Friday fun #17

Another one of those, not quite the normal Friday fun but this definately happened on a Friday posts. Our various technical teams decided to hold a brew off and LAN party as part of our one up-man-ship series.

From the magic keyboard of Big JR: The beer brewing competition drew an eager crowd, keen to test the age old adage of being able to organise a particular activity in a brewery. And also to watch the faces our esteemed judges as they tasted the various potions on offer. Trevor took it all in his stride, using his poker face to good effect but Amy had more trouble concealing the really foul tasting ones as she spat out at least 4.

The beer tasting was scored with the following criteria:

1. Aroma - looking for bitter, sweet, salty or sour. Has it taken on the a malty sweet caramel-like quality or a more spicy, piney odour of the hops?  Does it smell good enough to drink?

2. Appearance - looking for colour, clarity and head retention. No particular colour is better than another but does it have charm and personality? Any beer should be able to form and hold a head, even if it is little and held briefly.

3. Taste - The result of aroma and taste is flavour. We are open minded about the range of tastes of homebrew beers but are looking for the way it feels in your mouth. Is it rubbery because the yeast stayed too long during fermentation or sour due to bacterial contamination. Is it pleasant to drink?

4. Aftertaste - this depends on personal preference and with 3 judges a balanced view will be formed. Is it dry, sweet, lingers or is gone quickly. The aftertaste will normally amplify the good and bad qualities of a beer.

5. And finally… to judge the tag line for your beer.

The joint winners romped in with 35 points:
Not London Pride - a “very professional presentation“, including capped, boxed and labelled bottles and Badly Behaved Babes “an excellent all round beer”

Other beer names and comments included: the predictable Brewers Droop being very bitter but not unpleasant, CSDM Crystal smelling like a car closed for a while, Swine Brew, Agarmeister tasting like vegemite. With the following two bringing up the rear: Alans Dashboard tasting like a flip-flop and Loopy Juice smelling like a combination of babies nappies and puke.

Once the beers had been judged those brave enough to drink the home brew ‘got on it’, while everyone else got involved with the LAN party, shooting and fragging away. It was welcome to all-comers with ‘bouncy castle rules’ in play (apparently…) of jump on, have fun, jump off, feel sick.

Is this enough evidence to suggest LBi can in fact organise some kind piss up in a brewery? Quite clearly yes based on previous parties, but perhaps not with its own home brew beer.

Following the official review, there was much banter back from our creative department who are always looking for a line to corrupt…

“with lots of people fagging each other” - Is that how you get a good froth?
“installation in the basement for a lunch time frag-fests”  …lost my appetite

Leading to an inquisitive:
And then swapped joysticks? Weird stuff going on in that basement.
Apparently some pervert had auto-fire switched on!

Further pictorial evidence can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigjonrussell/sets/72157621998853348/