Good balance always equals good beer
Calum Jamieson is a true believer in the saying: ‘‘Good things take time’’.
On February 9-10, Calum will return for his second stint as an associate judge at the 2017 New World Beer & Cider Awards.
The New World Morrinsville store manager is one of five Associate Judges selected from New World stores around the country.
Calum will sit alongside an 18-strong judging panel of commercial brewers, sensory analysts and hop experts.
Together they will sniff, swirl, and sip over 2500 glasses of beer and cider across 12 categories to decide the very best brews in this year’s competition.
Held to international standards in Wellington, the panel will blind-taste each entry to determine which brews stand out from the crowd in technical excellence, balance, mouthfeel, and most importantly, drinkability.
With a background in vineyards and restaurants, Calum has developed his palate through years of wine tastings before taking a greater interest in the beer industry.
He was humbled by his experience at the awards last year, sitting alongside some of the country’s most respected beer experts.
This year he is hoping to build on that knowledge so he can recommend the very best beer and cider to his customers in the Morrinsville community.
‘‘Like most Kiwi lads, beer was part of rugby and university, but certainly not Craft. My first appreciation of Craft beer was trying an Emerson’s Pilsner back in about 2002,’’ he said
‘‘It was amazing, clean and crisp like all decent lagers/ pilsners but it had a whole next level of stone fruit, pip fruit and even a confectionary character that sat with me until the revolution of the last four or five years.’’
Calum said judging wine, beer and cider is like cooking, it is a balance between being true to its category, while being a bit special or different.
‘‘You think do I like it, would others like it and in what situation would it be at its best,’’ he said.
‘‘This is a industry that mixes Science and Art, with neither being more important or better than the other.’’