Sheffield United U21 2 v Ipswich Town U21 0
Wednesday 22 October 2014
Twitter @ball_sup
Beer first, football at the bottom.
Here's my ruling. Blind tasting beers will have you questioning your sanity & doubting the integrity of your friends & loved ones.
It is a fundamentally deceitful practice. Steeped in folklore & wizardry. It must be stamped out. Great fun though.
My mate has a serious bit of homebrew kit in his shed. I've tasted his stuff over the years. In the Summer, I was at County Cricket with a group of people. I smuggled some bottles in & we tasted & rated 'em. My mate's homebrew was in the mix. We had a range of different styles & as supplier & pourer, I couldn't do them blind.
Anyway, Wild Beer Madness IPA won it. The homebrew was down the bottom. But it did beat Great Heck Yakima. And I had to question my sanity. Fair play. Rather than say "I'm just a homebrewer" "I can't compete with the Big Boys", he said "I'm not having that".
So, he set up a plan to beat Madness IPA. And, we blind tasted his Brew #1 vs Madness. And his won. No. No. No. Surely the randomisers (my wife & his wife) mixed them up. Otherwise I'm going insane.
Today we tasted his #1 & #2 vs five top of the range IPAs. Three tasters. Ratebeer scoring system. Double randomisation - my wife again & his two kids. I bought them, so I knew what was out there - but not the order we were drinking them.
Give me strength. Once my wife & his kids had decoded the blinds, his homebrew beers had come 2nd & 3rd behind Siren Soundwave. Surely, surely, they’d fixed it. I don’t trust anyone.
The scores (out of 60) were;
Siren Soundwave - 49 points
Homebrew #2 - 48 points
Homebrew #1 - 46 points
Wild Beer Madness IPA - 41 points
Buxton Axe Edge - 38 points
Oakham Green Devil - 33 points
Summer Wine Diablo - 26 points
You know, Soundwave only just beat the Homebrew. And there on the list is Wild Beer Madness IPA - my go to IPA. And there on the list is Oakham Green Devil - I’ve previously ruled that’s got the longest finish of any beer I’ve tasted. The randomisers must have got that wrong. STOP these blind tastings NOW - they’re tearing families apart.
The football. Good game up at Shirecliffe. Great to see Terry Kennedy up and running again. The main thing I couldn't get out of my head was they were set up with three at the back. Chris Morgan is manager. Three at the back. Did I really see that. I'm questioning my sanity again.
Kennedy, Banton & Sam Berry as the three. And Jordan Hendrie & Jason Paling putting in goal line to goal line shifts as the wing backs. Great shift fellas. To top it off, Jason Paling bagged the first goal with a lovely, composed, skilled & drilled finish. All the United players were lively. Good game.
