Should I enter this competition?

timothymwilson · 08-10-2011, 07:19 PM

Okay, so let's say for the sake of argument that I have brewed a batch of the best IPA I have ever had in my life. It's big (sorry, BIG) bodied, perfectly hopped with great color and aromas. Just my luck, there is a local home brewing competition that I am sure this beer will do well in. The winner will have their beer commercially produced by one of our local microbreweries (we have a lot of them where I live) and sold on tap at a local tap house and in bottles at the local wine, beer and cheese shop. This all sounds great and I feel my chances are good...the only problem I can see is that my beer is an extract brew.

I am an all-grain brewer on any normal day but about 2 months ago I found myself with some spare time and about $50 kickin' around and thought "well I don't have time to brew anything from scratch but I suppose an extract won't kill me."

With that all said, my questions are as follows:

Should I enter an extract brew into a competition?
Could a brewery replicate what was developed from extract with an all grain alternative (assuming I won of course)?
Does anyone want this recipe? (I love to share a good thing)

**bferullo** · 08-10-2011, 07:26 PM

I would check with the brewery first. A few breweries by me do a similar competition, but they only will accept AG recipes. This I believe has mostly to do with cost. Before making it up, I would check.

kh54s10 · 08-10-2011, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by timothymwilson

Could a brewery replicate what was developed from extract with an all grain alternative (assuming I won of course)?

I would think that would pose a big problem:
What exactly went into the extract?
How would the brewery duplicate the procedure in what I assume would be an AG situation?

**steinsato** · 08-10-2011, 07:54 PM

As far as I know there are quite a few micro breweries across the nation that use extract for all their beers. Are you sure the "local brewery" you are dealing with is all grain?

timothymwilson · 08-10-2011, 08:35 PM

- All great questions here. I will answer a couple real quick.

First, I am not sure if the brewery is one that brews with extracts or not. Like I said before I am an AG brewer and love the labor, this particular brew of mine was mostly an accident from a brainstorm at my HBS. If anyone is interested in the brewery, it is the Penobscot Bay Brewery/Winery in Winterport, ME.

- As far as what went into the beer for extract...scratch that. Here is exactly what I used.

9lbs Briess light DME
1.75 lbs Crystal Malt 10L
2oz Warrior Hops
1oz Amarillo Hops
10z Chinook Hops

OG - 1.072
FG - 1.014

I boiled for an hour with this particular brew. I am sure others may mix it up if they try this recipe. Feel free to try the continuous hop thingy. I don't have the time for that, I just hopped once every 5 min until the end of the boil.

I also used another 2 oz of Amarillo and Chinook to dry hop for 10 days in secondary.

For yeast, I maintain a culture in my basement that originated from safale 04 and 05 yeast strains. They always seem to do well, for this I used the 05 strain.

- As far as the question relating to the replication, I would imagine that someone could come close, given that most extracts (plain unhopped) are derived from either 2 or 6 row malts. I would think that a little math could determine how much would be needed to fit the grain bill and then add the crystal malt.

timothymwilson · 08-10-2011, 08:38 PM

One last thing, if anyone found their site...notice that they don't have an IPA. IT IS TIME!

kh54s10 · 08-10-2011, 08:51 PM

I was thinking of the LME or in your case the DME. What goes into them? If you can enter it, and the Penobscot Bay Brewery can/will try to duplicate it, the whole idea seems fascinating. Explore the entry and GOOD LUCK.

brooklynbrews · 08-11-2011, 05:47 PM

Had one of their beers a few weeks ago when I was up in the area, Whig Street Blonde. Nice beer! Good luck if you do end up entering the competition.

**the_bird** · 08-11-2011, 05:51 PM

Keep in mind, they're going to have to tweak whatever the winning recipe is, even if it is an AG recipe, just to match the particulars of their system. And, converting from extract to base grain isn't that big a deal.

Go ahead and enter it without thinking twice.

3sheetsEMJ · 12-28-2011, 05:10 PM

I know this is an old post, but what was the resolution?

Also, as i read I noticed no one said anything about the type of yeast used, which gives beer most of its flavor. The question of whether or not they would accept extract conpared to AG is relavent, however thats more of an issue of fermentables rather than taste character and body, the real question is would you be able to provide that same yeast strain for commercial availability?