For our October meeting, we returned to our roots. Our safe space. Our raison d’être.
We met in person (all vaxed, in a huge space with plenty of room and airflow) and we judged homebrew.
It felt good.
Why are we so judgy? Put simply, you cannot improve as a brewer if you don’t get good feedback. Blind judging gives brewers constructive criticism on the beer at hand. It also gives general advice for improving all homebrews. And finally, it trains the brewer’s palate, so the brewer can make informed decisions at home in the future.
It’s what we are. It’s what we do. We’ve been doing it for almost 50 years now. The past 18 months, when we could not do this, has been tough on the club. It’s good to be back.
Our venue was the back room at the wonderful New England Brewing Company (https://newenglandbrewing.com/). Greg Radawich was our host, providing us with the space and answering endless questions about NEBCo’s barrel program. Huge thanks to Greg and NEBCo for being so generous.
We also had a visit from Andy Orefice, one of the leaders of our sister club, Brew Haven, who brought us up to date on our upcoming co-hosted events, the cider pressing and the holiday party. You can tell which one he is in the pictures because he’s wearing a jacket and tie. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a jacket and tie at an Underground Brewers meeting before.
We had 6 homebrews to judge, beer and cider. From the scores below, you can see that the pandemic has not blunted our abilities to make great homebrew. Unfortunately, we seem to be out of practice on the note-taking part. I find no names attached to the brews in the tasting notes. So the brewers will have to remain anonymous this time. We’ll get back on this horse.
- Kolsch: A bit dark and full-bodied, some phenols. 7/2/10/2/5 = 26
- Czech Pils: Slightly cloudy, clean and hoppy. 9/2/12/4/6 = 33
- Weissbier: A bit thin and bitter, great nose. 9/3/11/4/6 = 33
- New World Cider: Somewhat sweet, tons of Brett. 6/6/15/6 = 33
- New World Cider: Hazy, refreshing clean apple flavor. 5/7/19/7 = 38
- Porter: Banana nose, a bit too sweet. 6/3/10/3/5 = 27
