Homebrew on the WEB 2012

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Mills

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Were gearing up for the 2012 Homebrew at the W.E.B. Homebrew Competition, and once again were going to be in need of lots of judges and stewards, as well as entries.

In less than five years this competition has grown from a 200 entry competition to one of the largest and most respected Beer Competitions in the country. Last year nearly 900 beers were judged by some of the best judges around, and this year we expect to break the 1000 mark. Thats why we need you!!

This years Homebrew at the W.E.B. (World Expo of Beers) competition judging will be held the weekend of March 2-4th 2012 at Sullivans Black Forest Brewhaus in Frankenmuth Michigan . Were looking at two flights Friday (2:00-4:00p.m. and 5:00-7:00p.m.) Two Flights Saturday (9:00a.m.-12:00p.m. and 1:00-4:00p.m.) and a morning flight Sunday followed by the award ceremony Sunday afternoon.

Were very proud to announce that the special guest speaker/judge this year will be John Palmer (How to Brew, Brewing Classic Styles, Brewing Network)
coming all the way from California!. John will be doing a presentation Saturday evening as well as judging your beer. Grand Master Level V Gordon Strong will also be judging!

Hotel discounts will be available at the Frankenmuth Motel (within walking distance) Costs are - Friday night -$69.00, Saturday night- $84.00.
As always we will provide hot meals for judges and prizes to be given away throughout the weekend.

Stipends will be available on special circumstances to judges traveling long distances to spend the weekend with us.

Not to be forgotten, we will once again be giving away the biggest baddest prizes!!!!!-------------------------
-$1000.00 Best of Show Beer prize!!!!!
-$500.00 Mead/Cider Best of Show!!!! Holy $h*% is right!!!!! tell your friends!!!
-And lots of other valuable prizes for those lucky enough to medal.
-Best of show beer and multiple other gold medal winning beers will be picked to brew at multiple breweries around the state , and possibly sent on to next years Great American Bee Festival,
more detailed information will be coming soon including drop off points and a formal call for judges.
please forward this to your fellow Homebrew Friends, Respective club members etc..

Thanks! hope to see you there!!!!
REGISTER TO JUDGE OR STEWARD HERE

http://www.beerstofear.com/comphost/index.php?task=
 
I couldnt make it there for the results/award ceremony. Anybody know when they are going to post the results.
 
IIRC, last year they were posted on the website the evening of the Monday following the judging.
 
I've entered a few and been watching too. It's my first comp too and can't wait for some honest feedback.
 
If it's anything like last year, Phil Sullivan will be taking home his share of medals.

Oh yeah, you can bet on a bunch of Phill Sullivan medals. That guy must brew about 6 days a week, he usually has 20+ entries in every competition. I don't think I've ever had more than 8-10 different beers on hand at any given time, and I brew pretty much every week. That guy is an absolute machine.
 
Patience is not my strong suit - I've checked the website probably 10 times already today hoping to see the results posted.
 
Just got my judging sheets back. This was my first all-grain batch and first competition.

My vienna lager got 42 from one judge and 38 from the other. So a 40 total.

Sadly thats not enough to place, but I got great feedback.

Ill try to post the sheets later.

Im looking forward to them posting the final results, it would be nice to know where I ranked in relation to others.
 
The email said they had alot of entries, and were going to try and get all the sheets mail out by thursday.
 
I got my sheets emailed to me back last night.

My Citra Pale Ale scored a 36 and a 33, so a 34.5 overall. I'm happy with it considering it's only my 3rd batch ever and the first time I've sent something into a competition. :)

For those still waiting, the email included this:
Thanks for entering our competition - our event would not be what it is without participation from people like yourself. Attatched are your scoresheets. If you know anybody else that entered let them know our goal is to have all the sheets emailed by thursday.

Sounds like they're working on getting everything sent out this week.
 
Got mine emailed to me this morning as well, my Sierra Nevada pale ale clone scored 34 and 30, so 32 overall. Its nice getting some feedback from a certified judge instead of people just saying "its good". Weird that one judge thought the hop flavor "enjoyable" while the other thought it "odd and off putting"
 
I got some differing feedback on mine also.

One said "Tall dense quickly fading head" the other said "Nice head! good retention and color.

Im not sure how these things work, if both judges pour from the same bottle or not. I guess I could see them maybe getting different results from different bottles.
 
I still have gotten no word. If they are emailing them out, why would it take until Thursday? Plus, why don't they at least post a list of the winners first? They could have done that right away and then start sending out individual score sheets. Like I said, patience is not my strong suit.
 
I got some differing feedback on mine also.

One said "Tall dense quickly fading head" the other said "Nice head! good retention and color.

Im not sure how these things work, if both judges pour from the same bottle or not. I guess I could see them maybe getting different results from different bottles.

I'm also curious as to how they pour for the judgings, because head formation has a lot to do with the pour. No matter how good the carbonation is, if you pour quietly enough there is not going to be much head. Also, I wonder if they pour each bottle into a pitcher or something first and then pour to the taster glasses. I would think so, but I have seen a lot of photos of judgings where they seem to be pouring right from the bottle to a taster glass - but if the beer is bottle conditioned, wouldn't every glass after the first pour have more and more sediment in it and affect the clarity and taste?
 
I still have gotten no word. If they are emailing them out, why would it take until Thursday? - it's not like it takes a long time to send email. Plus, why don't they at least post a list of the winners first? They could have done that right away and then start sending out individual score sheets. Like I said, patience is not my strong suit.

No scores for me yet either. There was a post to their website earlier today,

"Results for 2012 Homebrew @ the W.E.B. Mar 05 2012, 11:25 AM

Results for the 2012 Homebrew @ the W.E.B. will be posted as soon as we can. I will be working on it this afternoon and will wrap it all up as quickly as I can thank you for your patience."
 
No scores for me yet either. There was a post to their website earlier today,

"Results for 2012 Homebrew @ the W.E.B. Mar 05 2012, 11:25 AM

Results for the 2012 Homebrew @ the W.E.B. will be posted as soon as we can. I will be working on it this afternoon and will wrap it all up as quickly as I can thank you for your patience."

I don't understand - if people are already getting their individual score sheets back, you'd think they could have taken 5 minuites and posted the winners list. I mean, they already had the awards ceremony - so post the list already!
 
I'm pretty sure everything is handwritten. And when they do the awards ceremony they use the handwritten results. So EVERYTHING still needs to be entered or scanned into a computer.

I hear where u r coming from, have 8 beers entered myself. But please don't knock all these hardworking volunteers. They r doing there best.

And please don't take the above comments personal. Just trying to be helpful to all.
 
I agree on posting the winners first, but as far as the scoring sheets go there was over 1000 entries and the sheets are scaned and then emailed, so I can see why it might take a while.
 
No doubt about it that the scanning is a lot of work. Actually, this is one of the fastest turn around times in all of the competitions I've entered.
 
I hear where u r coming from, have 8 beers entered myself. But please don't knock all these hardworking volunteers. They r doing there best.

I didn't mean to knock anyone or suggest anyone is slacking, sorry if it seemed that way. I'm just really itching to find out. I understand that it takes some time to enter all the individual score sheets into a computer. I understand having to wait for even as long as a couple weeks to get those - so it is impressive that they are already getting score sheets out this quick. But since they've already had the awards ceremony, seems like it would be pretty quick to post a list of winners online for people to see. I would think they would do that before getting individual sheets out.
 
I guess part of my point was that they still would just be using the written score sheets for the awards. So just because they announced all the awards doesn't mean they are entered into a computer and prepared to easily post onto the web. Most likely not, considering the awards where immediately after the judging.
That being said, I can't imagine it would take more than a couple hrs to do that. But maybe they decided its best to concentrate on individual results instead. Who knows, all we can do is wait and wonder.........LOL........
 
Looks like I scored two Bronze medals, not bad!! One for my California Common and one for a Berliner Weisse. I can't seem to break the bronze barrier, I now have 3 bronzes but have never recieved a silver or gold. I'll just have to keep trying.
 
My wife was really happy for me for my 40, but realized it only added fuel to the fire. I pulled a pint of my beer off the keg last night and drank it while reading the feedback. Its really quite helpful.

Now if they would just post the honorable mentions, then I can see how far out of the medals I was.
 
My wife was really happy for me for my 40, but realized it only added fuel to the fire. I pulled a pint of my beer off the keg last night and drank it while reading the feedback. Its really quite helpful.
It sure does add fuel to the fire. As much as I used to say I didn't care about competitions, once you start entering them you're pretty much hooked. You just don't get that quality of feedback from your friends, who are just grateful for free beer and/or just not that knowledgable about different styles. And then when you get an encouraging score like your 40 (very impressive for a first all-grain and first competition), it really drives you to make it even better. The hard part is once you win a medal, anytime after that where you don't place kind of becomes a dissapointment, even though the feedback really is the important part. You start to assume you will place in every comp., and you can get humbled really quick. Congrats - who would have thought brewing can get even more addictive than it already was, right?
 
My main reason for entering the competition was to get some non-biased feedback from someone other that my family and friends. I think sometimes I tend to be overly critical of my own beers and smell or taste flaws that are not really there or not as bad as they seem.

I really liked the beer I entrered, and thought it was good, but that doesnt always mean anything. I had a pale ale that I thought turned out even better than the vienna lager I entered, but the bottles didnt carb up right, and the rest of the batch was kegged and disapeared to that one didnt get entered.
 
Looks like Phil only took three this time? I can't wait til I get back in a good brewing schedule to have stuff ready for contests again. With the surgery last year and not a lot of brewing initially, I haven't had stuff ready in time. Or had anything on hand.

One of the judges had a bottle of my Kentucky Common he wanted me to enter, but I didn't think I had another 12 ouncer still. Turned out I found one, but it was too late. But he took the other one up to a pre-judges meeting a couple weeks back and shared it around and I guess folks were raving about it.

I'll have to make sure to enter it next year.
 
Since most of us don't use our "real" names on here, which of you are you among the winners?

BOS Winners

Beer

Sam Firke - Ann Arbors Brewers Guild
17B - Flanders Red - "Dregs of Society"
Mead/Cider
Anthony Kilimas - Kuhnhenn Guild of Brewers
27A - Common Cider - "Sweet Cider"


BJCP Style Name Club Placed # of entries
01-E Brad Kamphuis The Brewing Network 1
01-C Joseph Frankiewicz N/A 2 entries
01-B Phil Sullivan Underground Brewers 3

02-C Joseph Frankiewicz N/A 1
02-C David Curtis KLOB 2 entries
02-B Ben Ruppel N/A 3

03-B Larry Reuter SAAZ 1
03-B Jeff and Susan Rankert Ann Arbor Brewers Guild 2 entries
03-A Larry Reuter SAAZ 3

04-B Nathan Baker HOPS! 1
04-A Joseph Burgel and Mike Zukowski CRAFT 2 entries
04-B Matthew Smylie KGB 3

05-C Brian LaGoe Ann Arbor Brewers Guild 1
05-A Dave Stahl MASH 2 entries
05-C Jim Satin Ann Arbor Brewers Guild 3

06-C Michael Malinowski SAAZ 1
06-C Phil Sullivan Underground Brewers 2 entries
06-D Brian LaGoe Ann Arbor Brewers Guild 3

07-A Jeff Russell and Rob Walker CRHBC 1
07-B Bill Zimmerman and Jesse Rowell N/A 2 entries
07-B Adam and Britani Wisniewski N/A 3

08-B Chad Vanderpool MALTZ 1
08-B Aaron Potter N/A 2 entries
08-B Jeff Russell CRHBC 3

09-E Joel Kamp Muskegon Ottawa Brewers 1
09-E Kevin Rayl Motor City Mashers 2 entries
09-E Stephen Bender N/A 3

10-B Rick Marek Brew Gadgeteers 1
10-A Matt Therrien TC-Hopz 2 entries
10-C Kyle Alberda MASH 3

11-A Mike Carr CRHBC 1
11-C Carl Zeuner CRAFT 2 entries
11-C Todd Hale N/A 3

12-C Rachael Holland Primetime Brewers 1
12-B Anthony Terry LAB 2 entries
12-B John Lofquist N/A 3

13-E Brad Hopkins SODZ 1
13-D Pat Hyde and Satan CRHBC 2 entries
13-B Joe Merriman Red Ledge Homebrewers 3

14-C Mike Kirk LAB 1
14-A Chris Breimayer and Seth Rivard Primetime Brewers 2 entries
14-B Blake Key TC-Hopz 3

The judges did not award a first place medal for this category 1
15-A Pat Hogan and Barb Bauer CRHBC 2 entries
15-A Keith McFarland and Dave Bertolotti SAAZ 3

16-A Konrad Schlenner CRAFT 1
16-E Pat Hogan and Barb Bauer CRHBC 2 entries
16-C Chris Carr Muskegon Ottawa Brewers 3

17-B Sam Firke Ann Arbor Brewers Guild 1
17-B Christopher Frey and various members of the FORD club FORD 2 entries
17-A Adam and Britani Wisniewski N/A 3

18-E Kevin Paul CRAFT 1
18-C Mike Yingling SAAZ 2 entries
18-A Stephen Bender N/A 3

19-C Greg and Mike Muller CRAFT 1
19-A Jim Satin Ann Arbor Brewers Guild 2 entries
19-B Kevin Paul CRAFT 3

20-A David Worth SAAZ 1
20-A Daniel Fick CRAFT 2 entries
20-A Greg Fowler N/A 3

21-A Daniel Fick CRAFT 1
21- Patrick and Chris Cain SNOBS 2 entries
21-A Brian LaGoe and Steve Porter Ann Arbor Brewers Guild 3

22-A Nathan Baker HOPS! 1
22-C Phil Sullivan Underground Brewers 2 entries
22-C Bob and Kim Barrett Ann Arbor Brewers Guild 3

23-A Ray Leenhouts and Glenn Hallett Dead End Brewers 1
23-A Mike Yingling SAAZ 2 entries
23-A Joel Kamp Muskegon Ottawa Brewers 3

24-C Ken Schmidt CRAFT 1
24-C David Kelley KGB 2 entries
24-B Ron Bridges KGB 3

25-B Judith Hurt KGB 1
25-C Michael Spears KGB 2 entries
25-C Michael Spears KGB 3

26-A Denise Kruczyk and Pam Stapleton CRAFT 1
26-A Joseph Vrabel and Nathan Rinke Underground Brewers 2 entries
26-A Donald Hanke KGB 3

27-A Anthony Kilimas KGB 1
27-A Robert Vrabel KGB 2 entries
27-A Donald Hanke KGB 3

28-D Dave Clark SNOBS 1
28-D George Gorospe KGB 2 entries
28-C EDwight Paslean N/A 3
 
I did notice that almost all the winners were members of clubs. So either good brewers join clubs, or joining a club makes you a better brewer.
 
Looks like I scored two Bronze medals, not bad!! One for my California Common and one for a Berliner Weisse. I can't seem to break the bronze barrier, I now have 3 bronzes but have never recieved a silver or gold. I'll just have to keep trying.

Thats me with the 16c Saison.

John palmer Judged the mini BOS for sours, I'm anxious to see if any of mine made it that far. What was your process for the berlinner? Sour Mash?
 
Looks like Phil only took three this time?
I noticed that too - I'm used to seeing Phil's name at least 7 or 8 times on every winners list. Considering that he usually enters a TON of beers, he must have not had a very good day at the judging. Maybe he toned down his number of entries, or maybe he got cocky ( I noticed a couple months back that in the article about him winning "Midwest Homebrewer of the Year", he talks about "dominating" Michigan competitions in the coming year). After sitting at the Michigan Beer Cup awards ceremony over the summer and listening to his name called over and over, I must admit that now one of my goals in every comp. is to beat him.
One of the judges had a bottle of my Kentucky Common he wanted me to enter, but I didn't think I had another 12 ouncer still. Turned out I found one, but it was too late. But he took the other one up to a pre-judges meeting a couple weeks back and shared it around and I guess folks were raving about it.

I'll have to make sure to enter it next year.

I don't think I'll be entering my Kentucky Common in any more competitions. Judges just don't seem to "get" it. Despite being one of my best beers IMO, it always scored terribly. Judges say things like " a little thin on the body" - What do you expect? It is a low gravity sour mash beer after all. Plus, since it goes into cat. 23, it goes up against a bunch of high gravity monsters - not really a fair comparison. Maybe there should be another sour category for beers that don't fit one of the current sour categories, call it "other sour beer".
 
Since most of us don't use our "real" names on here, which of you are you among the winners?
That's me and the wife with the bronzes in categories 7 and 17. See where "AdamWiz" comes from now? Until people know what my last name is, they probably see my nickname and assume I pee myself a lot or something.
 
I don't think I'll be entering my Kentucky Common in any more competitions. Judges just don't seem to "get" it. Despite being one of my best beers IMO, it always scored terribly. Judges say things like " a little thin on the body" - What do you expect? It is a low gravity sour mash beer after all. Plus, since it goes into cat. 23, it goes up against a bunch of high gravity monsters - not really a fair comparison. Maybe there should be another sour category for beers that don't fit one of the current sour categories, call it "other sour beer".

Well, some research tends to lean toward the idea that not all Kentucky Commons were sour, or meant to be. There's quite a lot of discussions including those between O'Daniel and myself that our research tends to believe that sour versions were more than likely due to poor brewing practices than intentional souring. In fact the "Handy Book of Brewing and Malting trades" where the KC was first mentions it, only describes it as being sour in one edition, the other time it appeared, no mention of it being soured was in evidence. Which leads us to believe that a KC is more like a California Common, in that it is not sour, and more of just a dark cream ale.

But were you the one that entered a KC in another contest recently in category 23 and asked that it be judge only in terms of the historical descriptors and documentation for the style?
 
I did notice that almost all the winners were members of clubs. So either good brewers join clubs, or joining a club makes you a better brewer.
I think it's just that club members tend to enter more competitions and enter more beers in each competition than a lot of folks. Plus, people in clubs have a lot more chances to get experienced feedback on their beers. And regularly being around other good brewers pushes people to improve, I'm sure. Myself, I don't need any extra motivation - I'm obsessed enough as it is. And my wife always takes pride in us being amongst the only winners not affiliated with a club. Like being in a club somehow makes it not as big an accomplishment or something.
 
I think it's just that club members tend to enter more competitions and enter more beers in each competition than a lot of folks. Plus, people in clubs have a lot more chances to get experienced feedback on their beers. And regularly being around other good brewers pushes people to improve, I'm sure. Myself, I don't need any extra motivation - I'm obsessed enough as it is. And my wife always takes pride in us being amongst the only winners not affiliated with a club. Like being in a club somehow makes it not as big an accomplishment or something.

I always list the Homebrewtalk Michigan mashers as my "club" when I enter, just like those brewstrong guys. We're a club for all intents and purposes. Many of us get together as a group and brew representing HBT at Cap N Cork for the twice yearly brew events.
 
Well, some research tends to lean toward the idea that not all Kentucky Commons were sour, or meant to be. There's quite a lot of discussions including those between O'Daniel and myself that our research tends to believe that sour versions were more than likely due to poor brewing practices than intentional souring. In fact the "Handy Book of Brewing and Malting trades" where the KC was first mentions it, only describes it as being sour in one edition, the other time it appeared, no mention of it being soured was in evidence. Which leads us to believe that a KC is more like a California Common, in that it is not sour, and more of just a dark cream ale.
I did a lot of research on it, and I agree that most likely it was not initialy intended to be sour-just ended up that way a lot because of primitive brewing and storage methods. However, the idea of a little twang was what intrigued me about the style to begin with. So I went with a 20% sour mash for 24 hours, and I loved the beer. You wouldn't even necessarily call it "sour", it just has a little edge to it. I have considered brewing a "clean" version, but never have since I like mine so much. So you brew yours clean with no sourness? How is it?

But were you the one that entered a KC in another contest recently in category 23 and asked that it be judge only in terms of the historical descriptors and documentation for the style?
Nope, not me. Sounds like a good request, though.
 
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