03/31/2019

The 28th Annual Charlie Orr Memorial Chicago Cup, the oldest homebrew competition in the Chicago-area, is done and in the books!  One of many changes for this year was a decision to experiment with using the BJCP's new Structured Scoresheet, used for the first time last year during the National Homebrew Competition.  I'm not aware of any other regional competitions, like the Chicago Cup with 450 entries, using the new structured sheet, so Bill Goetz (the competition's organizer) and I thought we

02/17/2019

I'm contributing some beer that is being raffled off together with some handmade bratwurst from Bruce Tammen, as prizes for a fundraising event benefiting the Chicago Chorale.  The event, Suds in the City, will be at Lagunitas on Tuesday February 19th at 5:30 pm.  All the info here. Here are the labels for the beers:

01/27/2019

A hardy cadre of beer judges and brewers took a beer tasting and evaluation exam that I administered this past Saturday morning.  It turned out to be a wild, wintry morning, but ten registrants braved the cold and snow to make their way to Lo-Rez Brewing in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood to take the test. The Beer Judging Examination is the second of three tests for the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), an international, volunteer-driven organization that educates and credentials