The judging of the stout brewing competition was held yesterday afternoon at the palatial Irish Fest office and I have the winners. But before I give them to you, let me tell you about this judging. It was a remarkable thing to witness. 29 entries, a panel of expert judges. And dead quiet. It was like walking into beer church. This was serious business and it took a looong time. Things didn't wrap up until 6:00 last night. Beers were labeled with identifying numbers and divided by style of stout and then sampled in flights by groups of three judges. Nine finalists were selected and then another round of sniffing and sipping. Palates were cleansed with bites of bread and bottles of water. Incredibly complex terminology and scoring systems were used. And finally we arrived at the chosen three:
1st place: Andy Gredell of Kansas City, MO
"Whacked Out Stout" (13.E. American Stout)
2nd place: Geoff Sonntag of Tonganoxie, KS
"Emerald Isle Export" (13.D. Foreign Extra Stout)
3rd place: David Stevens of Overland Park, KS
"Irish Stout" (13.A Dry Stout)
Our winners win gift certs to brewing supply house Bacchus And Barleycorn as well as Snug passes and Irish Fest tickets. Congratulations to all. And remember, the knitting, baking and photography contests are still to come.
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7 comments:
Thank you to all NINE judges, too! They are certainly dedicated to their art. (Or, "beer geeks" as one of them called himself.) This couldn't have happened without them.
Or without the entries, too, I guess. So, thanks to all TWENTY-NINE entrants as well! If you didn't win this time, good luck next year.
Cami
"Contest Queen"
Cami - great job organizing this new feature of the Irish Fest contests! What a GREAT addition! Erin
Stout competition? It looks more like a CDC investigation.
McCarthy
Cami,
Great job again!
Mindy
Thanks Mindy! You can take all the credit for the idea for a brewing contest in the first place. Bravo!
Cami
Congrats to Cami/Kim for a great addition to Irish Fest!
And big kudos to the 29 participants - we could not have asked for better entries. I'm pretty sure you can't just brew stout overnight, so thanks for sharing your time and love of the craft with our little fest.
And if you've got any left over, I'd be happy to take those off your hands for you. I'll be at Irish Fest all weekend - I'll be the one in the green shirt.
I'm just hoping I didn't get last place :)
There seemed to be a lot of Oatmeal Stouts, I'm surprised none of them placed.
Congrats to the winners.
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