Annual Beer Tasting

 

Another October, and another Annual Beer Tasting is in the books.  This year we had some new activities (including the cider press which I personally found very cool), and some new people joining us.  It's always fun to bring new folks into the fold.  They enter new beers we've not tried before and it's fun to show others the process we've nearly perfected over the years.  

For many years now Jamie and I have served as the official event coordinators.  We collect all the beers, tag and number them, create the bracket and serve the blind taste tests throughout the competition.  For years and years I'd just drink the beers as they lost out of the bracket, but my newfound love of cocktails through COVID meant that I now mix cocktails for anyone who doesn't want beers.  This year we had cosmos (of course I'm biased, but they were really good cocktails!).  

We had lots of kid activities to keep them entertained - pumpkin carving, cookie decorating, rock painting, candy pumpkin hunts, ranger rides, bikes, outdoor Jenga....shoot!  As I write it all down I think we might have over planned their time - LOL!

This year we had 14 beer entries - on the larger side for us especially when we factor in the COVID years where our group was very small.  Twice during the competition we had a tie, so we had to enlist a tie breaker to cast the final vote.  Thankfully we had an "official" beer taster in the audience!  Carol is an "accredited" from Sea World...hahaha!  It's just as funny when I type it out as it was when she explained it.  I think she'll be our official tie breaker for all events going forward, because, how could we not utilize an official skillset like that!?  

As an event organizer I admittedly didn't get many photos of the afternoon - but I DID grab these of our winner for 2022.  Bart, and Tryptic Brewing out of Champaign won.  Bart's beer was called Batch 1100, a hazy IPA.  Tryptic has won 4 times over the past few years.  It's really quite interesting.  We've tasted beers from all across the country, we've run this competition since 2008 and FOUR times this one brewery has won the competition.  Different beers each time...entered across years and they've come out on top. 

The traveling trophy will live in southern Illinois until next October when we do it all again.