It's certainly not every day that you get the chance to judge CAMRA's Champion Bottled Beer of Britain competition.  There was no extra snooze for me when my morning alarm went off today.  Like an excited schoolboy who wakes up and realises that it's the start of the summer holidays, I leapt out of bed with a big grin on my face.

Held at London Olympia the day before the doors open to GBBF 2013 (the CAMRA organised Great British Beer Festival), I was intrigued to discover what actually happens behind the closed doors of the Club Room where the judging was taking place.

Each beer that makes the final shortlist is put forward by CAMRA tasting panels across the country, and following earlier tastings, 18 beers were put forward into this years final.  Christine Cryne chaired the final panel of 9 individuals, including Roger Protz and Jeff Evans.

Set up as a blind tasting of beers labelled only by a letter, the judges scored each one individually on Appearance, Aroma, Taste and Aftertaste.  Would the judges agree?  Or would Christine have a tough job to control an unruly mob?!

This years selection of beers were excellent.  Excellent and rather strong, with 3 of the final beers being over 8%!  So the tastings began.  One beer admired, sniffed, quaffed and thought about.  Then discussion about what worked and what didn't for each of the judges.  Then cracker and water to cleanse the palette, and on to the next!

So many congratulations to Worthington's White Shield (5.6%), which won a very tight contest.  My personal preference was actually the beer in second place: St Austell's Proper Job (5.5%). On the day, these two stood out in a really great contest.

If you'd like to taste the finalists, Beer Hawk have pulled together a case that includes 15 of the 18 nominated beers: www.beerhawk.co.uk/cbbob