Mazer Cup results here.

Squatchy · Mar 12, 2017

Got meaders did well this year at the cup. Several of us won cups. It was nice to meat you guys. Three of us were there and won and there were others that won that did not come. And it was very nice to meet others from here as well.

I know David Webb and Scott Schar won as well as myself. And a couple others who were not there and I didn't catch their names. Sorry about that.

Congrats to all.

Please tell our community what you won and what you learned being there as well.

It's very humbling to turn in a "best of show" from other competitions and only get a 36 for it at the cup. One of my friends last night at the awards ceremony showed me his score sheet on a mead he had won "BOS" with and only received a 36 at The Cup. That my friends is just how darn tough it is to win anything at The cup. It was very humbling to rub shoulders with the very best mazers in the world. And even more humbling to take home a cup myself after only being a mazer for a little over 2 years.

What we teach here works!!

EvolvingCaveman · Mar 12, 2017

Congratulations!!!!

Squatchy · Mar 12, 2017

EvolvingCaveman said:
Congratulations!!!!

Thank you.

Squatchy · Mar 12, 2017

The other names are

Jeffry Rothrock
Rick Sorenson
Warren Earl

There could be others as well. So please report in everyone.

Great job to all. Please step up and tell us a little bit please

bernardsmith · Mar 13, 2017

Congratulations to all the winners..

caduseus · Mar 13, 2017

Congrats to whomever won.
Can you guys let us know who won what and in what category?

I am both curious, would love to hear more, and want to congratulate you.

YogiBearMead726 · Mar 13, 2017

Jeff Rothrock, here. Long time underground, but I came out of hiding for this event. Was very excited about the AMMA Meeting/Mazer Cup combo, and decided to enter two meads and attend the conference. Sad I wasn't able to accept my mazer in person, but my wife and I had to leave Saturday morning. Still kind of reeling from the news, and can't wait to get score cards back to read the comments.

2nd Place in the M1A. Traditional - Dry Mead category for my Goldenrod Traditional. While not exactly the same, the batch that won was inspired by this one: Mead Log - Goldenrod Redmption Traditional. Main differences were OG and yeast. For the winning batch, I used Lalvin 58W3 for yeast and started closer to 1.110 for OG. Start date was late 2014 (sorry I can't be more precise, had a gap in my record-keeping then) and was racked twice. I pulled the mead for the competition from bulk, and still have ~2 gallons of it aging. I might go ahead and bottle it, but I'd want to see what the judges thought first.

Congrats to all the other winners, and a big thanks to everyone who helped to make these two events such a success this year!

caduseus · Mar 13, 2017

Congrats. Never used that yeast. I will have to research it.
Why goldenrod? Commmon in your area?

YogiBearMead726 · Mar 13, 2017

Not common here in the SF Bay Area at all. I actually bought some a long time ago (before I made mead) and really liked the character.
Once I started making mead, I wanted to buy a 60lbs bucket to play around with, and found Draper's Apiary in northern PA was one of the better sources for my purposes.

So really, using it for the recipe was more a matter of convenience, using what was on-hand at the time.

I will give you a word of warning: Goldenrod can vary greatly depending on where it's from and what else is flowing at the same time in the area it is harvested from. I've found the darker, more pungent versions can turn some people off, so definitely try some before committing to a bulk order.

Also be forewarned that Goldenrod loooooves to crystallize; every batch I've made since first buying the honey has required a lot of scooping with a heated ice-cream scoop...worth the effort, though, IMHO!

ANeedforMead · Mar 13, 2017

Thanks for sharing! I'm new to mead, but interested in the Mazer cup. How did you enter? BTW, my current favorite: Drinking Horn Traditional Mead. Anyone tried it?

Squatchy · Mar 13, 2017

YogiBearMead726 said:
Jeff Rothrock, here. Long time underground, but I came out of hiding for this event. Was very excited about the AMMA Meeting/Mazer Cup combo, and decided to enter two meads and attend the conference. Sad I wasn't able to accept my mazer in person, but my wife and I had to leave Saturday morning. Still kind of reeling from the news, and can't wait to get score cards back to read the comments.

2nd Place in the M1A. Traditional - Dry Mead category for my Goldenrod Traditional. While not exactly the same, the batch that won was inspired by this one: Mead Log - Goldenrod Redmption Traditional. Main differences were OG and yeast. For the winning batch, I used Lalvin 58W3 for yeast and started closer to 1.110 for OG. Start date was late 2014 (sorry I can't be more precise, had a gap in my record-keeping then) and was racked twice. I pulled the mead for the competition from bulk, and still have ~2 gallons of it aging. I might go ahead and bottle it, but I'd want to see what the judges thought first.

Congrats to all the other winners, and a big thanks to everyone who helped to make these two events such a success this year!

Awesome job Jeff. I doubt most people even have a clue how hard it is to medal at the cup. There are tons of world class mazers in the home brew division. It's scary how good the home brew section is. My first year (last) I thought once we finished up with the Professional category I would see a big drop in the quality. Man was I wrong. Any way. Congratulations on your win. That's an amazing feat!!! And thanks for touching base with us.

zpeckler · Mar 13, 2017

Congrats to everyone who came home with something shiny to put on their mantle!

I can't wait to get the judges' notes on my entities. This was the first competition I've entered, and I'm really curious what the pros thought of my stuff.

Squatchy · Mar 13, 2017

zpeckler said:
Congrats to everyone who came home with something shiny to put on their mantle!

I can't wait to get the judges' notes on my entities. This was the first competition I've entered, and I'm really curious what the pros thought of my stuff.

Awesome dude. Will you please come back after you get your score sheets and share with us what you learned from the judges comments. I might have scored one of yours. I hadn't thought of it at the time. That it could be yours. I don't know squat about bret and sours and lembics. And if it was a single category I would not take the assignment. I did have once come across my table that I did judge. Fortunately, my friend who was judging that flight with me is a world class brewer and has worked at Dog Fish head for 13 years. So I was able to ask him if some of what I was getting was of the nature of our entry or if it was off flavors and he was able to tell me. Our score on that one was fairly the same when we turned it in to the steward. I even told the maker I was not well versed at all with that style. We have to sign everything we score so you will know if it was me who scored one of yours. Looking forward to learn from your stuff bro!

zpeckler · Mar 14, 2017

Squatchy said:
Awesome dude. Will you please come back after you get your score sheets and share with us what you learned from the judges comments. I might have scored one of yours. I hadn't thought of it at the time. That it could be yours. I don't know squat about bret and sours and lembics. And if it was a single category I would not take the assignment. I did have once come across my table that I did judge. Fortunately, my friend who was judging that flight with me is a world class brewer and has worked at Dog Fish head for 13 years. So I was able to ask him if some of what I was getting was of the nature of our entry or if it was off flavors and he was able to tell me. Our score on that one was fairly the same when we turned it in to the steward. I even told the maker I was not well versed at all with that style. We have to sign everything we score so you will know if it was me who scored one of yours. Looking forward to learn from your stuff bro!

If you had a funky mead it definitely wasn't one of mine. The 4 entries I submitted are all regular Saccharomyces: two dry traditionals, my take on Oskaar's Mutiny On The Bounty cyser, and a saison session mead. My lambic meads are still all sitting in their carboys; none of them are where I want them to be a far as being ready for bottling. The early batches have an off-flavor that I think is DMS, and the later batches are still very immature. This polymicrobial shit is hard!

Squatchy · Mar 14, 2017

zpeckler said:
If you had a funky mead it definitely wasn't one of mine. The 4 entries I submitted are all regular Saccharomyces: two dry traditionals, my take on Oskaar's Mutiny On The Bounty cyser, and a saison session mead. My lambic meads are still all sitting in their carboys; none of them are where I want them to be a far as being ready for bottling. The early batches have an off-flavor that I think is DMS, and the later batches are still very immature. This polymicrobial shit is hard!

I bet it is very hard. With your education you seem like the perfect fit to figure it out. I doubt it will never really grab my attention. Just not really a fan. At least , not now. We don't need to know your scores if you don't want to share that. But other info would be cool. How fair do you think the assessment is. Did they find things in there you didn't. Will it help you to change your process or adds. ECT

58limited · Mar 15, 2017

Hi all.

This was my first Mazer Cup and I really enjoyed myself. Mazers are a very diverse and accepting crowd and I made many new friendships while there.

My Olallieberry Blast won gold in the Sweet Berry Mead category and my Szechuan Ginger won gold in the Spice/Herb/Vegetable Dry Mead category.

I hope to attend next year.

X-tian · Mar 15, 2017

58limited said:
Hi all.

This was my first Mazer Cup and I really enjoyed myself. Mazers are a very diverse and accepting crowd and I made many new friendships while there.

My Olallieberry Blast won gold in the Sweet Berry Mead category and my Szechuan Ginger won gold in the Spice/Herb/Vegetable Dry Mead category.

I hope to attend next year.

Congrats, 58limited!! Great job!! I hope to make my first visit next year and wish to have half your experience (mostly meeting amazing mazers and new friends)!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

jeffvenuti · Mar 19, 2017

YogiBearMead726 said:
Jeff Rothrock, here. Long time underground, but I came out of hiding for this event. Was very excited about the AMMA Meeting/Mazer Cup combo, and decided to enter two meads and attend the conference. Sad I wasn't able to accept my mazer in person, but my wife and I had to leave Saturday morning. Still kind of reeling from the news, and can't wait to get score cards back to read the comments.

2nd Place in the M1A. Traditional - Dry Mead category for my Goldenrod Traditional. While not exactly the same, the batch that won was inspired by this one: Mead Log - Goldenrod Redmption Traditional. Main differences were OG and yeast. For the winning batch, I used Lalvin 58W3 for yeast and started closer to 1.110 for OG. Start date was late 2014 (sorry I can't be more precise, had a gap in my record-keeping then) and was racked twice. I pulled the mead for the competition from bulk, and still have ~2 gallons of it aging. I might go ahead and bottle it, but I'd want to see what the judges thought first.

Congrats to all the other winners, and a big thanks to everyone who helped to make these two events such a success this year!

Nice work YogiBearMead! I also had an entry in Traditional Dry (M1A). Scored a 45, was pushed to the second round, but didn't place. So I know I must have been up against some pretty stiff competition in this category, like yours! I'm curious what you scored if you care to share? This was also my first Mazer Cup. First competition of any sort in fact after 12 years of making mead. Never crossed my mind before to enter anything and then recently I became very interested in knowing what others thought about my mead (not friends and family). I learned a ton. For instance, second round judging for a category has less to do with numbers and more to do with Overall Impression. Which ones stand out as exemplary among others, independent of score? At first I thought this was strange, but it makes sense to me now to have a way to distinguish a mead's technical merit (the numbers) from it's artistic merit. Often in the end they will be quite close, but in my case, and in many others I'm sure, though it rated technically very good, there was something missing in the end.

In many respects this trip was a huge calibration step for me. Comparing the quality of my meads to many others. Let's face it, most of us rarely have the opportunity to do that because we're just not surrounded by mead like we are with everything else. But what also stood out was the quality of the people, on both the commercial and home sides. Helpful, passionate, intelligent people, and I got to meet so many of them (Ryan and David in this thread so far). I will definitely be making another trip in 2018, and hope to meet more of you then.

Jeff

Squatchy · Mar 19, 2017

jeffvenuti said:
Nice work YogiBearMead! I also had an entry in Traditional Dry (M1A). Scored a 45, was pushed to the second round, but didn't place. So I know I must have been up against some pretty stiff competition in this category, like yours! I'm curious what you scored if you care to share? This was also my first Mazer Cup. First competition of any sort in fact after 12 years of making mead. Never crossed my mind before to enter anything and then recently I became very interested in knowing what others thought about my mead (not friends and family). I learned a ton. For instance, second round judging for a category has less to do with numbers and more to do with Overall Impression. Which ones stand out as exemplary among others, independent of score? At first I thought this was strange, but it makes sense to me now to have a way to distinguish a mead's technical merit (the numbers) from it's artistic merit. Often in the end they will be quite close, but in my case, and in many others I'm sure, though it rated technically very good, there was something missing in the end.

In many respects this trip was a huge calibration step for me. Comparing the quality of my meads to many others. Let's face it, most of us rarely have the opportunity to do that because we're just not surrounded by mead like we are with everything else. But what also stood out was the quality of the people, on both the commercial and home sides. Helpful, passionate, intelligent people, and I got to meet so many of them (Ryan and David in this thread so far). I will definitely be making another trip in 2018, and hope to meet more of you then.

Jeff

Great job Jeff with your entry

You said there must be something missing. I too have scored high 40's and come home with nothing. That is a fabulous score and places you up in that atmosphere with the best of the best. I hate it when I have a mead so good I cannot over some advice on what to do to make the mead better. That's usually the case when you get meads in the mid forties. It's not that something is missing. I think at that point it's just a matter of someone else just happen to hit on something in their batch that ended up being just a little bit more magical.

Sometimes it's not so hard to "push" a certain mead forward. Sometimes finding the "best of show" isn't too terribly hard either. Other times we end up arm wrestling each other and eventually come to a conclusion on which one get "pushed".

After the awards ceremony my friend, came and told me that the second place I won was one of those meads that the table had to wrestle with to determine what mead would go into the final round. Of course he didn't know itwas mine they were wrestling over. He told me he was the one who was trying to push forward the one that eventually went on to take first place. He said that finally happen after they wrestled for a very long and heated time.

He said he felt bad once he found out it was mine he overturned. I told hi "no worries". I wouldn't want someone to "work for me" anyway. I only want what my stuff could earn on it's own merit.

So don't feel too bad about not winning with a 40 something mead.. The Mazer Cup is the hardest comp in the world. And as you know know, there are tons of outstanding meads there each year in every category.

BTW It was nice to meat you and I'm sorry I didn't get to chat more with you. I had just found out I have cancer the day before the comp and was not at all very social and was trying to deal with that, and it was making me very sick physically from the emotion of it all.

jeffvenuti · Mar 20, 2017

Squatchy said:
Great job Jeff with your entry

So don't feel too bad about not winning with a 40 something mead.. The Mazer Cup is the hardest comp in the world. And as you know know, there are tons of outstanding meads there each year in every category.

BTW It was nice to meat you and I'm sorry I didn't get to chat more with you. I had just found out I have cancer the day before the comp and was not at all very social and was trying to deal with that, and it was making me very sick physically from the emotion of it all.

Don't get me wrong, I don't feel bad. I'm pretty happy with it actually. Just needed to make some sense of it having never competed in anything before. I also spent some time as a table steward at this comp so I got to see the judges in action. I think I mentioned to you at one of our social gatherings how fascinating I found this. Watching the deliberation, the negotiation, the arguments, the agreements. It was like a sport of sorts. Spectacular to see that side of a hobby that I intend to turn into something so much more someday.

Would have liked the chance to chat more with you too, but I get tired and anti-social too, without any health issues

There will be more of these in the future, for both of us, and they'll be even better having already broken the ice this year. I plan to participate at Mead Free or Die next month. Entries and volunteering. That's more out my way, NH, but if there's any chance of you, or anyone else here for that matter, making the trip then let me know!

Jeff

Mazer Cup results here.

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