"Bill Bradley" > wrote in message
news:Tt10f.7352
> Lew Bryson wrote:
>> "Bill Bradley" > wrote in message
>>>Who the heck voted Bigfoot the best Barleywine? Unless this batch was
>>>spectacularly better than previous years I don't know how they'd crack
>>>top-10.

>> Ah, that would be blind tasters who didn't see what the label was on each
>> beer, poor *******s, and only had taste and smell to go on, instead of
>> years of finely honed opinion and prejudgment.
>
> Oh come on. I rather like a number of Sierra Nevada's brews, but I know I
> am not alone in having found Bigfoot a rather unpleasant experience in
> Barleywine. Although Heavyweight's Old Salty was not represented,
> Weyerbacher and Old Dominion were (were Blithering Idiot, Millennium or
> Insanity entered? They only list the breweries not the particular beers)
> and I have had difficulty finishing previous years' Bigfoots at all, to
> the point that I avoid them on principle, but this years would have to be
> bloody spectacular to beat those two breweries, and they didn't even
> place! Sorry I've "only" tried about a hundred different brews this year
> (Bigfoot '05 not having been one of them) but I have a hard time buying
> that as a gold medalist.

Bill, take a look at who judges these beers. Over half the judges come from
Colorado and west (Mountain state judges are always the biggest group, no
real surprise). The East Coast (New England and the mid-Atlantic region)
puts up about 15% of the judges (really, I have the numbers, I'm not
guessing). I'm NOT saying that the judges are in a conspiracy, but what I am
saying is that people gravitate towards liking what they drink on a steady
basis. Western site for the festival, Western judges drinking Western beers
(and they do, much more so than we in the East drink solely Eastern beers),
Western beers win medals. I do not think that it's any surprising
coincidence that Denver and Boulder together have --over the entire history
of the GABF -- won more medals than any other city. Conspiracy? No,
inevitable playing of the odds.

--
Lew Bryson

Their clothes are weird, their music sucks and they drink
malternatives. And now you tell me they probably don't think Sierra
Nevada is cool? This is what the passage of years does to you: It
makes everyone around you more stupid. -- Michael Stewart 6/24/02

www.lewbryson.com