Entered a beer at the County Fair
 

I've been brewing for about three years, made some good beer, and a couple great beers and one really crappy beer that I can't drink and I can't seem to bring myself to pour out.

Anyway, I made a beer, Huckleberry Kolsh that I feel turned out this time. This is my second try with huckleberries, I fixed a lot of the issues I had with the first batch. The huckleberry flavor is light, the color is light purple and it smells good, bright white head. No wine flavors like I had in the first try.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66163329@N05/6026568132/in/photostream

I don't know what to expect. How do they judge a beer?

Did you enter it as a Kolsch or a Fruit beer? The style it is entered under can make a world of difference. They will judge based on the BJCP guidelines (unless otherwise stated) and the fruit is out of style for a Kolsch.

I entered it as a fruit beer. If I had entered it as a Kolsh, some poor judge might have a heart attack and call Germany on me :D

http://www.spokanecounty.org/Fair/SIF/data/pdf/Competitions/beer11.pdf

I'm super excited, I don't know what to expect at all. I plan on going to the fair the first day to see how it fares.

This gives me a good idea...

I'll be entering my Hellfire Porter and Succubus Dunkelweizen this year, along with some of my LPR Apfelwien (depending on how this current recipe turns out). I might try to squeeze in one more beer, but I doubt I'd have enough time.

I wish you luck with this beer. Be sure to post your scores when you get them.

Thanks! I will post up what the beer scores. I should know by the 9th of September. Paper work had to be in by today, and beers dropped off at the LHBS on the 23rd - 25th of August.

I also entered my state fair. I've been brewing beer for under 6 months. I entered a Raspberry Kolsch and a Honey Pilsner Ale. I turn them in tomorrow and I am planning on attending the awards ceremony on Sunday. I hope I get my score sheets back then too.

Good luck on your brews, competitions are a good tool to improve your brewing skills. You typically get great feedback but depends on the caliber of judges at the competition. I would suggest entering them in a number of contests to get a fair judgement of the brew.

I wish I could do that, but competitions seem to be few and far between here in AZ.

There's two big ones a year here. The Great Arizona homebrew comp in March, and the Arizona Society of Homebrewer's Oktoberfest comp in October/Novemeber(which is coming up).

There is also a Coconino county competition in September. I believe entries are due for that one within the next couple weeks.

Also look for competitions in California and Colorado. Both have really big brewing communities, and generally have big competitions with quality judging. I just recently shipped two beers off to the Gnarly Barley festival in CO. I think there were like 250 entries or so in that comp. (It costs around $5-10 to UPS a few bottles to CO or CA)