The Mad Baker Takes Orbit at the Inter-Center Competition

It was a long afternoon Saturday at the Outpost.  Between technical problems that stonewalled our video transmissions and communicating with Goddard while getting all the entries judged, our simple two hour contest became an almost 4 hour marathon of long distance tasting and comparisons between the judges from the Zymurnauts at Goddard and the judges at BAM.  But in the end a decision was made.  A winner was declared!  A classic finish for a classic brewer!

He can honestly claim:

Non venit, non vidit, sed vicit!

And we of the JSC Homebrewing community can honestly claim:

Venimus, vidimus, vicimus!

That all means the Galloping 'Naut returns home for another year!

In his last year working at JSC, BAM's The Mad Baker, John Jurgensen, aided by the new kids from L-Mart Colorado, Crissie Ogle and Nick Mullins, walked away as the best Homebrewing Rocket Scientists in NASA!!!!

Yep, it was a close fought fight but in the end the slugging match between a Robust Porter and a Premium American Lager was no contest at all.

It was a full day of surprises (Nancy showed up???!) at the Outpost.  I wish to give a HUGE round of thanks to Stephanie and the staff at the Outpost for all their help yesterday.  They had set up tables for us so we could do proper judging with plenty of light.  Unfortunately, we ran into technical problems with our video link to the Internet.  I spent the rest of the afternoon going to Plan "B" and then Plan "C" and still having no luck.  However, we were able to see our colleagues and competitors from Goddard with no problems.  That just made this problem all that much more galling.  I will not dwell on that small issue any longer than to say a deeply felt "Thank You" to Pasteur and Jimmy Skids for taking a lot of time out of their very limited times available yesterday to help solve an insolvable problem that affected me, BAM and the contest.  You guys really picked up points on this one.  Now, on to the larger story about tasting and the victory!

After a preliminary delay, final round of judging for the Third Annual ICC began with the Light Lagers.  This year our number of entries had grown as there was an entry in this category from Marshall Space Flight Center.  No doubt the first in what will be a growing number of entries from other centers next year!  Our crack steward, SWMBO, got our team of judges situated and the first lager poured for its review and critique.  The tasting ritual of pour, smell, look, swirl, taste and write began. 

With two teams of expert judges working at opposite ends of the Internet, it did not take long for the five Light Lagers to be weighed, measured and found to be wanting.  Or in one case NOT.  Mike Heniff and Ron, Brewdaddy, Solis did wonders of judging and cutting through the mounds of minutiae of technical judging to score the essence of these light lagers in record time.  After both sets of judges were done, the scores were compared and totaled.  In the judging at both sites there was one light lager that stood head and shoulders above the others and easily commanded the top score in the light lager category.  That was going to be one tough beer to beat for top honors in the final round.

Then it was the time for the porters to take center stage.  A new set of judges with a new set of palates settled in to critique the brewing efforts of six makers of various Porters.  Mike, The FORCE, Wiley and Mike, Mongoose, Moore (an old hand from BAM coming back into brewing big time and welcomed to be seen!) settled in take the full measure of the Porter offerings. 

This time there were six entries.  Again, we had two new entries, one from the homebrewers at MSFC in Huntsville and a joint effort by two homebrewers working together from two NASA Centers.  One, Ethan Bauman, is from Dryden in the high desert of California and the other, Byron Maynard is from the Stennis Center in Mississippi.  Both are doing temporary work at JSC.  They represent their centers and the homebrewing hobby well!  So along with the two Porters from JSC and the two from Goddard, both sets of judges had full plates before them. 

Again, pour, smell, look, swirl, taste and write occurred for each bottle in turn.  The judging for the Porters was a little more exciting this time.  In the middle of the judging, one of the entries took the motto about being brewed by Rocket Scientist a little too literally and when opened presented SWMBO and all those in the close vicinity brown geysers of Porter foam that almost emptied the bottle.  That left very little to be judged, put it was.  There was some discussion by one member of the audience that SWMBO MIGHT have had some small responsibility for the eruption as just before the bottle was opened by her the juke box started playing a song by Bon Jovi.  Which is a know initiator of SWMBO bopping and rocking.  This could result in, possibly, some small agitation of the bottle.  After I was assured by SWMBO such an event did not happen and that if I mentioned it again I would be wearing said bottle in my head, I felt those concerns were completely unfounded.    However, we made sure the next bottle was opened to the less stimulating tones of Hank Williams Jr. But it, too, launched its contents and rapidly depleted itself into a bucket to catch the swill.  Fortunately, that was the last one to do that.  The remaining Porter entries were judged with no unplanned excitements.

The scoring of the Porters was a more complex issue than the Light Lagers.  While both sets of judges agreed on the overall best Porter in the flight of six presented, there was a legitimate question about one of the Porters that had expressed itself.  In order to give it a fair chance after it was judged highly by Goddard, the second bottle of this entry was opened to verify if what happened was a one time event or consistent.  If the bottle opened nominally, a small sample for tasting by the judges would be poured and reviewed to see if it changed any final scores when the totals at Goddard and JSC were added.  This would leave enough for BOS judging should that occur.  Unfortunately, the previous results were repeated.  We later found out the same occurred during the judging at Goddard. 

In the long run we had two good examples of two very different styles of beer to represent the best of NASA homebrewers.  The final set of judges sat down at Goddard and the Outpost and we quickly determined the winner between the two ultimate finalists.

The Robust Porter of Kevin Berry of Goddard was judged to be very good.  But it was second best.  John Jurgensen and his apprentices, the Padawans Crissie and Nick, took first place with their Premium American Lager.  It was a most excellent beer.  John was not able to attend yesterday as he is in the process of selling and moving his home so it was not until late last night I got the privilege of telling him he won the Third Annual ICC for Best Homebrewing Rocket Scientist in NASA. Needless to say he was ecstatic! 

I want to thank all who made the effort to come out and participate yesterday.  It was gracious of each and every one of you to commit your time and efforts to help this small but growing event.  This is a process that takes months to organize and execute.  I could not have done near as much this year without the help of Cesar, 3Beers, Gonzalez.  He is going to do great next year leading this for BAM and JSC.  My thanks to all those who entered ICC here at JSC, Goddard, Marshall and the other Centers represented.  I want to give a hearty congratulation to all those skilled and fortunate enough to move forward into the final round of judging. You are a very skilled group of brewers.  And finally I want to give my deepest thanks to all those came out and who helped in any way yesterday at the Outpost.  We could not have done it without all of you.