TOPIC:

"Partridge9":10a7j5re wrote: We really need to man up here.[/quote:10a7j5re]
OOo, them's fightin' talk.

Nothing to stop someone from Beoir acting as a drop point for competition entries.

In the meantime using any of the fine suggestions above a panel of judges can be assembled.

Finally nothing to stop Beoir from cracking open the warchest and renting the function room at a licensed premises for a public judging and so on. No charge for admittance, as there are perks to being a Beoir member <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

(Come to think of it the National Homebrew Club has a warchest too, but Beoir's is bigger <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) --> )

I'm not too familiar with Dublin pubs, are there any craft beer selling ones with decent sized functions rooms?

&amp;quot;irish_goat&amp;quot;:1nuw6kdz wrote: A professional brewer adds a bit of prestige to the award and being realistic, a professional is going to know more about beer tasting and brewing so will be better placed to offer constructive criticism.

To me option (b) adds hassle and there's no real benefit wasting time voting for judges on the night when that can just be done on the forum beforehand. Plus it would be awkward given how noisy the B&C tends to be, especially if we are all spread over 3/4 tables.[/quote:1nuw6kdz]

Option (b) doesn't involve voting for judges. It involves those present voting on the merits of the beers they taste. We could hand out sheets with a list of the beers and gather them up once filled out. Simple. (Or maybe I'm missing something).

I suppose some people would view the award as more prestigious if a professional brewer was involved (and I'm not saying they shouldn't be), but I don't think there's any reason to think professional brewers are better beer tasters than the incredibly knowledgeable homebrewers on this forum. And I think the same can be said for who is best placed to offer constructive criticism regarding the homebrewing process. In fact, in many cases, professional brewers may be less well placed to offer such criticism, for all sorts of reasons.

Ah sorry, I thought you meant we would elect a panel of judges on the night from those in attendance, not give everyone a vote via a scoring card or whatever. That's not too bad an idea.

I've no doubt there are very knowledgeable people on beoir but there's also people like myself who have only just started to brew and being perfectly honest would be unable to offer proper constructive criticism.

In that sense, someone like Seamus O'Hara telling a brewer that his beer is fantastic and is good enough to be sold on the market is a lot more praise than me telling someone there beer is tasty.

Also, a professoioal might sponsor it/give some freebies too. <!-- s:P --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt="" title="Razz" /><!-- s:P -->

&amp;quot;irish_goat&amp;quot;:2lf2oxvj wrote: I've no doubt there are very knowledgeable people on beoir but there's also people like myself who have only just started to brew and being perfectly honest would be unable to offer proper constructive criticism.[/quote:2lf2oxvj]

No one's gonna force you to be a judge if you don't want to be <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->

couple of points -

in general if you did start out with a central one (inside the pale <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) --> ) and let it trickle out to us yahoos in the sticks over time that would give the opportunity to iron out any kinks as it grew naturally - and maybe could be run as heats over a period of time with some grand finale at an AGM or something like that
I think a score card is a great idea - it would certainly help novices like myself critique our own beers - admittedly My pallet is not very educated in terms of what to look for in a successful beer - at the moment I either like it or I don't - an end result that is based on a variety of things that I probably don't even recognize myself !! I do find myself trying harder to identify different aspects of a beer now as I drink though !