Ohio Brew Week contest - I took 3rd place!

Be forewarned, I just want to brag a little...

Ohio Brew Week is this week. It's a state-wide festival held in Athens, Ohio celebrating craft beer. They had a home brew contest open to contestants all over the country. I know I heard of entries that were shipped in from North Carolina and Michigan among other places.

I entered my honey-lemon wheat beer in the contest (under "specialty beer") and took 3rd place. Very cool! I get a medal and a gift certificate to Leener's. What's really amazing is that I only started brewing last winter and have done mostly cider and wine. I think the honey-lemon wheat is going to be my regular summer beer from now on though, it came out really good.

I'm an award winning brewer!

Cool...

congratulations

Thanks!

There's no way I could make even half-decent brew without all the the advice and knowledge shared here.

Nothing like a little bling to validate what you already know...you brew good beer.

Recipe is required of course.

I'll have to dig out my recipe book and type it out. It's embarrassingly simple though and an extract recipe at that (well... partial grain...).

I've been searching the old archive and reading all I can and hopefully I can go all grain here in a month or two. That should make even better beer right?

I hate to say it, but I think I'm totally hooked on homebrewing now.

Nice work! Funny you should mention it, I sent entries from North Carolina.

Congrats! I missed getting entries sent in to this due to vacations, but glad to hear that another HBT'er took home some bling.

Nice work! Funny you should mention it, I sent entries from North Carolina.

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Well if you're Jimmy, and you entered a special bitter and some lagers.... then I hate to tell you, but you took two 2nd places and a 1st!

results here

Congrats. Sooooo....recipe? It sounds delicious. And even though summer is winding down (from a brewing standpoint), I'll make it next year.

Congrats! Feels good, doesn't it.

Holy crap! Congrats!

nice...i just had a little competition myself and won 3rd place as well for my Koelsch. only 9 brews total, but it was just a casual meeting of my club for our quarterly style. We judged by using the "Best in Show" method.

nice little $20 certificate at my LHBS was put to immediate use!

Reddy said:

Well if you're Jimmy, and you entered a special bitter and some lagers.... then I hate to tell you, but you took two 2nd places and a 1st!

results here

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That's me. Wow. I don't know what else to say.

By popular demand, the recipe:

This recipe is so simple I'm embarrassed to post it, but hey it did come out great. This recipe is for a 3 gallon batch, double the measurements for a full batch.

"Boatin' Up Sandy" - American wheat ale with honey and lemon

OG: 1.055
FG: 1.015
ABV: 5%

Ingredients:
3lbs malted wheat
3.3. LME extract (wheat extract)
1 pint of local honey (sterilized by baking in a saucepan @ 180* for 30 min.)

.25 oz Amaretto hops (60 min.)
.25 oz Simco (sp?) hops (30 min.)
.50 oz Simco (sp?) hops (15 min.)

Nottingham dry yeast (the LHBS was out of this, so I substituted Muntons, might try it with a true Hef. yeast, just to see.)

6 organic lemons, rind, pith pulp and all (Lemons were very small, otherwise I wouldn't have used so many.)

-Steep 3lbs malted wheat @ 160* (I steeped in about 1.5 gallons of water, I sparged with about 2.5 gallons of water, but wound up having to add more to hit final gravity.)
-Bring to a boil, adding hops with the schedule above and using late-extract-addition
-Add sterilized honey to fermenter just before adding wort
-Aerate well and pitch yeast when it's below 80*
-Let sit in primary for a week and then transfer to secondary, adding lemons (I actually don't use a secondary and put lemons in the primary, but it caused some problems so I won't do that in the future. I sliced the lemons into pretty small chunks and sterilized them by pouring boiling water over them.)
-Let ferment completely, bottle, and carb (I was out of corn sugar and used table sugar instead and don't regret it, came out great).
-Bottle condition for two weeks and drink!

This beer is going to be my summer brew. It's sweet, with lemon after taste and some subtle honey flavors. It's a little dark for a wheat beer, but I like it a lot. It has some of the clove taste associated with wheats, and some hop smell but no real hop taste (so add more if you like that kinda thing). It tastes best when it's about 3 or 4 weeks old, IMHO. It came out cloudy like a wheat is supposed to be and is very refreshing.

Enjoy!

That's me. Wow. I don't know what else to say.

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Congrats! I think they're mailing out the awards this week.

Congrats!!!

A little bragging was totally justified! Had it been me I would have been bragging to the point where it became unbearable.

Well done!!!

congrats to Reddy and Death. Nice job

Congratulations.

Are you putting it in the database so it shows under you name?

Brew week was awesome! There were many great Ohio beers on tap, and only a few really crappy ones. I really wanted to enter the contest but didn't feel like anything I had done yet was ready. I work on a farm out in Shade, what a small world...

Brew week was awesome! There were many great Ohio beers on tap, and only a few really crappy ones. I really wanted to enter the contest but didn't feel like anything I had done yet was ready. I work on a farm out in Shade, what a small world...

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Where at in Shade? I live just below Shade, actually between Shade and Burlingham (or Bungtown as it's called). We should have a beer sometime. I think I was the only local (meaning near Athens) winner.

Congratulations.

Are you putting it in the database so it shows under you name?

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I will now, I couldn't figure it out earlier.