It's the Lancaster Round Table Beer Festival, which is in its 22nd year. For the first time this year it will incorporate a beer competition – the Lancashire Cup.
The festival is dedicated to showcasing the brewers of Lancashire. As there aren't actually that many Lancashire brewers the numbers are being swelled by the breweries in the bit of Lancashire which was chopped off in 1974 and bundled into Cumbria (my homelands).
The Lancashire beer list (see below) is firmly within the cask ale paradigm. The festival does include some imported keg beers, as the event is thankfully unconstrained by CAMRA dogma. The Lancashire Cup is open only to the domestic beers.
The categories are: Mild; Bitter; Best Bitter; Porter & Stout; Premium Bitter and Strong.
There's always a debate burbling in the background about stylistic definitions but my life is too short to go there. These are the categories the organisers have defined and we've got to live with them, however vague they are.
As far as I know, the organisers have not defined the judging criteria, and this is something I'll be doing.
The common criteria tend to be: Appearance; Aroma; Taste; Aftertaste (SIBA also uses Saleability).
The big question for me is: what's the optimum weighting for each criteria?
For instance:
Appearance – mark out of 5
Aroma – mark out of 10
Taste – mark out of 20
Aftertaste – mark out of 10.
What are your thoughts on this subject? Whether you've ever been a beer judge or not, how would you do it?
I'd like to incorporate a pumpclip design rating but I don't think I'll be allowed to do that. (Notice the legendary Hart Brewery is in the comp).
Your comments are appreciated.
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The beer list:
Barngates Cat Nap 3.6% Bowland Brewery Gold 3.8% Burscough Brewery Priory Gold 3.9% Coniston Bluebird 3.6% Irwell Works Copper Plate 3.8% Kirkby Lonsdale Ruskins 3.9% Kirkby Lonsdale Tiffin Gold 3.6% Lancaster Brewery Amber 3.7% Prospect Brewery Silver Tally 3.7% Robinson's Dizzy Blonde 3.8% Rossendale Brewery Floral Dance 3.6% Ulverston Brewery Flying Elephents 3.7% Winster Old School 3.9% Winster Best Bitter 3.7% Arkwright's Brewery Trouble at Mill 4.0% Arkwright's Brewery Run of the Mill 4.1% Bank Top Flat Cap 4.0% Burscough Brewery Ringtail 4.2% Cumbrian Legendary Ales Langdale 4.0% Cumbrian Legendary Ales Loweswater Gold 4.3% Fallons Exquisite Ales Lancastrian Gold 4.0% Fallons Exquisite Ales Goblin Ale 4.3% Garstella (2.5BB) Eccles Cake Ale 4.2% Greenodd Blonde 4.0% Hart Brewery Dishy Debbie 4.0% Hopstar Lush 4.0% Irwell Works Richard Mason 1888 4.0% Lancaster Brewery Blonde 4.1% JW Lees Bitter 4.0% Lytham Brewery Gold 4.2% Mayflower Brewery Wigan Bier 4.2% Moorhouses Blonde Witch 4.1% Moorhouses Pride of Pendle 4.0% Robinson's Unicorn 4.2% Rossendale Brewery Glen Top 4.0% Three B's Bee Blonde 4.0% Thwaites Wainwright 4.1% Bank Top Dark Mild 4.0% Fuzzy Duck Mucky Duck 4.0% JW Lees Brewer's Dark 3.5% Prospect Brewery Nutty Slack 3.9% Three B's Stokers Slate Mild 3.6% Thwaites Nutty Black 3.0% Coniston Special Oatmeal Stout 4.5% Hopstar Smokey Joes Black 4.0% Kirkby Lonsdale Jubilee Stout 5.5% Lancaster Brewery Slate 4.2% Lancaster Brewery Black 4.6% Mayflower Brewery Lancashie Stout 4.0% Rossendale Brewery Pitch Porter 5.0% Stringers No 2 Stout 4.0% Barngates Red Bull Terrier 4.8% Bowland Brewery Admiral 4.4% Fuzzy Duck Tangerine Duck 4.4% Greenodd Brunette 4.5% Hart Brewery Valadiction 4.8% Lancaster Brewery Red 4.9% Lytham Brewery Royal 4.4% Thwaites Bomber 4.4% Coniston No 9 Barley Wine 8.5% Coniston Winter Warmer Blacksmith's Ale 5.0% Liverpool One Maharaja IPA 5.3% Liverpool One Brass Monkey 6.0% Lytham Brewery IPA 5.6% Stringers Victoria IPA 5.5% Ulverston Brewery Bad Medicine 6.3%
