Beer Buzz Radio - Best in Beer Survey, Bet You a Beer Game, and October Beer Events

It’s October, which means lots of excuses for drinking beer. In our October 2nd episode of Beer Buzz, brought to you by Mother’s Brewing Company, we go over several of the best reasons. First off, we cover several craft beer events going on in the area, including two Oktoberfest events, a Harvest event, and the BIG craft beer event coming up at the Shrine Mosque on November 19th.

Second, we talk about the best reason to drink this month, the First-ever Best in Beer survey. We have our final list of Best in Beer nominees and we’ll post the survey this week. That means you can use the map below to locate and have a beer at each of the venues. Call it “research.”


View 2011 "Best in Beer" survey map in a larger map

We also discuss what it’s like to judge beer in an official capacity, and why the BJCP is a mixed blessing for beer fans. Mostly, I feel that shoehorning beer into style categories is extremely limiting for brewers, but is extremely handy for judging beer for competition. Since I judged my first competition on Saturday, we talk about how having the BJCP scoring sheet in front of me changed my perception of the beer and why that was a good thing.

Continuing the excuse to drink beer, I covered why we should start a “Bet you a beer” movement, which mostly consists of betting your lager-drinking friend that you can find a craft beer he’ll like. The conversation might go something like this:


You: What are you drinking, Tim?
Tim: PBR as always, my friend.


You: How’d you like to have a free beer, Tim?
Tim: I’d LOVE it!
You: I know you would. Here’s the deal. I’m going to order you one beer of my choice. I will bet you that you will like this beer. If you don’t like it, don’t drink it and I’ll buy you a PBR instead. If you do, you still get the free beer I bought you. Either way, you get a free beer that you like.
Tim: WHAT!!!??? What an incredible deal!!! I’ll take that bet!

Either way, you both win. Tim gets a beer he likes, and you get a chance to show your friend how good craft beer can be. Make sure you choose a beer which stands a good chance of Tim actually liking it, of course. A wager that he’ll like an “Imperial Double Bourbon-Barrel Aged IPA with Extra Hop Extract” is going to be a losing bet for both of you. First of all, it sounds like an expensive beer. Second, the ability to enjoy that beer comes from years of lupulin threshold shifts, which will not have taken place for a tongue only exposed to PBR. Maybe try something from the dark beers that will surprise you list.

Finally, we’re joined in the studio by Allen Vaughan of The High Road to discuss his summer mission to discover the best IPA and his move to the Sunday TAG radio block. It’s a show filled with almost useful beer knowledge and discussion. Check out the show by clicking here.