Bob Vietzke displays his brew and his first place plate as “The Best of the Fest” home brew at the 2012 Orcas Island Cider and Mead Festival.
By Madie Murray
Known to most of us as just plain Bob, no one was probably more surprised than he was to hear his name announced as the first place winner of the Orcas Island Cider and Mead Festival Home Brew Competition with his 2002 Hard Apple Cider.
A 2011 apple and Asian pear blend cider from John and Susan Fleischer placed second and third with their sparkling apple/pear cider. All won beautiful hand made plates by Crow Valley Pottery. A total of ten home brew concoctions ranging from a lemon liqueur to tomato wine were submitted for the competition this year.
Judging the entries were three producers offering tastes under the Festival tent: Philippe Bishop of Alpenfire, Vince Carlson of Adytum, and Spencer Reilly who will be opening the first cider bar in Washington called Capitol Cider in Seattle. Each entry was identified only as a number so the judges would not be able to identify the brewer. Home brew competition emcee, Ron Gilleland, only described the ingredients to the judges as they sniffed, sipped and pondered the attributes of each entry.
“I hadn’t even tasted it,” Bob said when he claimed his prize. “I was afraid it would blow up when I opened it!” Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and the judges unanimously agreed his smooth and subtle hard apple cider that had survived in Bob’s cellar for 10 years was indeed “The Best of the Fest!”
Congratulations, Bob!
