California State Fair

Congratulations to Tom Altenbach who won two ribbons at the California State Fair in August --- a second place in Strong Ale (barleywine) and a third in Bock (dopplebock).

New for this year was a separate competition for commercial beers brewed in CA. Tom judged in two homebrew flights, and the commercial Bock category. Judges included homebrewers, BJCP judges, and commercial microbrewers. The judges Tom talked to thought in general that the quality of the homebrews was superior to the commercial beers judged. That was also Tom’s experience, and he greatly preferred his Tom's Terminator to any of the commercial bocks he judged, most of which were poor examples of the style.

Tom’s AHA 1995 National Homebrew Competition gold medal recipe for chili beer, in the herb category, can be found in the 1995 special issue of Zymurgy, Vol. 18, No. 4, Pg. 123.