For our March meeting, we were able to return to our roots, in more ways than one.
We did meet in February. In person. A wonderful evening at Spacecat Brewing. There was Spacecat beer and there was homebrew and there was face-to-face talk. An excellent time. Many thanks to the Spacecat folks for being such generous hosts.
Where are the meeting notes? Well, we were so rusty after 2 years of Zooming that we totally fell down on the blind judging and note-taking. Not completely unexpected that we’d screw up a little. We’ve been out of practice a long time.
For March, our gracious host was Phil Markowski, in the Area Two building at Two Roads. And this is one way we went back to our roots. Phil joined the Underground Brewers in 1985, when our founder, Pat Baker, was still in charge and Phil was just a homebrewer. He is a direct link to our earlier self.
Phil gave us an extensive tour of Area Two, including the barrel rooms, the pilot brewhouse, the distillery, the classroom area that Sacred Heart University uses, and the coolship. He patiently answered a zillion questions and sampled our homebrew. Thank you, Phil!
After the tour came the judging. Real judging. Blind judging. With notes and scores. Just like the old days. Back to our roots for real. (And Phil had stories about how judging was done back in 1985, before the whole BJCP thing had gotten worked out.)
Somewhere in the pictures below, you see one of an ancient guy who really needs to rethink his facial hair pouring homebrew into teeny glasses. It’s what we do. It’s what we’ve always done. It felt good.
Judging notes:
- Munich Helles (Paul H): Green apple aroma, too sweet, somewhat astringent, stale? 4/3/10/3/4 = 24
- IPL (Andy C): Needs more malt in aroma and a little more bitterness in the finsh. But very drinkable. 8/3/12/4/7 = 34
- Best Bitter (Pierre and Steve): Dank, light-struck?, too dry – impacts drinkability. 7/2/10/3/4 = 26
- Weissbier (Caysey): Excellent example of the style. Extremely drinkable. 10/3/15/5/8 = 41
- Rye Farmhouse (Justin): Complex and fruity. Chewy and viscous. Delicious. 10/3/14/4/7 = 38
- New World Cider (Steve): Nice fruit presentation, fantastic tannic finish, incredibly drinkable. 4/6/18/8 = 36
- American Porter (Paul H): Complex malty aroma, but too sweet. Needs more hop bitterness. Creamy. Drinkable. 11/3/13/4/7 = 38
- American Wild with Tropical Fruit (Andy T): Voluptuous aroma, some Cheerios in the flavor. Fun and flavorful. 10/3/12/5/7 = 37
- Blueberry Cyser (Paul B): Aroma a bit hot and phenolic, flavor is perfectly balanced across all axes, delicious and drinkable. 7/6/18/7 = 38
