Pluses and minuses of Church comp?

[admin]

Wondering what people's thoughts are about this year? Overall I would say it was a decent improvement on last year's experience, tho last year I was Registrar, this year Judge.

Personally,
Pluses
- More space
- Better food
- More relaxed atmosphere
- Experienced Stewards made for better flow
- More BJCP trained judges
- A lot more medals

Minus
- Got very noisy before judging was finished
- Scores not live like last year
- A lot more medals

[Will_D]

Will_D; My comments

Pluses
- More space
- Better food
- More relaxed atmosphere
- Experienced Stewards made for better flow
- More BJCP trained judges
- A lot more medals
- No mixing with the public

Minus
- Got very noisy before judging was finished
- Scores not live like last year (For obvious reasons !!)
- A lot more medals ??
- No daylight

[Tom]

Ha, I kept trying to click on Will's blue text! Pavlov's idiot or what!

I wasn't in the B&C last year, but as a first judging experience I found it brilliant. Best Chicken Ceasar salad EVER! My kind of church.

[matthewdick23]

beer was too cold

[Cathal O D]

How is more medals a bad thing?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Ciderhead]

Minus
- Got very noisy before judging was finished

There were a few more things we learnt internally for future events but if thats all there was from the outside looking in then Rossa did a great job in whittling it down to The Church.
The public were kept out until the medal ceremony but the noise level increased from what was a morgue at 11 to noisey at 4 and was coming from finished stewards and merry judges, sorry nothing we can do about that.
All the judges that were there last year bar none advised that the NHC upped its games v's last year, and the way the competition was conducted on the day and new judges similar like last year were amazed how well for a group of volunteers it is organised.

[Ciderhead]

beer was too cold

The beer was brought into the room next door from the cellar across the road, the temp in that room was about 12 Degrees and we were concerned that the beer was going to get too warm, kinda surprised about you suggesting it was too cold.  

[irish_goat]

beer was too cold

The beer was brought into the room next door from the cellar across the road, the temp in that room was about 12 Degrees and we were concerned that the beer was going to get too warm, kinda surprised about you suggesting it was too cold.

I think we had a judging table comment that the beer in the stout category was too cold at the start of the day. Nothing really we can do about that unless we deliberately pull certain categories out of the cellar earlier than the rest. I think we got lucky regarding the temperature as there was a cold breeze that was keeping the bottles chilled in the hallway. If it was a warm day though I reckon the beers would have gotten too warm by lunchtime.

[Tom]

American pale ale bottles were spot on.

[St. Fursey]

beer was too cold

The beer was brought into the room next door from the cellar across the road, the temp in that room was about 12 Degrees and we were concerned that the beer was going to get too warm, kinda surprised about you suggesting it was too cold.

I think we had a judging table comment that the beer in the stout category was too cold at the start of the day. Nothing really we can do about that unless we deliberately pull certain categories out of the cellar earlier than the rest. I think we got lucky regarding the temperature as there was a cold breeze that was keeping the bottles chilled in the hallway. If it was a warm day though I reckon the beers would have gotten too warm by lunchtime.

That could have been me.  More of an on observation than a complaint though.  It would be an impossible task to serve every bet at the ideal temperature.  Besides, it warmed up in my hand fairly quickly.
I thought it was an extremely well run event with some seriously good entries. One of the beers I sampled from a different table was outstanding (not mine, I'll say no more until after Cork :p )
The only suggestions i have
Different cups or better yet glasses. Ridges on plastic cups made it difficult to assess lacing and viscosity (legs/tears)
Light was a bit harsh, we use the flashlights on our phones a fair bit

[Damien M]

beer was too cold

The beer was brought into the room next door from the cellar across the road, the temp in that room was about 12 Degrees and we were concerned that the beer was going to get too warm, kinda surprised about you suggesting it was too cold.

I think we had a judging table comment that the beer in the stout category was too cold at the start of the day. Nothing really we can do about that unless we deliberately pull certain categories out of the cellar earlier than the rest. I think we got lucky regarding the temperature as there was a cold breeze that was keeping the bottles chilled in the hallway. If it was a warm day though I reckon the beers would have gotten too warm by lunchtime.

I was on Stouts as Steward and tried to address the over chilled Stout by bringing in the bottle ahead of time (1 bottle ahead) to warm up in the room, it kinda worked but not really.

It can be added to the lessens learned for next time!!   

[brenmurph]

I did well with my lagers, for other comps I put them in icebox / cooler till competition time to keep them chilled. I suppose a stout can be warmed if too cold but that lagers cant be chilled unless theres an ice bucket at the judges table and as Damun says a good steward could bring the stouts early to warm and bring the lager early to sit in an ice bucket.

One fear I have is that my lager entries if served too warm will not be crisp enough and may foam up creating a haze in bottle conditioned versions.

[Andrew]

Minus
- Got very noisy before judging was finished

Multiple +1s on this- I was judging the last flight of cider and I think we where the last to finish and it was extremely noisy. Plus I think that people need to be kept away from the judging while still in progress. Especially people who have entries in the category!

But I liked the venue. Should have bought better torch but thanks to Shane for lending me his. All-in-all a great day and well done to all those who put the hours in to bring the whole thing together. A very professional job.

[brenmurph]

WAS A LOVELY DAY, GRAND VENUE, VERY FRIENDLY STAFF DESPITE US BEING IN THEIR WAY HALF THE DAY. LOVELY FOOD and we felt very welcome and at home. Cant criticise at all, well done all who organised
Shame we cant say the same about another venue we visited were we couldnnt eat our free chips  >:(despite a pub full of us drinking a shed load of their expensive beer  ...

[beerfly]

great day, upsides were space and having a seperate room for food

downsides were lighting, hard to have a strongly lit basement without it being too harsh but it was workable.
noise at the end too, im guilty of adding to that. in the fran well id suggest that people head downstairs when they are done.