SIBA Great Northern Beer Festival – Judging

Judging at beer festivals is always a good day out – it’s a chance to meet new people and put your tastebuds to the test. It also makes you seem important,* and you get to eat unlimited amounts of Jacobs crackers. We rank beers all the time – either on our BeerCasts, on RateBeer or wherever – but there’s something about sitting round a cloth-bedecked table with total strangers that makes it all seem far more important. Not that our BeerCasts aren’t important, obviously.

After having judged a few competitions in our native Scotland, I realised I was going to be in my native England during the SIBA Great Northern Beer Festival, held in Manchester in association with the Greater Manchester branch of CAMRA. A quick email to the lovely folks at the vaguely sinister sounding SIBA Secretariat “That golden ale in your hand is quite poisonous enough, Mr Bond”, and it was off to Cottonopolis with freshly printed venue instructions in hand.

The SIBA Northern Regional finals were held before the festival opened in the afternoon (and a review of the beers involved will follow in a couple of days, so check back soon). Both were hosted by the newly re-branded Mercure Picadilly in the centre of the city. Following their recent acquisition of the hotel from Ramada they clearly hadn’t the money for a decent sign, as I walked past it three times before finding my way in.

Once done, the judging started – I was down for the Porters, Strong Milds, Old Ales and Stouts category (PSMOAS). As you can see from the photograph, the classic issue with these beers is quantifying a score for ‘Appearance’ (each of those above is different, by the way). But that aside, the eleven sampled on our table had a number of stand-outs. I love dark beers, and on a rainy late-October morning they were the perfect comforter.

The category complete, and a few new friends made – it was a round off as the competition moved along a level. Milling around for an hour as others drink beer is bad enough, but watching people ostentatiously hold beers up to the light and take extra sniffs (which is what I do, at least) is even worse. Thankfully I had met up with Hardknott supremo Dave Bailey, and fellow blogger Christopher_R (of the Ormskirk_R’s), so the time fairly flew by.

It was then back to judging, and the always unfortunately-named ‘Standard Bitters’ section. As the third tier of the competition, a lot of the poorer-scoring beers had been weeded out, so the six we had to score were all extremely good. As before, a couple were really fantastic – perfect for easy drinking, yet with plenty of hop character about them. It was a tough job though, having kept samples of each I went back a few times to amend some scores.

That done, the highest-scoring beers from the third round went into the final, and the hard work continued for judges luckier than myself. Still, the festival had opened at that point, so having completed our duty it was time to wander over to the 64 handpull-laden bar and get started. After a couple of hours the results were in, and the assembled brewers meandered to the front to discover their collective fate.

The full list of winners is here, but the champion PSMOAS was Ossett Treacle Stout – which although I couldn’t identify during the heat (as all beers were sampled anonymously, of course), I was very pleased to hear – I remember having a tremendous pint in the Red Lion, York. Other worthy winners included RedWillow Wreckless in the Premium Bitters, and Dave Bailey was delighted with a Silver in the Premium Strong Beers for Infra Red.

Then the overall winner was announced. In third place – local heroes Marble with their Marble Bitter (I really need to visit the Marble Arch soon). Second overall, a Blackburn producer – Three B’s Stoker’s Slake. The overall SIBA North Champion turned out to be Hawkshead Windermere Pale – the heat winner from the Standard Bitters category I’d just judged. A great result – proving that ‘Standard’ beers can indeed be special.

Thanks to SIBA for the invitation – we’ll be turning our hand to judging once again in three weeks time, as the SIBA Scotland region bottled beers come round again. Many thanks to the various people we caught up with in Manchester – Tandleman, Christopher_R, Dean from Mr Foley’s, fellow bloggers Leigh and Rob. Check back in a couple of days for our next post – the festival, and the beers we got to sample.

*if only for a few, fleeting moments before resuming the crushing pointless monotony of your regular existence