I haven’t written in a long time as I’ve been too busy research, learning, judging, and organizing competitions. I made a New Year’s resolution to write once a week… and that hasn’t quite happened yet.
In the meanwhile, here’s a recent podcast I did with lovely fellows in North San Diego County, I Like Beer the Podcast.
In April 2022 I joined the San Diego Estate Beer Project (SDEBP) with Erik Fowler of White Labs and Tom Kiely of Slow Food Urban San Diego and formerly of Thorn Brewing Co.. The goals of SDEBP include to create an infrastructure connecting local farmers with local brewers to sustainably increase field-to-glass brewing in the region and to ultimately develop local beer styles.
Towards this end, SDEBP held a homebrew competition in August 2022 sponsored by QUAFF to have homebrewers define what local beer means to them. The entries were judged on three criteria:
The four winning homebrewers were then partnered with four professional breweries to scale up and adapt their recipes for the Pro-Am Competition held at the San Diego Brewers Guild Guild Fest in November 2022. We served the four beers from the Happy Hops Van near the entrance of the festival to more than 300 guests. Over half the guests participated in the blind judging of the four beers using the DraughtLab Sample Ox app.
The Sample Ox app was very easy to use with two questions: a sliding hedonic scale of “liking” from gross to love, and a series of flavors types to chose from. There were no right or wrong answers. Consumer became passionate about debating, in groups, what flavors they discovered in the beers and what scores should be. After they submitted all four scores we would show them the list of beers.
Thanks to Pure Project, Thorn Brewing Co, Viewpoint Brewing Co, and White Labs Brewing Co. for participating in the Pro-Am Competition! And congratulations to Billy Lambert, Theresa Wilks, and Thorn for winning the consumer’s choice with their Imperial Berliner Weisse with cherries and oranges!
San Diego is home to over 150 breweries and has the highest concentration of any county for both Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) judges and Cicerone trained professionals and beer fans, so we also have some wonderful award-winning beer writers. Brandon Hernández wrote multiple articles about the SDEBP for San Diego Beer News:
- Homebrew Summer is Back (June 20, 2022)
- Guild Fest resurfacing in Del Mar (August 31, 2022)
- Hyper-local bragging rights (December 7, 2022)
Similarly, Beth Demmon judged the homebrew competition and wrote up SDEBP for San Diego Magazine in print and online (San Diego’s First Truly Local Beer (August 9, 2022)).
Finally, I wrote an article in the November/December 2022 issue of Zymurgy Magazine titled “In pursuit of local beer: the San Diego Estate Beer Project”.
The next steps for the SDEBP include a pending proposal for a presentation at the 2023 Homebrew Con in San Diego, CA and other events surrounding the three-day international event hosted by the American Homebrewers Association. We plan to brew a collaboration beer celebrating San Diego spring using locally-sourced ingredients. We’re hoping to roll out a website hosted by Slow Food Urban San Diego soon.
Like I said, I’ve been busy. I’ve also been coordinating (and occasionally judging) the QUAFF club-only competitions (COCs), six comps each year open to club members. The goals of the COCs include:
- giving useful feedback to the homebrewer
- allowing the homebrewer to refine existing recipes
- pushing the homebrewer’s personal boundaries with new styles, ingredients, and processes
- building a collaborative homebrewing environment
- providing interested BJCP judges with judging opportunities
- and crowning the QUAFF Homebrewer of the Year and Rising Star of the Year
Devising a new schedule every year to ensure there isn’t too much overlap with previous years’ competitions is equally fun and frustrating since the more “out-there” beer styles are either more time-consuming or cost-prohibitive, or frankly folks don’t want to brew them, leading to lower participation. We use the COCs as jumping off points for homebrewers to fine-tune their craft for other competitions like the National Homebrew Competition, America’s Finest City Homebrew Competition, and California Homebrewers Association along with other competitions included in the Master Homebrewer Program. There are numerous local opportunities to judge both professional and homebrewed beer this year, so I’m looking forward to providing substantive feedback and experiencing new styles.
Additionally, I organized a team to do second round remote judging for the Craft Maltsters Guild 2023 Malt Cup. Chris Leguizamon, Winslow Sawyer, and I judged malt samples at Pure Project Vista using the American Society of Brewing Chemists Hot Steep Method and DraughtLab Sample Ox app. Unlike the SDEBP Pro-Am Comp, Sample Ox had went into greater depth into the aroma, flavor, appearance, and mouthfeel of the wort samples.
It was an eye-opening experience for all of us and one I’ll be looking forward to doing again at the Best-of-Show at the 2023 Craft Malt Conference in Portland, ME. I’m really excited to learn of opportunities to increase craft malt utilization in San Diego beers and possibilities in creating a local malting infrastructure.
On a separate note, I am now a Certified BBQ Judge through the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS). The one-day class taught the rules of BBQ competitions and how to judge the four main meats: chicken, pork, pork ribs, and brisket. Scoresheets are based on Appearance, Taste, and Tenderness. I’m excited to get out there and put the new skills to the test during this year’s competitions.
All of these sensory training, organizing, and judging experiences are building towards my ongoing research on the history of food and drinks competitions, the people who participate in various aspects, and the decisions they make. I’ll start writing more about this ongoing project soonTM. In the meanwhile, follow my on Instagram and Twitter. Cheers!
Mural Brewing 
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