Contest Prep

Going to enter a few Homebrew competitions this Spring. Any suggestions from others who have done this before? Any info would be appreciated. For example:


Shipping bottles for entry
Priming/force carbing

Just make sure to follow the rules closely- if they say "no identifying marks on bottles or caps", and you use Sam Adams bottles, you'll be disqualified. Make sure you have the right color and size bottles, and black out the cap if it has a logo on it.

Enter your brews into the correct category, and make sure that you label correctly (usually a rubber band around the bottle).

Bottle conditioned and force carbed beers do equally well, as the judges are accustomed to sediment, so don't worry about that.

If you're mailing you entries pack them well. Be paranoid about it. The last thing you want is an entry disqualified because a bottle broke in transit. As Yooper said, enter your beers in the correct category. I judged at the Southern New England Regional Homebrew Competition last year and I tasted a number of beers that I felt would have fared much better in a different category. If you have the time/fermenter space, make the timeline for your brews coincide with the competition judging. With a few exceptions, the fresher the beer the judges are drinking the better your chances.