Judging by the Taste !

Last week I was at one of my favourite beer fest's , Tuckers Maltings in Newton Abbot. This SIBA south west regional competition attracts brewers and their products from all over the West Country, including the Channel Isles.
This year was special for me though as I had been submitted by a friend to judge (gulp). We left home around 7am, it was going to be a long day, to catch the train from Axminster in order to be in Newton Abbot by 9:30 am, and hopefully get some breakfast.
All went to plan and by 10am we had collected our accreditation and were waiting for the call to take our places on the Maltings floor.

I had been allotted Standard Bitters and Pale Ales in the first round which are not always my favourite being a stouts and IPA's fan and to be honest I found them all very similar so probably marked them too harshly. It was an interesting experience though and I enjoyed it immensely. After my fellow judges and I had tried the nine ales on offer it was back out into the sunshine and fresh air.
In the second round I was trying small pack strong ales, much more to my liking and with two stand out ales in the selection of eight. I made a note of the code numbers of these two to check after the competition what they were. I later established that the last ale of these and my highest scoring was Moor's Old Freddie Walker in 'tip top' bottle condition and which won bronze in the section.
After lunch it was back to the 'grind' , well somebody has to do it !
Round three saw me back with the Standard Bitters and Pale Ales again for pretty much more of the same as the first round. All a bit uninspiring.
We then had a bit of a wait, but did have the bonus of visiting the three 'free' casks that were on offer for the judges and chatting with old and new friends outside, good job the weather was kind to us.
At 4pm we all congregated back inside to see and hear the presentations being made.

Waiting for the results

After which it was time to become a 'punter' and sample some for ourselves.

What a line up

First up for me was the champion, Incognito from Plain Ales, a lovely dark porter at 4.8% . Its a new experience for me to sample the winner as usually by the time I get to the festival on the Saturday sessions there is none left.

Incognito

Next I tried Freedom Hiker from the Brewery that's geographically(about 2 miles) closest to me, Gyle 59. This was an amber and malty ale with its familiar unfined style and a silver winner this year.
Beer three was Coffee Mild from Summerskills another unfined ale with smooth coffee overtones quickly followed by Old Smokey from the Stonehenge Brewery. I'm a big fan of 'smokey' beers but I really didn't get anything other than a slight aftertaste.
I finished with two pale and floral ales, the first from the Padstow Brewery, Padstow Mayday which was the other beer I judged and had given good marks to and Wild Blonde from South Hams which won gold in the Best Bitters and Pale Ales section. Both were exceedingly good ales.
All in all a thoroughly enjoyable day topped off by my also meeting Sophie Atherton , the journalist and beer sommelier and of course birder with whom I discussed of course....... binoculars !