OnTap Magazine

From The Editor I ’ve just returned from a month-long trip to the States and if I had to use one word to sum up my time there, I think it would have to be “big”. Not a great word I acknowledge; in fact, it’s the sort of lame word my high school English teacher warned us against using. So perhaps I should dip into a thesaurus and say that the portions of food are gigantic, the beer lists are enormous and the scale of the World Beer Cup is simply immense . While I was there, I had the great honour of judging in this year’sWorldBeer Cup.The bi-annual competition is often referred to as the “Olympics of Beer” and it is truly a global competition, with entrants hailing from 65 different countries. This year’s competition was the largest World Beer Cup to date attracting a whopping 8,215 entries (a 25% increase on 2016) from 2,510 participating breweries (a 32% increase on 2016). It also featured a record number of South African entries, with beers from Anvil Ale House, Cape Brewing Co., Darling Brew, Dissident Brewing Co., Mad Giant, Newlands Spring, Shields Indie Brewing Co. and Stellenbosch Brewing Co. I joined 294 other judges from 34 different countries who together picked bronze, silver and gold medallists in 101 different categories. The sheer scale of the competition was colossal and this was nowhere more evident than at the awards dinner, where thousands of brewers and beer experts congregated in a vast ballroom at Nashville’s Music City Center. Our miniscule South African contingent – just three out of the thousands – sat in anticipation of hearing one of our country’s eight entrants being called up to the stage, but sadly there were no medals for South Africa this year. We did however get a chance to cheer for the underdog when the team from True North Brewing, a family-run Massachusetts-based brewery whose team was seated at our table, won a gold medal for their Belgian blonde ale. Rather than leaping up and exchanging hugs and whoops and high fives, the three brewers sat, confused. “Did they just call our name?” asked founder Gary Rogers, flabbergasted. Turns out the brewery has been open all of four months and they only entered to get some expert feedback on their beers. It was a fine moment in a marvellous evening. Next time I truly hope we hear a South African name among the winners – now that would be huge . Rooting for the little guy in a big, big competition Cheers! Lucy Corne EDITOR @LucyCorne ontapmag.co.za | Winter 2018 | 1