Mead Judging This Month
-----------------------

Mike Hall

In the past, we had decided not to participate in the AHA's Club-Only
Competitions, but we're making an exception for the August CoC, Mead
Magic. Our club has a special place in our hearts (and gullets?) for
mead, so we thought that this would be a good competition to
support. The winner of our club's competition will advance to the
national round.

I volunteered to run this competition. Since we just had our AMO
Porter and Stout competition last month, and I'm well aware that too
much judging makes Johnny a dull boy, we'll do the judging this month
in as free a manner as possible. It's going to be a hedonic judging,
which means that we'll break out several meads at once and vote our
preferences based on which one we like the best, with no particular
adherence to style. I'll give out the specific instructions at the
meeting.

To enter your mead in our club's competition, you must be an Atom
Masher and bring 36 oz. of your entry by 8:00 p.m. on the meeting
date. I'll try to use less of your mead if we don't need it to serve
the number of people present. Also, you may make multiple entries,
but please specify which is your preferred entry so I'll know which
one to keep if quantity makes me limit entries per member.

You can enter any mead, but your mead will do better (at least in
my personal preference) if it

  - contains at least 50% honey as fermentables,
  - has good honey expression in the aroma 
    and taste, 
  - has good expression of extra ingredients 
    (fruit, spices, malt) in aroma, taste and 
    color as appropriate,
  - and has a good overall balance.

You will be asked to supply as many of the following adjectives
as you care to: 

  - traditional, melomel, metheglin or braggot
  - variety of honey
  - types of additives (fruits, spices, malts)
  - strength: hydromel, standard or sack
  - sweetness: dry, medium or sweet

So bring out your the fruit of your winter's labor (and patience) and
share it with your fellow brewers. One additional item: we'll need
lots of glasses to be able to do all of this side-by-side judging, so
PLEASE BRING FOUR SMALL GLASSES FOR TASTING. See you there...