Judging ends

I rise at 7:30 and eat some fruit in an attempt to not puke up this morning.

I breakfast with Thomas. It’s the usual: scrambled egg and cheese, followed by fruit. It’s a bit of a rush as I was quite late getting down.

My judging companions are both Brazilian:

Julio Rangel de Freitas Barbosa. (With whom I’ve judged with him before.)
Felipe Baptista.

We commence with Dutch-style Koyt. 4 examples. Two quite bland, one sour other has DMS.

English Pale Mild. 2 examples. One gets a bronze. The other had off flavours.

Historical beer. 9 examples. 3 Lichtenhainer, 3 Rothbier, 1 Bernadynskie, Russian Stout, Doppelsticke, Sahti.

I take the Sahti over to Thomas for him to try. As, being Finnish, he understands the style far better than me.

The Russian Stout says that it’s inspired by Kernel 1856 Imperial Stout. I know that beer. It’s a recreation of Barclay Perkins IBSt. Not my recipe, but one from the Durden Park Beer Circle. As I have my spreadsheets on my laptop, I can look up what the grist should be.

“It should have a really high percentage of roasted malts – something like 38% in total.”

Does this beer have that much? Probably not. Though it does just say “inspired by”. I’m not going to hold a lack of roast against the beer.

Wee Heavy mini-BOS. 11 examples. Some pretty good ones, others are too sweet. As in, really fucking sweet.

Old Ale mini-BOS. 10 examples. Not a bad set. Including one of my favourite beers so far. Which gets a gold.

While we’re judging Doug drops by and asks me to stay for the BOS. Damn. I’d hoped to disappear before he asked. There’s a fair bit of a wait before things kick off. What a surprise.

I go and have a quick look at the barbecue outside. It looks dead impressive. Two long lines of wood are laid out on the ground with lumps of meat hanging between them. My mouth is watering already. I send a photo of it to the kids. Just to annoy them.

I’m on a mini-BOS table with Alex Barlow and Eduardo Pelizzon. Which is a good combination. We get 14 beers, all English styles. The process is thankfully painless. One beer comes out a clear winner, being my favourite and the second favourite of the other two.

And then I’m free, as I’m not on the final BOS panel. I head back outside and chat to Chris while watching the meat roast. Then it starts to rain. A little at first, then becoming more tropical. So heavy that they erect a roof over the barbecue. It’s very high tech: just sheets of corrugated iron.

When the rain gets really bad, we all tip inside. Where they’re hacking apart big chunks of meat. I get some beef and some pork. The beef is a bit chewy, but the pork is yummy. Especially the crackling. There’s not much else on offer, other than meat, save for bits of lettuce and potato salad.

After eating, me and Chris go to see if a bus will be leaving for the hotel. It seems not. Doug tells Chris that the buses will leave at 20:00 and 22:00. It’s currently 18:45. We decide to get an Uber back to the hotel, then drop by E-10. As neither of us has used the 15 real voucher we were given for it.

When we get to E-10, they’re doing maintenance. Chris complains to the spectacularly bearded owner that he hasn’t had chance to use his voucher. So the owner orders an Uber for us and gives Chris 15 reals to pay for it, as the driver only takes cash.

We’re headed for Bier Vila, where some other judges will be. Soon we’re sitting at a table with a bunch of South Americans: Nicolas (Argentina), Jary and Claudia (Uruguay), a bloke from Paraguay and Marcus from Germany.

“I need something to get my dinner down. Let’s get a cachaça.” Chris suggests.

I don’t need asking twice. But I also get a Das Bier Morango e Maracuja, a Catharina Sour, to accompany it. The cachaça is from Xanadu, so it’s pretty good. As is the passion fruit Catharina sour.

The talk turns to football, which is pretty entertaining. Especially when Maradonna and David Beckham become topics. But it’s all very good natured.

“We don’t hate the Brits in Argentina.” Nicolas tells me. Good to know as I plan going there sometime soon.

At 21:50 me and Chris head to the liqueur shop around the corner that we saw on the way in. It closes at 22:00.

The nice young lady serving there gives us various ones to try. Most are far too sweet for me. But a mandarin one – made with only the peel – is really tasty and not too sweet. I get a bottle.

We have one more cachaça. And leave it at that as we’re both knacked. Soon we’re in an Uber and hotel bound.

Back in my room, I sip on Ypioca while watching Match of the Day from Saturday on my flipflap. No need to rush to bed today, there not being an early start tomorrow. I’ll be meeting Chris at 9:30 for breakfast, before he heads off to Florianopolis.

That spirit, whatever it is, eases me down the road to the blessed oblivion of sleep.




Choperia Bier Vila
R. Alberto Stein, 199
Sala 100
Velha, Blumenau
SC, 89036-900.
https://www.biervila.com.br/