Zunitch Beer Convention

The origin of this tradition goes all the way back to when I first met "Brewmeister #1" Rob Matricardi. He had a party at his house and Dave Kalish and I brought a whole bunch of random beers from the import section from my cousin's beer and soda distributor, where he and I were working at the time. We sat around with shot glasses tasting samples of each beer and judging them.
For most of the years after that, we've done it every New Years, usually shortly after midnight. The few other years that we didn't do it have honorary winners (usually what was the big drink for all of us that year). Further, in recent years, it has become known to us that certain winners can no longer be found in the United States (or at least in our area of New York). Royal Brand is an example of one of these. To compensate, recent years have also sometimes produced a 1st runner up and/or an honable mention.

There have been as few as Three and a half (Gary Waldinger kept showing up, sampling a few, and disappearing again.) Judges in any one year, and as many as [approximately] 20. Beers are judged in the condition you as a consumer are most likely to receive them. There is no consideration for the freshness dates because lets face it, if it doesn't sell; it sits (with the possible exception of Anheiser/Bush products). We do however, try to get the freshest and most well taken care of beer. We try whenever possible not to take any beer from the fluorescent lit refrigerators at the stores. And we try not to let the temperature change rapidly or to extremes.

All beers are sampled chilled and with cheese and crackers to kill the palette. If we care, most of the time the glasses are rinsed out after each new beer. To qualify, a beer must not be a primary product of a macro brewery, and preferably must not be from any previous convention. Winners are retired until the 10-year taste-offs. Qualifying entrants are completely at the discretion of the Head Brewmeister (myself), whoever takes on the role of brewmeister (host) for that year, and the person who brought the beer in question. Beer buyers must make their intention to buy entrants before arriving at the party with them. This is to keep the number of entries below thirty in any given year. (Trust me, after 30 they all taste the same, no one cares, and it gets boring).

At the start the brewmeister arranges the beer in any order he desires, with one or two hopefuls or more expensive beers towards the end (because its more fun that way.) Drinking and commenting usually then takes place all at once so no one can really influence anyone. Majority rules and the beer is placed in "yes", "maybe", and "no fraggin' way" categories. When all have been tried, a taste off is called for all in the "yes" category, as well as one or two called from the "maybe" section that people feel need a second chance. Now at this point, there's usually not too much of any beer left so if it was a large judging panel, it is now reduced to a few (most people want to stop now anyway). They are the ones who then determine the overall winner and runners up.

Head Brewmeister Peter Zunitch (multiple years)
Brewmeister #1 Rob Matricardi
Brewmeister #2 Dave Kalish
Brewmeister #3 Matt Gherling
Brewmeister #4 John Mongelli
Brewmeister #5 Rich Burlew
Brewmeister #6 Rich Shrank (Patrick Browne co-meister)
Brewmeister #7 Gary Waldinger
Brewmeister #8 Danielle Wazzername

The Zunitch

Annual New Years

Beer Tasting Convention