I was asked the other week if I would like to attend a SIBA North East Regional judging event at Gateshead Rugby Club Beer Festival. After agonising over this for about 2 microseconds I said yes.
Cask, bottled and canned beers from North East Breweries would be blind tasted throughout the day to coincide with the opening day of the annual Rugby Club Beer and Music Festival. With so much beer to judge I had visions of being virtually comatose on the bus back, waking up in the depot.
This however was not to be, so here is what happened.
The main bar of the club was set up with 4 seats per table, several empty glasses, crackers and water. Each judge, of which there appeared to be about 30, had a score sheet to complete.
Each table or pairs of tables had different categories to judge. My first table was for the entry - Bottles and Cans British Bitters up to 4.4%. Runners were assigned to bring the beer in jugs, take away empties and bring more beer. Each beer was judged based on appearance, aroma, flavour, aftertaste and saleability. Usually one taste and swallow was enough to give marks. To be honest most of the selection we had was pretty nondescript. I dont drink out of cans and some have said the tinniness that used to be present has been removed. I dont think so, two offerings had a faint metal taste. Dont forget this is blind tasting so we didnt know what we were drinking.
Now my favourite beers are dark beers - stouts and porters specifically. Everything we tasted on our table were pale beers and I looked in envy at a few tables who had dark beers to taste.
Never mind, there was always round two.
Round two - Cask British Bitters up to 4.4%. Same as round one but cask beers. By now we had figured out that the beers were being brought from the main beer festival hall adjacent. In the hall all the pump clips were turned round and the runners had instruction to get beer from Cask X and Cask Y etc. So even the runners, most of whom worked for the competing breweries, didnt know which beer was which. The handpulls weren't in any sequence- so not alphabetical and not in strength order, to maintain fairness of judging.
One thing I noticed, all the cask beers were of better quality than the bottles/cans, although some were cloudy and had a couple had bits of yeast floating in them. Whether this was down to some casks not having settled would never be known - you mark what you are presented with.
Again, my envious eyes wandered over to the stouts and porters tables. Never mind , there was always round three after lunch.
Round three - Cask IPA 5.5% to 6.4%. There were 9 to judge in this round and to be honest, most were distinguishable from each other. One stunk of sulpher. Thankfully there were no black IPA's - dont get me started !
Note that to this day I dont know which beers I drank and whether any that we judged went forward to the final round.
After round three it was the final round which was left to the industry experts, so we wandered off into the beer festival hall. All except 10 of the handpulls were now turned round, so 10 beers in the final. It was noticeable that when these were revealed later, most were dark/ strong beers.
There was also a long table with all the bottles and cans on. These hadn't been disguised but it was still impossible to tell what had been judged.
There were 26 awards given in the final award ceremony - different styles of various strengths in bottles, cans and cask.
Below are the 1-2-3 overall cask winners :-
.
| Brewery | Product | ABV | |
| Gold | Cullercoats Brewery | Polly Donkin Oatmeal Stout | 4.2 |
| Silver | Brass Castle Brewery | Annexation | 8.3 |
| Bronze | Daleside Brewery Ltd | Monkey Wrench | 5.3 |
See what I mean about a preference for dark and /or strong beers ?
The full list :-
https://www.siba.co.uk/2019/05/04/cullercoats-brewery-ossett-brewery-awarded-best-independent-craft-beers-north-east/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SocietyOfIndependentBrewers+%28Society+of+Independent+Brewers%29
The full list :-
https://www.siba.co.uk/2019/05/04/cullercoats-brewery-ossett-brewery-awarded-best-independent-craft-beers-north-east/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SocietyOfIndependentBrewers+%28Society+of+Independent+Brewers%29
One final thing. In the beer festival hall, one of the chaps behind the bar looked like someone famous. Myself and the guy I was with both said at the same time.."him out of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young !"
David Crosby with a Geordie Accent.He admitted he gets it all the time ! See what you think -
