Meadlinium III
Robert Riley
Orlando, FL Jan 29 - A black currant melomel took best of show honors at Meadlinium III, a mead only competition hosted by the Central Florida Homebrewers, where all mead subcatagory's in the BJCP/AHA unified mead category 25 were judged.
The Hogtowne Brewers were well represented by sending three capable BJCP judges, Ray Badowski, Mark Tumarkin, and Robert Riley, to help evaluate the nearly 50 entries. Mark had the pleasure of judging the fruited melomels, which forwarded the best of show winner. "Black currant is a tough fruit to pull off," said Mark about the BOS winner, "but this one was very nicely done and perfectly balanced."
An innovative smoked braggot provoked much interest and debate among the BOS judges and eventually was awarded 2nd place. A traditional mead won 3rd place, which was nearly flawless save the fact that it was neither completely still, nor fully sparkling. However it was strong enough to edge out a Black Chilean pyment which was faulted for a lack of complexity due to the use of table grapes instead of wine grapes.
Ray and Robert grappled with the daunting challenge of judging the biggest flight of the day, a group of 11 traditional meads. "This is terrible!" quipped Ray with a wink of the eye as he settled into a large comfy chair as the afternoon flight began. Both R's were very impressed with the 3rd place BOS winner which they awarded a combined average score of 43.5.
Meadlinium was held at the home of Stephen De LaSalla in Winter Park which provided a relaxed informal setting for judging. You couldn't walk into a room without finding a judge holding a glass of mead in one hand and a scoresheet in the other, each happily going about the business of evaluating what mead aficionados love to call the "nectar of the gods". And just when it seemed like there would be a dull moment the neighbors livened things up with a large display of fireworks.
The event is gaining in popularity and Competition Organizer Ron Bach is hoping to enhance publicity next year and slowly build Meadlinium into a large, prestigous, nationally recognized event on par with that of the Sunshine Challenge. Ron was grateful to have the out-of-town judging help and invites all Hogtowne Brewers affiliated judges to return for the Challenge in May.