Backbencher Beer of the Year

Traditionally, the final Cellar Vate beer tasting of the year is a "best of the best" competition where the top beers from the preceding tastings are pitted against each other. This year, nine beers were tasted. Each beer had been voted first or second at the nine tasting during 2007. The full report - and results - is here.

In the course of a long, highly entertaining report of his trip to Auckland, Will from GoNZo Freakpower blog ends up judging a - how do I put this legally? - horticultural event on a boat. This is the paragraph which caught my eye:

About a dozen entries and there's three outstanding ones. One bud, big as your fist, sits there begging to be scratched and sniffed. I feel like Neil Miller at the Beer Festival, or Jules at Toast Martinborough.