FOOLCiRCLE

This year’s BUZZ OFF had 254 entries and was held at Iron Hill West Chester. I did not stewart or anything, but Karen & I did go up to hear the awards announcements at 4:00. They were running behind and finally started to announce the awards around 5:30 or so. Here’s what happened:

I entered 4 beers in this competition. I entered the ECPA in the American Amber category, the MacRae in the Old Ale category, the Red Card Ale in the Irish Red category, and the Honey pale Ale in the Specialty Beer category. Fortunetly, two of my beers placed!! The ECPA got a 3rd Place in its category and the Red Card Ale got a 1st Place in its category!! And as if that were not enough, the Red Card Ale then surprised me once again by winning BEST OF SHOW!! Amazed, . . . I honestly thought the MacRae and the Honey Pale Ale had stronger potential then the flip side, goes to show what I know. Here are all the result: 2005 BUZZ OFF Results

And because of the Red Card Ale’s 1st Place victory, it get’s an invitation to the Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing (MCAB) this year! The BUZZ OFF is a qualifing event for the MCAB. There are about 10 qualifing events from around the country, and if you get a 1st Place in any of the categories, that beer moves on to this invitation only national cometition. So this will be the second national cometition the Red Card Ale will be entered in just this year! Here is the MCAB webite, it looks as if it has not been updated from last year, so stay tuned for an updated site: MCAB site

Not only did all of this happen at the BUZZ OFF yesterday, but I also recieved all my information for the National Homebrew Competition in the mail yesterday. And, not only does the Red Card Ale go on to the second (and final) round, but the MacRae also will be going to the second round because of a mistake the judges made while judging, couldn’t really ask for more. So, all in all it was a good homebrew day, and I didn’t even make beer!

Like minds brought together through BeerAdvocate.com and a love for local, craft, micro, homebrew, belgian, specialty and all other forms of wonderful beer. BIF20 (Beer-It-Forward #20) is a little different then the typical BIFs. This one is a race between two teams, both starting and ending with the same person and circling (more like zig-zagging) through 12 other people as fast as possible, but at the same time trying to accumulate as many miles as possible, and share new and distict beers – quite a lot to think about during a “fun” race between two very competitive teams of face-less team mates. The two teams are Team Dexter & Team Sinister – I’m on Team Sinister! You can follow the progress of BIF20 here at this website.

I was fortunate enough to recieve a sick package from Mentor, in Iowa, containing:
One Windy City Suds local beer newspaper
One Millstream Brewing Co. pint glass
12oz. Bard’s Tale Beer Dragon’s Gold – Golden Sorghum Lager
12oz. John’s Generations Whita Ale – Millstream Brewing Co.
12oz. Maifest Lager – Millstream Brewing Co.
12oz. MacTarnahan’s Blackwatch Cream Porter
12oz. Pere Jacques – Goose Island Brewing Co.
11.2oz. Sahtia – Lammin Sahtia Oy
12oz. Robert the Bruce – Three Floyds
750ml Oro de Calabaza – Jolly Pumpkin (from DEXTER, MI)
22oz. Dark Lord Imperial Stout – Three Floyds (most SINISTER)
I also was speedy enough to turn the package around the same day I got it and sent a pretty nice package to Babydoc, in Kansas.

Obviously, I went a little crazy over the Dark Lord – I’ve only wanted this beer for over a year now, go figure.