Thoughts from a local beer competition

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Lodovico

Lodovico

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I attended a local beer competition this past weekend and it was a fun experience, but also a real eye opener.

I came away feeling pretty awesome about my beers! I couldn't believe how bad some of the beers were at this thing. I mean it was a small competition, probably 20 brewers or so, but man there were some styles I couldn't even finish a free sample of.

Some beers that were so out of style, that it was kind of a joke. It was only $10 and you got to keep a pretty cool little glass, but I was hoping for some really good beer.

I would love to actually enter it next year but it seemed like all of the winners had some sort of connection to the venue. When they announced the winners, they had a back story for each one and seemed to know them all personally.

Just sharing.:mug:
 
Well, the reason they all seemed to know each other is because homebrewing really is a "small world". Many of us like to talk beer all the time, so we join homebrewing clubs and we generally know about other clubs near our area. Also, some people are very much into competitions and enter many of their beers in them so that they are kind of "known" in an area.

Don't be intimidated by that at all! Homebrewers are a friendly and helpful group, and you can get support from others just like here on the forum.

You can also enter many other competitions, by sending in your entries. One big one is coming up- the AHA's national competition. You get a chance to get back some great criticism on your scoresheet as well as advance to the nationals. They have pretty nice ribbons, too!

Here's a link with the national competition: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/competitions/national-homebrew-competition/participate

Here's a link to the rest: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/competitions/aha-bjcp-sanctioned-competition/calendar
 
Is there a listing I can find of small competitions? I have never competed and would love to do so!
 
YooperBrew said:
Well, the reason they all seemed to know each other is because homebrewing really is a "small world". Many of us like to talk beer all the time, so we join homebrewing clubs and we generally know about other clubs near our area. Also, some people are very much into competitions and enter many of their beers in them so that they are kind of "known" in an area.

Don't be intimidated by that at all! Homebrewers are a friendly and helpful group, and you can get support from others just like here on the forum.

You can also enter many other competitions, by sending in your entries. One big one is coming up- the AHA's national competition. You get a chance to get back some great criticism on your scoresheet as well as advance to the nationals. They have pretty nice ribbons, too!

Here's a link with the national competition: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/competitions/national-homebrew-competition/participate

Here's a link to the rest: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/competitions/aha-bjcp-sanctioned-competition/calendar
Click to expand...

Yeah, I understand what you're saying and I've been sending my beers into competitions. I'm not intimidated by that, it just seemed like the beers that a lot of people were buzzing about, didn't win anything and it was too bad.

There was an American Pale Ale there that everyone was raving about and this guy was from out of town and didn't medal at all. I feel like he kind of got robbed because a few of the beers that won were no where near as good as this guy's beer.

Myself and others felt it was pretty political but I'm guessing that's not uncommon either. Oh well, it was still a good time.:mug:
 
Sometimes good isn't in style. The first competition I judged, the best beer of the flight got the second lowest score. A great Mild, entered as a Special Bitter.
 
Lodovico, Your from PA right? Why don't you enter your beer in the TRASH 20 Competition. See how your beer compares to some of the locals in Pittsburgh. Last year I think they had 190 entries, They give great feedback on your beers and the medals are nice. I don't know if the competition is posted yet, but I think it's in mid June or July. I'll be entering some of my Belgian Beers this year.
 
This sounds like a competition that is different from most homebrewing competions based on:

Your claim that the judging was not fair (which I assume means it was not blind).
The fact that there were people who were not judging standing around drinking the beer, which implies that there was a lot of each beer.
 

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