Judging the GABF: Becoming a Judge (part 2)

Less than an hour from now, I will officially become a judge of the 2010 Great American Beer Festival. For any who are wondering about the road that leads up to judging, it's been a pretty intensive one, and for good reason. There's an extensive application process that includes a beer industry resume, with a minimum of about 7 years of industry experience, and letters of reference from various parties, including at least one Brewers Association member brewery. It definitely helps to be a BJCP Judge with prior judging experience, as well as a Certified Cicerone™. Sensory analysis classes with the Siebel Institute are also quite helpful, as is experience as a brewer, particularly on a professional level. An intimate knowledge of the 120+ styles within the Brewers Association Style Guidelines is a must. If you meet the criteria for the selection committee, you'll be invited to become a judge. The current waiting list for newly selected GABF judges is between two and three years.

Needless to say, there are some extraordinary palates among the 150 GABF judges. Looking around the orientation room last night, I noticed a number of prominent brewers, including Steve Dressler from Sierra Nevada, Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River, Tomme Arthur from Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey, Jamie Floyd and Mark Henion from Ninkasi Brewing, Phil Leinhart from Brewery Ommegang, Jason Oliver from Devil's Backbone, Garrett Oliver from Brooklyn Brewery, Jason Perkins from Allagash, Shaun O'Sullivan from 21st Amendment, Tim Schwartz from Real Ale, Chuck Silva from Green Flash, Chuck Skypeck from Boscos, Carol and Eddie Stoudt from Stoudt's, Mark Thompson from Starr Hill, Eric Warner from Stranahan's, Rob Widmer from Widmer Bros., and Grant Wood from Boston Beer, among a number of internationally recognized beer educators, writers, and professionals.

The orientation, hosted by Chris Swersey, the competition manager for the Brewers Association, was handled quite professionally, as I'm sure will the judging. Christopher Bird and Dr. Gary Spedding (Brewing & Distilling Analytical Services) presented four commercial beer samples that we were asked to analyze and classify as either an American Pale Ale, an American Strong Pale Ale, or an American IPA, with estimates for ABV, IBUs, and SRM (color). It was a great exercise, and most judges were dead on, or pretty darn close to the actual figures.

Chris Swersey also covered a few of the facts surrounding the 2010 GABF:

• We'll be judging 3,600 beers in total, making this the biggest beer competition in history (surpassing the World Beer Cup's 3,350 submissions)
• More than 350 brewers are competing for gold, silver, and bronze medals
• There are 150 judges in the competition from around the world
• 15 of them are first time judges
• A judge captain typically moderates judging decisions amongst a table of six judges

Included with our judging packets is our style assignments. I'm pretty excited about the variety of styles I'll get to judge.

That's all I have time for now. Off to the judging!