r2eng

Recipes 

I just thought I would share my recent experience with homebrew contests. I recently did very well in a couple, and entered the same beers in several contest for comparison and to obtain a wide swath of input.

I have learned a lot. I thought that this may be a good place to share info with those who already enter comp's, or those who are thinking about it.

Imperial IPA:

NHC: scored 39.5, advanced to the second round - very good feedback. I can taste what the judges taste, and was happy with the score. This beer will be better next time.

Oregon homebrew contest: scored 24 - not to style, Diacetyl present, no hops or bitterness, smelled like rice: “too many flaws”.


My take: large difference in score and a tough category. I have found that it really depends on the order in which malt/hops combination in beer follow one another - for example, If I drink one IPA, then drink another (that I always love), the second beer can taste like crap.

Lesson to be learned: Take the bad with the good, and understand that there is luck involved. IPA and IIPA's are tough to judge a flight of. I think I may have suffered from following the wrong beer in OR, but may have been luckier in the order of beers during the NHC comp's.

Hope this helps others as much as it helped me.

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carnevoodoo

Recipes 

Is it possible that the one bottle had an infection? Diacetyl can be produced by a bottle infection, and it would also likely mute or kill the hop flavor and aroma.

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r2eng

Recipes 

It's always possible... but not probable. I am anal when it comes to sanitation, etc. I have also had others here on HBT taste it, and have finished all but 3 bottles from the batch with no issues.

IPA/IIPA's, I have found, are tricky when tasting many in a row. I have had times when commercial IPA/IIPA #1 is followed by IPA/IIPA #2, and #2 tastes bad: dump-it-down-the-drain bad! Others, who have not had the same #1 beer think #2 is awesome (with both beers being go-to beers).

A specific example is to have a Lagunitas Maximus, followed by a Port Hop-15. I love them both, but one after another causes gagging! It's a crime I avoid, now that I am aware of the law

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