I'll add my tuppen'orth to this as I believe Ali is still short a few stewards.
Basically the day is hard work but very rewarding. On the work side, you are ferrying beers, cups, water, stationery and crackers to a table of judges for two roughly 1.5-2 hour sessions in the morning and afternoon. You're on your feet nearly all this time, but that's it; once your two sessions are over, you can get onto a different kind of
session.
On the plus side:
1. You are in a room with some
TOP pro-brewers (John Keeling, Fullers; Evin, The Kernel; Justin Hawke, Moor Beer to name but three). I found those I spoke to last year to be decent, interesting blokes who are more than happy to geek out over beer and answer (what I thought were) my obvious and boring questions. John Keeling in particular is a really nice fellow and very down to earth, who despite his enormous technical knowledge is happy to shoot the breeze about brewing with the likes of me. You also get to see how the pro's evaluate beers - good insight! There will also be well known beer writers and bloggers and the like.
2. You are in a room with 30-40 like minded homebrewers/beer geeks. You can chat equipment, recipes, techniques etc to your absolute heart's content!
3. You
WILL taste at least 50 beers - from the sublime to the ridiculous. You get to try any beer that is being judged on your designated table; a great way to get a handle on how people are approaching certain styles. You will also notice the occasional buzz in the room when a truly awesome beer has been opened. The one that sticks in the memory from last year was the eventual Best of Show, a Vanilla Milk Stout by Tom D: When the stewards at that judging table tried it, it soon got passed round the rest of us (I'll admit that I wasn't that much of a fan - too niche I thought, silly me...
) and I am really glad I know what the best beer at the comp tasted like.
4. You will be well fed. No crappy sandwiches this year - trust me, I know.
5. You get a very good handle on how these comps work, and what impresses judges. So if you like competing, you are gaining valuable info and increasing your chances of having an inflated head the following year.
6. It's a laugh. You can drink as much as you want/can, and this year there will be the social side (lots more beer), stalls full of shiny kit and a bbq throughout the afternoon - hot wings roulette anyone?!!
In short, well worth doing!
).