Judging was held at the Klub Haus, a private banquet hall a few blocks north of the capitol building in St. Paul, MN. One nice feature about this venue that I haven't seen at other competitions is a separate room downstairs—so general chit-chat, war stories, etc. don't distract the judges.

Judges (and stewards, I think) received a commemorative pint glass printed with the logo for this year's event ("Five Years of Pour Decisions") when we signed in. When we turn in our competition evaluation forms, we'll get a 22-oz bottle of last year's Best of Show winner (not left over from last year; brewed for the event).

My first flight was at 1:00 PM, judging specialty ciders. My first entry to judge was a watermelon cider. Fortunately, it went uphill from there. :-)

The second flight, specialty beers, started at 5:00 PM. After judging herb, spice, and vegetable beers at the St. Louis Happy Holidays Homebrew Competition, I swore off of pumpkin spiced ales. However, one entrant here decided to enter a "roasted pumpkin, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger" (yes, twice) ale in the specialty beers category. Looks like I need to start listing this category as one I'd rather not judge....

The third flight (yes, three the first day, and there's more to come the second day) was Scottish lights, Irish reds, and Scotch strong ales. Finally, a category I can get into. :-)

Between flights and during dinner, various homebrews were available on tap; I tasted a very nice Pilsner, but the doppelbock ran out before I could get a sample. After the last flight of the night, the Minnesota Craft Brewers Association hosted a "virtual pub crawl": growlers from five area brewpubs and breweries. Unfortunately, by then I was just about falling asleep on the couch (very comfortable furniture in the waiting room, BTW).