Beer Judging

Judging at Plymouth Beer Festival

I had the privilege to sit on the beer judging panel at the recent Plymouth CAMRA Beer Festival and it reminded me as to how hard it is to judge beer. It sounds really easy, tasting beers and saying which one you like best, but actually trying to rank 6 plus different beers is harder than you think.

The format is well organised and credit to CAMRA and their volunteers for the way they run this. Usually there is table of 6 to 8 tasters with a chairman. Jugs of beer are bought to the table one by one and the judges mark the beers for various attributes. Each judge fills in sheet and sums up the scores at the end. Now for the actual tasting and that's where it starts to get harder for there is no right or wrong and there are sometimes opposing views around the judging table.

Firstly, in my view its a mistake to try and identify beer brands as you judge. invariably you are usually wrong. That's not what its about, what does it matter what the beer is called or who brews it, that will only colour your judgement as you start to associate brand or brewer values with the beer you are tasting. Better to focus on the beer itself, the colour, condition, aroma, taste and linger.

Everyone tastes with their eyes. A cloudy beer should not really make it to the judging table but a beer lacking condition could well do so. This is an instant negative and some well known brands can find themselves falling at the earliest of judging fences for this reason. Now it starts to get more difficult.

As a judge you are normally looking for a beer that stands out from the rest. This usually means more hops, more malt, more chocolate, more fruity flavours etc. Not always does it mean the best balanced beer which actually is usually what makes a popular beer with the general public. Having been a judge I can really see how the beers that do the best are the ones that are the most distinctive flavours. The best balanced beers don't always stand out, whereas those with lots of certain flavours do.

I'm not sure there is a right or wrong as any sort of guidance from CAMRA could result in a skewed result, I think its better to just let things take their course. However this does often mean the winning beers at a festival can be the odd ball tasting beers or those with strong flavours that don't always appeal to the masses.

How wonderful it would be if at this years Great British Beer Festival a well known, well balanced tasting brand could win the ultimate prize. Quite how we get to that point I'm not sure, but maybe judges should try to be aware of drinkability when they judge. How often do you here, tastes nice but I could not drink a pint - if that's the case then that's the sort of beer you would not want to win. I for one have my fingers crossed that the winning beer is something I've heard of before and brewed by a reasonably sized brewer.

Plymouth Beer Festival 2014

Having fun at Plymouth Beer Festival

Another fine event, Plymouth Beer Festival did not disappoint for 2014. Perhaps the largest beer festival in the South West south of Bristol, the festival claimed 150 different beers plus ciders and foreign beers on top for consumers to enjoy.

A highlight for me of this years event was the quality of the local brews. The St Austell Brewery beers as ever were exceptional, aided by a remote cooling system. The latter is a major benefit and the St Austell beers stood out. If only CAMRA could afford to cool all of their beers. One of their objectives is to promote the sales of cask ales and beer festivals are ideal opportunities to show case cask ales. Much effort goes into pubs serving cask ales in perfect condition, however its sad to say that's not always the case at beer festivals.

It's great to try lots of different beers, but for some the beer festival experience might be their first in tasting cask ales. Such a shame then that CAMRA might be serving it's beers at less than perfect temperature. At Plymouth they are fortunate that they can turn the venue air conditioning down overnight and this certainly helps keep the beers within touching distance of the correct temperature. However we've all seen in the past at other festivals no cooling or even wet bar towels draped across casks to try and aid cooling!

My view is that CAMRA could do worse than invest in some cooling equipment for its major regional beer festivals. The festivals are there to showcase the ales where they deserve to be seen at their best, both for the pride of the brewer and the enjoyment of the consumer. Having used remote coolers, saddles and jackets myself its not entirely straight forward to the novice, so CAMRA would have to have an expert on hand to aid the installs and comply with health and safety rules.

Another problem would be the cost involved, remote coolers are not cheap and they don't like being moved around a great deal.  Alternatives are ice jackets but using lots of these in one go is not practical - there are only so many you can fit in your freezer. However I do think the issue of serving cask ales at their best in your premier events is something CAMRA need to think about and funds permitting, that might mean a major investment in cooling equipment and training.

Having highlighted a potential issue, its great to report the festival at Plymouth was its usual huge success. Keep up the good work and I am already looking forward to 2015.


  

Best Bitters

Durdle Door, a fine Premium Bitter

Beer Festival season is upon us and there will surely be a selection of beers brewed with various odd ingredients all vying for the attention of the beer judges and to stand out from the crowd. There will also be a selection of heavily hopped beers, some so overpowering that all the beer has to offer is hops and more hops. These beers are often deemed the prize winners because they are different, but are they the most drinkable? I believe not!

You don't have to look too far back to realise the most popular beers were always those that were the best balanced i.e. the hop bitterness was used to offset the sweet malts and fermentation esters to create a beer that was very drinkable. The fashion now is to brew beers that challenge the boundaries and create beers whose flavour profile, aroma and colour are different from the norm. However does this mean some of the wonderful Best Bitters that originate from 20 years or so ago are suddenly deemed old fashioned?

There are some great beers from the not so distant past that have become overlooked, perhaps partly because their branding is old fashioned and also because they are not heavily hopped. The advent of hops from Europe, New Zealand and above all America that are full of zingy citrus flavours and bags of bitterness have taken over from the solid English hops such as Fuggles and Goldings. Beers that don't have a selection of hops with the "c word" i.e. Celeia, Cascade, Citra, Centennial etc are no longer popular. However, there are some truly great and very drinkable beers that are classified as Best Bitters on the market and they are often far more drinkable than the more fashionable hoppy counterparts.

Beers such as Courage Directors were once the mainstay of the Premium ale drinker, they are superbly balanced and very drinkable. St Austell HSD. a beer of huge reputation but less so in sales is very much a hidden gem in the St Austell range. Durdle Door from Dorset Brewing Co does use the Cascade hop as well as Brewers Gold and Fuggles, but its a fine easy drinking Premium ale. Some of the smaller UK micro/craft brewers are also brewing great beers using solely English hops, partly driven by the cost and availability of the American hops, these beers are a joy when you come across them.

The fashion for hops and to create more beers that test the boundaries will continue for sure, but don't overlook the once old favourites or beers from the smaller brewers that focus on malt flavours. They are superb beers, they may not win beer festivals any longer but they are still very easy and enjoyable to drink.

Beer Styles for the public

Range of beers at a recent tasting

I've done a number of recent well attended beer tastings and its been great to talk with people who are genuinely interested in beer and want to learn a little bit more. Most members of the public struggle to define a flavour in beer but will describe a beer as hoppy, which is often true. Ask them to go on and define that flavour further as in citrus, floral, herbal notes etc, then its not easy.

This is where the brewers can help a lot more in my view. Beer Styles have are often over looked on the bottle label or pump clip in favour of branding. Indeed head to your local supermarket and you'll find a montage of labels facing you on the shelf with no apparent order to them other than perhaps by brewer. No wonder the public gets confused and often pick on names or brands they know to choose beers rather than style.

There are probably two main styles the public can identify with easily. The IPA beer they recognise, a few know the background to the name, a few might even know its going to be a hoppy beer. The other style is a stout/porter and people understandably define it by its colour. The latter is a much underestimated style of beer and people are often put off trying these beers which is a great shame as they are potentially missing out of some fine beers.

Where it all gets confusing is the middle ground of describing a beer. What distinguishes a best bitter from a pale ale, where does a golden beer sit compared to an IPA?  Where is a strong ale sit compared to a premium ale or vintage ale and just what is the difference between a double and a triple. All too confusing for many of us involved in the beer industry let alone the public!

My view is that there is a job to do for both brewers and retailers that would really help. Firstly the brewers could properly mark up their brands with beer style and make it easy to identify, some consistency in attributing beers to styles would also help. Retailers can probably have the most impact by displaying beers by style and or flavour rather than by brewer. I think this would help hugely for people to understand. Contrast this to wine displays and you will certainly find red and white displayed separately, plus perhaps a split by country and often grape variety. So just why then why then is it not similar in beer?

I think ultimately a growing interest in beer and the craft beer boom, fuelled by the impact of social media will mean the public becomes more knowledgeable and thus demanding. Those brewers and retailers who recognise this will be the ones who become favoured suppliers of beers and develop the stronger brands.

 

Plymouth Beer Tasting

The tasting commences!

A recent beer tasting with Plymouth Chamber of Trade was very enjoyable but also highlighted what interest there is from the general public in learning a little bit more about beer. It's not however the art of brewing that people want to know, fascinating as it is, brewing can be scientific and complicated with references to brewing equipment and processes that many in the trade take for granted, but for the uninitiated cause an instant glazing over! What is of far more interest is to help people understand a little about the flavours they are tasting, what ingredients contribute to them, help in describing them and above all else keeping it entertaining and fun.

As regards flavours how often have you heard someone describe a beer as hoppy? Countless times for sure, but for many people to describe the flavours you can expect from hops would be quite hard - the fruity citrus, herbal, floral, grassy and cheesy notes. It just gets described as hoppy. Likewise with malt flavours, there are not that many times you hear toffee, biscuit or roasted being used to describe beers.  However this is where the Beer Sommeliers, CAMRA members and other enthusiasts can help. It is really easy to try to impress with ones beer knowledge and identify flavours that are the merest hint in a beer. It's actually much harder to try and bring this into the every day language, using easy and obvious flavour terms and make a beer more accessible and easy to understand.

At the Plymouth tasting it was great to use simple props like bags of toffees, grapefruits, jars of coffee etc. to engage with people and help them connect every day flavours to the beers they were drinking. Add a little beer and food matching, a fun quiz, play with some actual hops and malt and of course taste a wide variety of beer styles and you have the making of a good evening.

The tasting in Plymouth went well and I have to thank Plymouth Chamber of Trade for organising it. Hopefully it will have enthused those who attended to try different beer styles for themselves and also understand a little as to why they like or dislike certain beers.

CAMRA Good Beer Guide

Swindon CAMRA at the St Austell meet the Brewer night

A recent visit to Swindon CAMRA for a meet the brewer night with St Austell Brewery was thoroughly enjoyable and what lovely people, however there was an interesting discussion with regard to the CAMRA Good Beer Guide.




The CAMRA team were in the process of compiling next year's list from the Swindon area and as ever it had sparked some discussion within the membership. Chatting with the Chairman it seems that they had around 35 or so pubs they considered worthy of being in the guide, however they only had 17 spaces available. This I think is a fairly common problem for many CAMRA branches and I guess those pubs that make the final list tend to be pubs who have appeared in previous years, favourite pubs as CAMRA meeting places and those members that shout the loudest to get their choice of pub included.

On the reverse most licensees are thrilled to included in the guide, considering it a real badge of honour and are justly proud of the recognition. Also many breweries and in particular the Regional Brewers, have long been bastions of improving and enforcing quality of beer in pubs. As a result, the numbers of pubs who serve fine good quality cask beer has increased considerably.

So how then do you decide if a pub should be included? Surely the pub that serves two cask ales of consistent high quality deserves to be in the guide as much as the pub who serves five quality real ales. Its just perhaps his trading style and location means he only has the trade for the two beers. Presumably it often comes down to the trading style of a pub, but as pubs cater for a multitude of classes and spend, then that's not always easy for an individual to judge either.

Perhaps the real problem is that the Good Beer Guide needs to change and that CAMRA might need to find another more encompassing way of recognising their best recommended cask ale pubs. There has never been as much interest in cask ales as now, driven by the digital age and the growth in small craft/micro brewers, the public wants to know more, which pubs serve great beer and also local beers. CAMRA can have a huge influence here and a general marque of quality of recommendation might be the best way forward. It would still have to be earned and could be taken away if quality falls year on year, but I for one believe there is scope to recognise more pubs for the quality of their beer, welcome and ambiance and it should not necessarily be restricted by the size of the book.

Christmas Markets

Craft Bottle Beers at Royal William Yard

Having attended a number of markets and Christmas Fare's with Craft Bottle Beers it is interesting to see stall holders different approaches to selling their wares. Our latest market was at Plymouth's Royal William Yard, a popular and growth area of the city it was an interesting venue.  The one thing we have learned and was reinforced at this market is that is you have the give customers a reason to buy and its not sufficient just to make something and then try to sell it.

We were selling a selection of 25 + local South West craft bottled beers from 8 different brewers. All were fantastic beers, a little quirky, a little different but all very tasty beers. Other brewers were also at the same events selling equally fine beers. Indeed, all of the stall holders sell excellent items from pastries, honey, juices to arts and crafts. There is no doubting the quality of their wares.

The one thing we noticed is that it helps hugely if you can give customers a reason to buy. At this time of year people are looking for Christmas gifts. We packaged a 3 bottle pack with simple but clean"Happy Christmas" branding so it looks like a gift. In addition a jute bag 6 pack with a general Craft Beer message had a wide appeal and the customer also gets to select from a range of oddly named beers with interesting labels that suit different interests. Other brewers focused on gift boxes with their own branding, great for brand awareness but not so good for giving customers a reason to buy.

At this time of year the gift pack is a sure fire best seller. However after Christmas the challenge will be to come up with another reason to buy. Clearly with beer birthdays and Fathers Day spring to mind but I'm sure there are other reasons to be found. Its really about thinking from the customers perspective rather than that of the producer.

You also need to make it easy for people to buy with sensible pricing. Remember people only have so much cash on them. We invested in a card reader that worked through the phone. It turned out an excellent purchase with a significant value of our total sales being through this.

Thinking about what customers want rather than what you perhaps want to make or sell is quite a different way of looking at things, but if you can apply this principle to your business it will potentially reap huge benefits.