Aabc Feedback

[geoffd]

nice file ham, the brown ale was terrible in spreads between the states then the nats, before some blockhead says the nat judges are better than state, hmmmmm read the spreadsheet. The stewarding could be improved by asking NOT allocating styles, I would not be the brightiest re. belgian wheat beers german wits etc bocks or their brother, give me a style I understand no worries.
Forgetting about stewards, do we have enough resources re judging? Some judges in a nutshell are useless, whats the criteria besides BJCP, none.
Useless= me judging IPA`S vers PA`S, dont take it personal, commenting.

The thread is about AABC not VICBREW, but seeing as ANDY is Vic he can use the info
A valid point re Judges allocated to catagories, you are right there is a shortage of judges and many judges have entries in their preffered catagories, so it's not cut & dry. (Also it is not the stewards who allocate the judges to catagories - I'm sure MH will try to oblige to your preferences if you state them at the time of volunteering)

I stewarded behind the bar on Sunday (Vicbrew) decanting, however many of the other stewards were newbies and didnt really know what they were doing. So i can see how issues like warm glasses arose. I also kept telling the runners to stay close to the tables to monitor the judging progress so entries would be served promptly, fell on deaf ears to a large extent, and it's difficult to remonstrate people who are volunteering, as it is not going to encourage help in future years, I wasn't head steward either, so I could only push them so much.
A few little mistakes were made like spicy black pepper water crackers as cleansers (bloody adictive too) I did point this out to our head steward. Overall I think the stewards need a little more guidance, maybe a short checklist of duties. A little more structure as to who is doing what? I ended up preparing all the cleansers for all the tables simply because the other stewards were newbies - not complaining, just pointing out that newbies need closer guidance & oversight on their first run.

Next year, it would be good to see some more hands up for volunteering, even if they only act as a dummy judge for experience to judge in future years.

 

[mossyrocks]

I would hesitate to say that the ACT had a main advantage, but I will be lobbying the QLD reps to have the QABC either closer to the date of the AABC or further away so that you can submit the scoring beer still fresh to the AABC or have ample time to rebrew it.

cheers

Browndog

Browny,

I'll also back this approach.

Cheers,

mossy

 

[browndog]

Browny,

I'll also back this approach.

Cheers,

mossy

Onya Mossy,
This post by Charlie in the AABC thread I think sums up why the ACT are so sucessful in the Nats

Further to what DrK mentioned, club support to this is crucial - not sure what the Vic boys do, but in the ACT, we hold the ACTABC as close to the Nats as we can.

Plus the CBC club comps are held to support the brewers getting feedback and being able to re-brew. We have 3 club comps a year, roughly 7 months, 4 months and 2 months before the qualifying rounds. The styles available in the 7 month comp are those big beers that need a good 6 months to be hitting their straps - high gravity belgians, strong ales/lagers and the like (realistically you need to brew some beers years in advance). The 4 month comp has lagers and the darker ales which are at their best after a few months, and lastly the 2 month comp is for all those fresh beers - English and US PAs, wheats, wits etc.

With suitable notice, this gave our members the chance to brew a style, have it judged when its at its best, and be able to re-brew incorporating the feedback and have it at is best again for qualifying ...

apologies to Charlie for quoting him, but I think we up here in QLD need to take a similar approach if we want to be a successful in the AABC. And we need more clubs too.

cheers

Browndog

 

[stillscottish]

How about an inter-state talent comp?

Toot

Campbell