Beer tasting

Just about ready to get started.

A holiday beer-tasting event was held at our place on December 27.  Lots of work by all involved in the planning and execution, with N taking the arranging-lead and PJ taking the hostessing-cooking lead.  And K coming through with some spiffy tasting glassware (complete with a few professional-looking taster “paddles”).

K-supplied tasting hardware.  ("Duck with boots" just eluded the photographer at far right.)

Results - click to enlarge.  Left column lists participants in order of finish.  CPG and me were the most
generous graders.  EPG was the toughest grader, becoming noticeably more discriminating as he went along.  

It all really turned out well.

Remarkably good logistics handled by three supposedly impartial non-beer-drinkers – this involved handling two beers per person for a dozen tasters, maintaining scoring, keeping things moving, preserving beer-secrecy, etc.  Not a simple process, though they made it feel that way.  Participants were tasked with bringing two beers and an appetizer – yes, this worked very well.  Folks clearly were diligent about their beer shopping, and also were thoughtful about app choices.

Instagram #1 (borrowed from N).  Medal stand honorees
in bottom right photo (gold-silver-bronze top to bottom).

Each participant ranked the beers, and the beer-submitter with highest aggregate score was declared the victor.  Our administrators reported on lots of interesting and occasionally on-target commentary as the participants worked through the list.

Pretty sure we’ll do this again in the future.  I’d be happy if we use pretty much the same approach again, though we likely will do some sort of beer-by-category ranking at least for scoring purposes – we noticed that lighter/cleaner tasting beers suffered in the comparisons, as did the porter/stout submissions.

N Instagram #2.

The path to victory in this first tasting:  focus your two beer submissions in the realm of fine-tasting IPAs or the like (this strategy worked for #1 winner: PJr, #2 runner-up: Mike Barbeau; #3: me (yes, on the medal stand, if barely!)).

N Instagram #3.