Today was a good day

Alright- so I went a judgin' today. Good times. I did English Bitters and Strong Ales. I got to judge with a master judge (I'm but an apprentice) for the Bitters, and it was a good lesson in how to judge. The Bitters were ok, but they tended to being overly astringent. The strong beers were all over the place and we didn't agree much in the judging. This was in part due to the lack of hierarchy, I think, as we had no master or otherwise highly ranked judge to defer to. Overall, I was surprised the range of quality in the homebrew at the event. Most either had technical flaws or were clearly out of style. In most of our sessions, it was hard to find many more than three beers that were ok on both ends. Still, my beer didn't place in the IPA category- so I'm curious to see what the feedback is.

I got into the raffle, after not winning last time (though I got a t-shirt from a dude I met there). This time, I made out. I got to go up three time, landing some pint glasses, some shirts and a copy of Beer Smith, which I tried to pay for unsuccesfully on Friday. I also got to win a beer sign, which the lovely young woman across from me wanted. I had been judging with her fiance and was extolling the virtues of marriage, so I was more than glad to pass it along to her. Next round up, she won and I got some dark Belgian candy sugar. Later, I gave my ride some Isodaphor, and got light candy sugar. The gift economy of brewing is fascinating.

So, fun to judge, fun to enter and fun to be in the raffle. Good times.