Schmidlin, Catanzaro and Monteiro faced a barrage of heady questions about their beerdrinking philosophies and the deep details on beer and its various styles, history, origins and more.

Schmidlin gained points in the “bribing of the judges” segment of the finals. A self-proclaimed “yeast dork,” he provided the judges with samples of a yeast strain he isolated and cultivated from a bottle of Rogue Chocolate Stout. (A former mechanical engineer and computer programmer, Schmidlin has returned to college to study yeast and pursue a doctorate degree in biochemistry.)

He also wooed the judges with a vertical tasting of three vintages of Dogfish Head Brewing’s Worldwide Stout.

In the competition’s beer whispering segment (in which contestants hold a conversation with a beer of their choice) Schmidlin drew big laughs from the judges and the audience with his conversation with a can of Milwaukee’s Best.