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Some people just have rough lives. Like this guy, Tony Simmons, owner of the Pagosa Brewing Company in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. We mean, this poor guy—he owns a brewery, which means he is forced to make beer, and now he got invited to judge beer—again—at the Great American Beer Festival. How he keeps trucking along is beyond us. Seriously drinking beer as a living? Poor, poor guy. It is like being an accountant…if only numbers could get you drunk.
Okay, it is clearly difficult to feel sorry for Tony. He owns a successful brewery which has won numerous national awards and is well-known enough in the beer-making industry he gets asked to help judge hundreds of beers throughout the week of the Great American Beer Festival.
More goes into judging than one would first expect. Would you have the heart to tell a brewer their beer sucks? We didn’t think so. Tony took time between his fermenters to chat with us about the judging process during the beer-filled week. And, no, not one bone in our collective bodies feels sorry for this guy. Lucky bastard.
Do they give you a list of things to look for in each beer?
When we judge, we are going to judge an enormous amount of categories. Something to the effect of 120 different sub-styles of beer, and they give us parameters. A strike zone if you will, on how that beer should look like. What the color should be, what the flavor profile should be, and that is how we judge these beers—we judge them in flights of anywhere between five to 15 at a time.
Is it really hard for a beer to win?
To get a medal is really an amazing achievement—to get a gold medal is even more of an achievement; you have to be utterly flawless and within flawless you have to decide if it meets the character of that style. We’ll use an IPA as an example, which is a challenging category because everyone has their own interpretation of what hops should taste like. For instance, is it more of a citrus-y hop? Is it more of grapefruit-y hop? We’re really looking for a balance of those beers. Does the beer capture the sensation of what you interpret it to be? Then you have to get 18 people or more to agree with you [laughs].
Is it difficult for you to judge other breweries since you own Pagosa Brewing Company?
That’s a great question. You are only allowed to judge the categories you don’t enter. So for instance, let’s use an example, people say ‘stout’ there are six different kinds of stouts, so we’ll enter our oatmeal stout which got an award in another competition but I can probably judge other varieties of stout, like Imperial stouts which is a different kind of stout—instead of one being rich, creamy and smooth the way our oatmeal stout is, it is a big, bold and aggressive stout that is like up to 14 percent alcohol.
You can’t have a conflict of interest, they are very strict about that.
Are you already really familiar with the brewers that you’re going to judge? Have you tried a lot of their beer?
I would say that I am more familiar with the different styles of beer. So I know the difference between an IPA versus a pale ale. I know the difference between an American IPA over an English IPA. I have judged enough times in the past, I think this is probably my fourth or fifth GABF, and I have judged at the state fair and other events…in addition to going to a professional brewing school, where they train you in these styles.
Do people kind of try to schmooze you beforehand?
I wish they would schmooze me! But no, no it doesn’t work that way.
They haven’t offered you free beer for life or anything?
[Laughs] I actually think I already have that covered. We don’t know what beer we’re judging and I have a random judge number so they don’t even know it is me, Tony, that is judging their beer. They know that a judge, for instance No. 44, made a comment. But, there is like I said between four and eight other judges on your side of the table who has to decide who moves on and who doesn’t.
Does judging start on Friday, and when are the winners announced?
Judging starts on Tuesday morning, and we will do something like four flights a day for three days in a row.
So many people say that I am so lucky to be a judge because I get to drink beer all day, and it’s not like that. You drink very measured amounts, usually about an ounce or so, and you have to be really specific. I mean, we have an enormous responsibility to be able to provide feedback to these brewers. You can’t just say ‘this is lousy’ or ‘this is great’. You have to be able to explain why it is great, or why it is lousy. There is only about 150 in the whole country who do this.
How many breweries do you judge?
In a flight of between 10 and 15 beers, it depends, I mean IPAs are an enormous style—where some of the specialty categories aren’t so huge. You can be judging between 5 and 10 beers per flight. You can be doing 30 before lunch and 30 after and there are like pretty close to 100 of us. We will go through probably a few hundred beers before the end of the week.
Rough. Let’s switch gears from judging the GABF and talk a bit about your brewery, The Pagosa Brewing Company. Do you know which beers you’re going to be featuring?
Uh, actually I probably shouldn’t mention the beers I will be featuring, because people might actually recognize one of my beers, but we’ll do a big range of beer. You know, we’re going to have the IPA, ESP, new American wheat, our stout and we’re going to enter our Honeymoon Ale which is our most award-winning brew. It is made with honey and was originally brewed for our wedding and it has become hugely popular.
Have you won any awards at the GABF?
We have not won at the GABF. We have won at the North American Beer Awards and a lot of other competitions. I think for a brewery that is just three years old that we have gotten something like six national awards and five champion awards which is a real honor. We are real fortunate that people like our beers and customers like our beers.
Do you have a favorite beer saying that you would like to sign off on?
I am a real fan of unfiltered beers and I don’t just mean Hefeweizens. I mean that you go to your local brew pub and you get it on draft. I am all about fresh beer—I mean fresh beer to me, and unfiltered beer (one that is made well), is the best beer you can get.
