then it was too late.
They had all consumed the drug.
Imagine that no one around you is in their right mind
and they could not possibly have expected this.
I imagine there was great strangeness.
This beer is a drug. One of the finest.
Thanks @twizzard for the chance to try this great whale.
I didn’t have it yesterday like I wanted because sometimes life does not conform to our ideas of it or our plans. I had it today and it is sensational. The original whale. When I joined my first beer website THIS is what everyone wanted and I know why. Ultimately I do not believe in hallucination as truth. That is a big premise of hype. The real story goes something like this. They, the tribe of native peoples, were cooking what they thought was harmless beer and then it was too late. They had all consumed the drug. Imagine that no one around you is in their right mind and they could not possibly have expected this. I imagine there was great strangeness. This beer is a drug. One of the finest.
Thanks @twizzard for the chance to try this great whale.

Lambic Seminar #14
Beer Reviews by Maria Devan
Three Myths About Skunky Beer
There is a whole spectrum of “off flavors†that can plague beer, but there is one flaw that is so common many people feel that it’s an intentional flavor in certain brands — especially a particular brand of Mexican lager.

Beer with the distinct aroma of skunk seems inescapable, but the realities of the scourge are simple and (mostly) preventable. There are lots of myths and misinformation surrounding skunky beer, but let’s set the record straight.
Myth No. 1: “Beer gets that skunky flavor because … â€
We’ve heard just about every explanation for why you may get a whiff of skunk when enjoying a cold brew, from the ever-popular theory that letting cold beer warm to room temperature will cause it to skunk (not true, and not particularly harmful to beer), to the idea that brewers add the flavor during the brewing process (we’ll get to this one). The truth is simple: the musky aroma has one cause: a chemical reaction that occurs when ultraviolet light interacts with the bitter hop compounds in a brew.
Want to read more? Please click…
HERE
Beer Reviews by Maria Devan
Lambic Seminar #13
Beer Reviews by Maria Devan
BrewJacket Immersion – Lager Beer Without a Refrigerator
New gear for the homebrewer!!!-The Professor
Immersion is the world’s smallest lager fermentation device, giving brewers the ability to create world class lagers without a refrigerator. Immersion can bring your beer down to 35º F below ambient in a matter of days and hold it there for as long as it is plugged into the wall. Immersion has the same footprint as your carboy so no additional space is needed to create a lager! Now it is possible to brew a lager in your closet, bedroom, living room, or any tiny corner of your house.
Want to read more? Please click…

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