competition popularity?

Hi, new to the forum. I've only been brewing for a few months, so this is more of a question for the future. How many of you compete? Compared to the $200-250 fees for KCBS (barbecue) competitions (they are a killer to any BBQers), homebrew competitions seem to cost $5-10 plus shipping, yet I don't see a forum devoted to the subject. Do a lot of you compete or is it more for the love of the hobby? I'd love to get into competitions soon.

Thanks

I compete to get feedback on my beers. I'm looking get better and learn more about beer. I even decided to take the BJCP exam. I learned a ton about beer, brewing, and my palate during the process. I recommend it if for nothing more than to get a better understanding of your own beer.

I too am interested in this. I think that entering a brew that I created into a competition would be an EXCELLENT way to learn and see how my recipes contend with other people's.

Never done it, but will be in the next year. I'm looking forward to critical review of my beers. I brew well enough that I get praised by family and friends - needing some more 'critical' review to see where I'm at and what else I can do to improve. I'm also at a stage where recipe creation and fine tuning is going to be the theme and competitions will help me in that process.

I've entered many comps and judged at many more. it's a great way to get feedback on your beer. The caveat is that you shouldn't listen exclusively to any single judge or comp. Enter the same beer into several and get a good overview from more than a few judges. And be careful what category you enter the bee into. Enter it as what it tastes like, not what you brewed it to be. For example, a coffee stout should be entered as a specialty beer, not a stout.

I entered my first comp at the beginning of this month just to get the feedback on my beer so I know where I stand and what I can do to improve it. I'm still waiting on the scoresheets.

I just entered my first comp, for the feedback. I got a 16 one one of my beers, I entered it as a style I brewed it to be, not what it was best suited to be as Denny said. It was a wonderful beer on draught, but was undercarbonated in the bottle. It had lost much of its hop presence. At first I was slightly discouraged by the score, but it forced me to look critically at my beer. In the end I had to agree with how the judges scored it.

Still a good beer to me!

I am thinking about entering a competition or two next year. I don't feel like most of my recipes are at a point I think they are so flawless I need outside opinions, except my lambic but I don't feel like sharing any with strangers.

It's also important to save some of the beer to drink while you read through the scoresheets. Really helps to understand the judges comments.

gotsumbeers said:

I just entered my first comp, for the feedback. I got a 16 one one of my beers, I entered it as a style I brewed it to be, not what it was best suited to be as Denny said. It was a wonderful beer on draught, but was undercarbonated in the bottle. It had lost much of its hop presence. At first I was slightly discouraged by the score, but it forced me to look critically at my beer. In the end I had to agree with how the judges scored it.

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And that is what it's all about!

I entered a bunch of comps over a period of about a year. I won a bunch of ribbons, including some golds. It was very motivating. Then I quit entering them, just basically got busy. Gotta get back into it.

The hardest part for me is the packaging and shipping. Clubs almost always have a competition coordinator who will help out a lot there. I stopped going to my club and that was a mistake.

I've been brewing for about 7 years now, and I entered my first competition last year. My beers didn't score well at all. At first I was mad because I thought my beer was good. Then I got discouraged and vowed never to enter a comp again. Then, the next day, after reviewing my score sheets, and drinking each beer while reading the sheets, I was able to "see" what I was missing all along. Long story short is the comments from last year really helped me to improve on my beers. I've won a gold and a bronze so far this year with my beers in some very large competitions. Even the ones that didn't place were scored in the 30's, which is good. I would recommend comps to anyone as a realistic feedback can help you to grow your pallette and discern issues.

Nice! I'm still new to it but for $5 plus shipping what the heck, I may enter one this fall.

See if there is a brew club in your area. Many of them have free or cheap club competitions that may help you get your feet wet as well as help with regional comps. I entered a beer in my local comp and scored 27. Using the feedback and help of club I entered a regional comp and scored mid to high 30s and scored a silver medal.

I would say most of us just compete locally, so we don't often ship apart from the National Hombrew Competition. Questions about competitions specifically usually can be categorized to the sections of the forum, but a lot of stuff ends up in general discussion too.

We competed for a while but found the judges' feedback was pretty much in line with how we felt about the beers, and the scores were all over the place because that's a fairly subjective thing if you don't have BJCP judges in every category. We've found even the best competitions can barely manage 1 BJCP certified judge per category. We've won some awards but are now focusing more on getting the brewery open as I'm not convinced winning tons of awards is going to help get people into the tasting room.

Overall, it's a fun thing to do that's cheap, and a great way to get feedback on your beers if you're not sure, although you should always trust your palate. If you have any questions about competitions, someone on HBT can definitely answer them.

I tend to enter a competition maybe once a year. My club is hosting a regional competition next month, so I am planning to enter several beers and a couple of meads in that to help support my club. Normally I only enter 1-2 categories, but this time it will be more like 7+. I will also (probably) be judging, having finally gotten my exam results back from January, although I may have to take care of the IT stuff during the competition, which would preclude my judging.

Alright, thanks. I'd love to enter the Upper Mississippi in January which seems like a big competition + I'm a (displaced) Twins fan.

I recently have started entering competitions & found that my first entry I had analyzed correctly. It was an ESB that was initially brewed to be an English IPA that came out with more fruity esters and malt characters than an English IPA is known for. I labeled it an ESB & sent it off to competition. It was, however, too hoppy for the style and a bit unbalanced I thought. The keg hops probably didnt help that! But when I got my scorecard back, my opinions were confirmed, which is the best thing about the competitions. The beer got a 32.5 overall, and I have the recipe already modified to bring more balance with less hop usage.

My goal of entering local and regional competitions is to hone in on key styles (English & Scottish) and tinker my recipes to be able to put out world class stuff for the national homebrew competition & hopefully later in a commercial setting.

Just started brewing this year, and entered two beers in the Indiana Brewers' Cup competition, mostly to get some feedback. My "Kolsch" came back with a 31/50, I think, which is in the "very good" category. It confirmed my suspicion that it was an excellent beer, but too hoppy to be called a Kolsch. That was gratifying, at least.

My American stout didn't fare so well, but that's because it went bad in the bottled, either due to oxidation or a slow infection. I was shocked at the reviews at first, because it should have been at worst scored like the Kolsch---it had been excellent, just possibly not to stlye. (I think it was closer than the Kolsch was, but I'm not personally familiar with the category.) Fortunately, I had one bottle left after I got the report, and it had clearly gone bad as well. So, while disappointing, it was at least an experience. I feel kinda bad for the judges who had to taste that one.

I entered the homebrew competition at my county fair. It's nice because not only is it BJCP certified, it is FREE to enter. The other great part besides winning a ribbon and getting valuable feedback is that they give out CASH prizes. Now it isn't much but since I placed 1st for Light Lagers and 3rd in IPA's I received a check for sixteen dollars!! That will buy me a lb of hops!! AFAIK this is the only comp that I have heard that gives out actual CASH prizes....why don't they all do this?

That would add an extra exciting element. Then competitions (that aren't part of a larger event) would up the entry fee to be able to pay out cash prizes. It would be cool to have an option of entering your beer in a cash prize category. For instance, XYZ competition traditionally costs $6 per entry. Now if you want to compete for a "Best of Show - Cash Prize" category, your entry is now $10 per entry entered into the cash prize category & then the BOS beers from that entry pool are given cash prizes. Put a little gamble on your skills.

hoptualBrew said:

That would add an extra exciting element. Then competitions (that aren't part of a larger event) would up the entry fee to be able to pay out cash prizes. It would be cool to have an option of entering your beer in a cash prize category. For instance, XYZ competition traditionally costs $6 per entry. Now if you want to compete for a "Best of Show - Cash Prize" category, your entry is now $10 per entry entered into the cash prize category & then the BOS beers from that entry pool are given cash prizes. Put a little gamble on your skills.

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Some states and localities have laws preventing cash prizes (and sometimes any prizes in general) from being given out in homebrew competitions because it can be considered "being paid" to brew beer. More dumb legal stuff.

I've been brewing for 8 months and I just entered 3 of my brews in the Eastern Idaho State Fair here. The fee was 10 bucks for as many entries as you want. I don't know if there are prizes, or how many of the judges will be BJCP etc. but it should be fun in any case.

ktblunden said:

Some states and localities have laws preventing cash prizes (and sometimes any prizes in general) from being given out in homebrew competitions because it can be considered "being paid" to brew beer. More dumb legal stuff.

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Wow...who knew? I guess the sixteen dollars that I won makes me a "pro" brewer

I recently entered one at the county fair. Best of show judging was open to the public and the judges took their time talking about the styles they were drinking and how the entry did or did not fit into the style description. I was fascinated and at the end they announced that I had won best of show. Huge confidence boost. I'm anxious to enter more of them befor the AHA competition. The prize I won was a medal and free entry into the AHA comp. I haven't gotten my scores and comments back yet but I think it will help me make better beer..

captwalt said:

I recently entered one at the county fair. Best of show judging was open to the public and the judges took their time talking about the styles they were drinking and how the entry did or did not fit into the style description. I was fascinated and at the end they announced that I had won best of show. Huge confidence boost. I'm anxious to enter more of them befor the AHA competition. The prize I won was a medal and free entry into the AHA comp. I haven't gotten my scores and comments back yet but I think it will help me make better beer..

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Congrats . You motivated me to search around some more for scores & actually find the winners/placers for this year's fair. Obviously I didn't do as well as you but I did place in one category. I submitted two entries, one scored 35, one scored 38. I'm anxiously awaiting my score cards, and just cracked one to celebrate. Unfortunately out of two batches I only had one bottle cold and ready to drink.

I enter about 5-6 beers per year; usually 1-2 per competition. If I have something on-tap that's tasting very good, and it was brewed true-to-style, I'll find a competition coming up shortly to enter it in. As others said, the feedback is awesome, but take it with a grain of salt. I once sent two beers off to three competitions to see how the scoresheets would compare. Here we're the scores from the comps:
Imperial IPA: 19, 38, 43(BOS)
Blonde Ale: 25, 36, 41(1st)

Lord knows how a beer that averaged 40.5 between two competitions scored a 19 at another comp. I bottled all 6 bottles from the keg at the same time. For Blonde Ale, I threw out the high and the low, and figured it was a 36-37pt beer. The point is, judging varies at different comps due to a varity of factors. Take the results with a grain of salt.

With that said, definitely enter comps. It's the best source of non-biased feedback you'll get, generally from people that have a good palette. It's also a fantastic way to fine-tune a beer. If you have a recipe you like, submit it to a comp. Review the scoresheets, make some changes, and re-submit it. I've done this with a few recipes that now consistently place, if not win their category in every conp they are entered.

scottland said:

Lord knows how a beer that averaged 40.5 between two competitions scored a 19 at another comp.

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There's a lot of stuff that can happen between you putting your beers in a box, and it being tasted in the competition. How it is handled during transportation, how it is stored for the competition, how it is handled on the day of the competition, where in the flight your beer is tasted, etc. are all out of your control, but nevertheless can have a huge impact on how your beer is scored.

weirdboy said:

There's a lot of stuff that can happen between you putting your beers in a box, and it being tasted in the competition. How it is handled during transportation, how it is stored for the competition, how it is handled on the day of the competition, where in the flight your beer is tasted, etc. are all out of your control, but nevertheless can have a huge impact on how your beer is scored.

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+1....Not to mention that every judge has a different palate and we don't all taste the same things. I brew a Green Chile Ale that has medaled before but if the judge doesn't like green chiles to begin with?? Chances are it won't do well. Pretty hard for a judge to score something high if they don't enjoy drinking it.

weirdboy said:

There's a lot of stuff that can happen between you putting your beers in a box, and it being tasted in the competition. How it is handled during transportation, how it is stored for the competition, how it is handled on the day of the competition, where in the flight your beer is tasted, etc. are all out of your control, but nevertheless can have a huge impact on how your beer is scored.

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Oh I hear you. Personally, I think my beer was switched with another. The comments were nothing like my beer. I emailed the competition organizer, and he didn't give me the time of day. I shrugged it off