And in fact I have some happy news to share. I won the best of show at the annual Japan home brewing competition, the Wan Cup 2, for my Belgian style beer called "Nenmatsu Tripel" (nenmatsu means "year end", which is when I brewed it; tripel is style of Belgian beer).
This is the second time in three years for me to take out the top prize (Yokozuna) and while I am chuffed of course, I am also a little bit embarrassed about it for the following reasons.
1) I didn't really set out to brew a "champion" beer. I just brewed it to style and simply didn't make any mistakes. It is a pretty easy style driven by yeast character. The yeast was the winner, really. I didn't even have a competition in mind when I brewed it. I only entered it in the comp because it was on hand.
2) I made the same kind of beer a couple of years ago and didn't enter it in any competitions. Frankly, it was considerably better than this one (for subtle reasons that don't bear going into here).
3) I was a bit lucky. My other two beers entered didn't even get places.
4) Some of my brew buddies are demonstrably stronger brewers than me. They brew more often and consistently turn out better beers than mine. Sorry John (runner up) and Chris (probably the best brewer of all of us).
5) My main motivation for entering competitions is simply to promote the home brewing hobby. Competitions give people some motivation and bring a bit of attention for the hobby (we had 40+ people at the award ceremony for just 24 entrants, a number of whom couldn't be there). I support the organizers as much as possible and help with judging. My reward is a successful comp. It was totally out of the blue and embarrassing for my beer to pick up best of show. But there it is. I'm not giving it back :-D
Captions
The smile of a Yokozuna (Grand Champion in sumo)
Me getting a splash of Stone Double Arrogant Bastard Ale (that magnum is worth almost US$100 -- all place getters got a snifter of the stuff)
A toast to the brewing gods
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7 comments:
Great news! Congratulations. I wish I could sample it. You are putting your time away from running to good use.
pete
You are such a modest fella Stephen. I hope at least you allowed yourself a small jig, that is an old style dance, in the shower or some place else out of sight.
What's brewing on the running front? If you don't get back to it pretty soon you might stand a chance of entering the real ranks of the "Yokozuna."
Congratulations, you are doing us proud ;)
I'd toast your success with a schooner of Stone Double Arrogant Bastard Ale if you'd ship over a case or two.
That win is almost as embarrassing as the time you broke three hours running with a buggered achilles ;)
Speaking of which, that cortisone treatment my friend had was for the tendon which runs under the foot, not the achilles. A patch is stuck on near the injury, and one further up the leg and a current is run between the two. Apparently it spreads the cortisone more evenly across where the inflammation is, so better than a needle which is very local. It only takes 10 minutes and is also less painful than a needle.
Woohoo!!! Now I feel like a Stone Double Arrogant Bastard Ale or two.
Steve,
thanks the kind of news we want to read... ;-)
Your a winner, no matter in Marathon or beer brewing. I remember the bottle of home brew you brought to Ohtawara. Man, this was delicious...!
Keep it up and see you soon (next weekend to be precise)
cheers
Joachim
Did that beer taste anything like "malted sugar"?
Some scott reckons your blog is covered in cobwebs and brewer's yeast!
I urgently need a qualified assessment of some scott's latest youtubed pronunciation of Japanese.
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