BrewNZ Judging 2010 - part one

It’s the first day of beer judging for BrewNZ. Judges from around the world and NZ have assembled in the grandiose surroundings of the Edwardian/Art Deco masterpiece that was once Wellington’s Museum. There are many familiar faces, Derek Walsh the passionate beer style specialist from the Netherlands, Swedish brewer Jessica Heidrich, Brad Rodgers from Stone and Wood, and the quietly considered Mark Goldman from Lion among others. There are some new faces to and new stewards. From the gloriously misnamed Tea Garden I can look out south to the hills behind my family home where I first drank beer as a teen, I can also look to the hills that my house and home brewery is nestled between and I reflect on how far things have come. The stewards are mostly new, nervous and hesitant, they are put through their paces as we warm up our palates with doctored sensory samples, V.D.K, D.M.S , Amyl Acetate, they sound like prescriptions to the uninitiated. And then it’s on, the first beer of 460. The job has begun.