What the????

[Jon Walker]

Okay, somebody slap me...who the hell were the judges at the Wine & Cheese expo who picked the "winners" in the beer category???
http://www.towineandcheese.com/competition_2003.asp

I take it St.Ambroise wasn't invited, it's the ONLY way Amsterdam could win best draft Stout.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jon Walker on 2003-04-11 13:03 ]</font>

[dhurtubise]

Looks like whoever organized the competition did not have any idea what he/she was doing. First of all they made a difference between the bottled and draft products which technically is incorrect. They also classified a whole bunch of beers in dubious catagories with little or no concern for proper styles.

It looks like they actually got a very poor turn out for beer. As you can see there is only one medal for the stout and porter catagory (amsterdam won....). So I doubt it had any competition. Although if the organisers knew their beer they would have recognized that Holy Smoke is actually a porter and should have won the gold in the Stout and Porter catagory (it's a much superior product IMHO).

Hence, therein lies the problem with mislabling beer catagories in the first place. Yes, porter (and stouts) are styles of british origin but then the way they catogorized the beers, there was a duplication where both these beers should fall.

[Josh Oakes]

This "competition" is just sad. The entire brewing business should sue these guys for the damage they are doing. Keith's in an ale category? Fraid not, guys. It's a lager.

If you're not going to run a proper competition, don't run one at all. If you are, grab some CABA guys who know how to run beer competitions, hook yourself up with experience beer tasters who know how to break down what it is they are drinking, and do it properly.

Mickey mouse foolishness like this reflects poorly on the product and industry.

[Cass]

I've known about the show for a few years, and the competition is always bogus. Here are the results from the past two years (sorry about formatting, I just copied and pasted):

2002 BEER COMPETITION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BOTTLED LAGER BOOTH #
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GOLD
Brick Brewing Waterloo Dark
136
SILVER
Creemore Springs Premium Lager
639
BRONZE
Lowenbrau Lager
112

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BOTTLED ALE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GOLD
Kasteel
561
SILVER
Magnotta India Pale Ale
101, 703
BRONZE
Connors Best Bitter
136

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DRAFT LAGER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GOLD
Beck’s
517
SILVER
Stella Artois
112
BRONZE
Saint Andre
633

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DRAFT ALE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GOLD
Leffe Blonde
112
SILVER
Hoegaarden
112
BRONZE
Magnotta India Pale Ale
101, 703



BEER COMPETITION


BOTTLED LAGER
GOLD
Lowenbrau
Oland
SILVER
Nastro Azzuro
Vin Vino
BRONZE
Sapporo
Select

BOTTLED ALE
GOLD
Golden Draak Rubaiyat
SILVER
Piraat Amber Rubaiyat
BRONZE
Bornem Dubbel Rubaiyat

DRAFT LAGER
GOLD
Stella Artois
Oland
SILVER
Tennent's
Oland
BRONZE
Hogtown Gold
Hogtown

DRAFT ALE
GOLD
Magnotta Classic India Pale Ale
Magnotta
SILVER
Hoegaarden's
Oland
BRONZE
Leffe Blonde
Hogtown

[j@beaus]

As I understand it.

They put a group of people in a Limo and drive around Toronto to different bars that have the beers on draught. We had to find a bar that had both of our products on tap so they didn't have to drive to two places. Quality control from bar to bar varies greatly.

We stoped doing this show two years ago, so I'm not sure if they still do it that way.