Competition Strategy

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osagedr

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Many of us have NHC regional results coming in and are digesting feedback while planning our trip to "next year country." Lots of brewers don't care what other people think of their beer, some brew what they like and send their best off to competitions, and some plan almost all their brews with an eye to sending it off for judging.

For those in the latter group, what sort of approach do you take? Do you target specific categories/subcategories you perceive to be "weak" in terms of competition? Do you focus on a handful of recipes and make them repeatedly in pursuit of perfection? How far out do you plan your brewing schedule to have your lineup optimized for entry deadlines?

Thought it would be useful to have a thread to help us less experienced brewers plan effectively for future competitions.
 
We have an extreme case in HoV, his goal is to win a first place in every category. He's about half way there and has the remainder plotted out for the next year. He started with styles he had brewed before and is proceeding into new styles. It's a sound strategy, because it proves you can brew to style.

The other extreme seems to be brewing 'whatever' and trying to jamb it into a style. Having judged the results of both approaches, it's clear which produces winners.
 
I'm close to the last group and also qualify as a 'less experienced brewer'. I usually brew to a style but not with the sole intent to send it off to comps. I do it more for the challenge of hitting the specified target...and be good. However, when I brew what I think is a good beer and its to style I'll enter it. If I have a beer that is to style but has an off-flavor that I can't define or name, then sometimes I'll send that in too. Hopefully they'll tell me what that off-flavor is and a really good judge might suggest some potential causes. Now that I finally joined the local HBC I doubt I'll do this anymore.

I don't plan/schedule for comps but I've never entered any hoppy beers. I was recently thinking that I should plan hoppy beers for comps so they're at their peak.

If I have a beer that I think misses its intended style and still doesn't fit any other style then I don't enter it (obv not including specialty beers). Most of my 'non-style' beers do not fit a style and never get entered, no matter how good I think they are.
 
The problem I have is that I would LIKE to enter my beers into a competition, because I think that my beer usually turns out very good. ON TAP. I gave up bottling shortly after discovering the magic of kegging. I always think "if they could only judge my tap beer I would have a fighting chance on winning!". However as we all know, you have to submit bottled beer for judging and I cannot for the life of me equal the quality of my kegged beer.

I would love to know how to get the same quality and maybe I would enter a bunch more comps!
 
The problem I have is that I would LIKE to enter my beers into a competition, because I think that my beer usually turns out very good. ON TAP. I gave up bottling shortly after discovering the magic of kegging. I always think "if they could only judge my tap beer I would have a fighting chance on winning!". However as we all know, you have to submit bottled beer for judging and I cannot for the life of me equal the quality of my kegged beer.

I would love to know how to get the same quality and maybe I would enter a bunch more comps!

Can't you just bottle some beer from your tap?
 
The problem I have is that I would LIKE to enter my beers into a competition, because I think that my beer usually turns out very good. ON TAP. I gave up bottling shortly after discovering the magic of kegging. I always think "if they could only judge my tap beer I would have a fighting chance on winning!". However as we all know, you have to submit bottled beer for judging and I cannot for the life of me equal the quality of my kegged beer.

I would love to know how to get the same quality and maybe I would enter a bunch more comps!
Just BMBF it. That's how all of mine are done.
 
I have tried, but just don't seem to get perfect results. The bottled beer is good, just not great. Maybe I am just too critical? What I do is to fill a 6-12 pack straight from the keg prior to force carbonating. I use Brewcraft carb drops in each bottle to ensure a standardized and repeatable carbonation level. I then let it bottle condition for 3 weeks and then chill. Any other suggestions?
 
The problem I have is that I would LIKE to enter my beers into a competition, because I think that my beer usually turns out very good. ON TAP. I gave up bottling shortly after discovering the magic of kegging. I always think "if they could only judge my tap beer I would have a fighting chance on winning!". However as we all know, you have to submit bottled beer for judging and I cannot for the life of me equal the quality of my kegged beer.

I would love to know how to get the same quality and maybe I would enter a bunch more comps!

You most certainly can get the same quality whether kegged or bottled. I just won a 2nd place in the NHC first round with a North German Pilsner. I had kegged it and for the competition the entries I sent were bottled directly from the tap without using a beer gun or even a bottling wand. My technique is to chill the beer to about 5 degrees below serving temperature. I intentionally overcarb the beer by about 3 psi for several days before bottling. I sanitize the bottles, cover the mouths with foil and put them in the freezer for at least several hours and often overnight. I take the bottles out of the freezer one at a time when bottling. I reduce the keg pressure to an absolute minimum when filling the bottles. Just enough pressure to get a very slow flow. I tip the bottles up to the tap and let the beer run down the inside of the bottle. I fill to about 1 inch from the top and cap on the foam. It's a good idea to test this out with a few bottles in advance of bottling the entries. Bottle some up and wait a day or two to test them for proper carbonation. Make adjustments as needed. This can be a rather time consuming approach, but it works for me. I've done it enough times that I have it dialed in pretty well now.

My competition strategy is basically I don't really have one. I brew beers and enter the ones I think are particularly good. Which competitions I enter depends mostly on the timing, entry deadlines etc. I don't do the shotgun approach. It's not really a competitive thing for me as much as it is getting good feedback from some knowledgeable people and seeing just how well my beer stacks up against the others. Like I said, I only enter the ones that I already think are pretty good. I pretty much know what's wrong with the ones that don't measure up. I share all of my beers with my home brew club buddies and get a lot of good feedback that way. Those guys are brutally honest for the most part. I don't even bother to offer them my substandard brews unless I'm trying to pinpoint a defect that I can't identify myself. Many of them have better palates than I do.
 
I have tried, but just don't seem to get perfect results. The bottled beer is good, just not great. Maybe I am just too critical? What I do is to fill a 6-12 pack straight from the keg prior to force carbonating. I use Brewcraft carb drops in each bottle to ensure a standardized and repeatable carbonation level. I then let it bottle condition for 3 weeks and then chill. Any other suggestions?

Yeah, fill it with carbonated beer. There are a million ways to skin that cat.

I have a counter pressure filler that I'll use to bottle of what is left of a keg or if I need the bottles to last a while. Otherwise I use catt22's method or the Gordon Strong method* if I need to adjust the carbonation or do something else with the beer.

*Fill a 1 or 2 liter bottle with a carbonator cap, do whatever you need to it and then fill the chilled bottles from the PET bottle.
 
Excellent ideas. I will take some of the brews I have kegged now and give it a try using both methods (BM's and Catt22's). Maybe by eliminating the carb drops it will keep the same flavor/quality in the bottle.

I will post back once I get some measurable results
 
I do very similar to Catt22 except I have the bottling wand with the tip cut at an angle. It also has the stopper but I only use that at very beginning of each bottle and often not at all. +1 to chilling the beer below serving temp, over-carb a tiny bit, and use low pressure. I used to have the counter-pressure bottling rig but it seemed a bit of a PITA to use and clean and it was one with brass tees (allegedly brass is bad for beer). I hacked it for parts for a spunding device and a CO2 manifold.
 
One strategy some brewers use to make the odds better in their favor is to enter a brew where there may be fewer entries. ;)

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I like to enter lagers. The field is thinner. Most brewers either don't want to take the time required to brew a lager or they don't have the required lagering equipment (extra fridge/freezer available for a long time) and this cuts down on the number of entries bettering the odds.
 
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I like to enter lagers. The field is thinner. Most brewers either don't want to take the time required to brew a lager or they don't have the required lagering equipment (extra fridge/freezer available for a long time) and this cuts down on the number of entries bettering the odds.

Starting to feel like I am getting a good setup for lagers. I've done a few so far and haven't had very good results but I think the reason for that has been underpitching.
 
I think entering categories that don't get a ton of entries works for smaller/less competitive competitions. But if you are entering lagers at one of the bigger comps including nationals there are plenty of good brewers entering that category that a beer that isn't great can slip through. But yeah, lots of 35s win lager categories in small and medium competitions whereas that would rarely win in IPA, stout, APA etc, the categories that most homebrewers brew over and over.
 
Does anyone know of a schedule for brewing each subcategory? It's possible to brew a beer too soon and it stales in the bottle. It is also possible to brew it too late have a beer that is under developed. I've thought about this for a while. I would assume that beers with late hopping will have a shorter time of being in their peak. Beers with only sixty minute hop additions can be brewed and allowed to sit in the bottle longer because the alpha acids are more stable.

I've also heard that roasted malts in beers act as anti-oxidants. So darker beers may be able to be stored longer as well.

My plan for the next year is to obtain a fridge that will allow me to store my entries cold for the entire year.
 
I'd enter more comps, but I'm just too lazy to bottle. I did just buy the "Bowie Bottler" and got a dedicated lagering fridge out in the garage where my kegerator is (so I can chill the bottles), so I'm going to try to get better into the swing of things for next year's comps.

In general I'm a "brew whatever the hell I feel like and enter it in a comp if it's in a style category" type of brewer. It's actually worked out pretty well for me, as my milk stout (which is heavier on both roast and sweetness than typical examples like Left Hand) has done extremely well in competition despite being not a classic example of style, and my RyePA, which I enter in the standard American Pale Ale category, is just distinctive enough with the rye to get noticed without necessarily getting dinged for out of style due to the use of rye.
 
Does anyone know of a schedule for brewing each subcategory? It's possible to brew a beer too soon and it stales in the bottle. It is also possible to brew it too late have a beer that is under developed. I've thought about this for a while. I would assume that beers with late hopping will have a shorter time of being in their peak. Beers with only sixty minute hop additions can be brewed and allowed to sit in the bottle longer because the alpha acids are more stable.

I've also heard that roasted malts in beers act as anti-oxidants. So darker beers may be able to be stored longer as well.

My plan for the next year is to obtain a fridge that will allow me to store my entries cold for the entire year.

You are certainly correct noting that some beers are more "storable" than others, and also that some beers may not hit their stride for some time after they are bottled. Having a significant amount of cold storage will help keep your beer at a high level of quality for longer.
 
I'd enter more comps, but I'm just too lazy to bottle. I did just buy the "Bowie Bottler" and got a dedicated lagering fridge out in the garage where my kegerator is (so I can chill the bottles), so I'm going to try to get better into the swing of things for next year's comps.

If you haven't seen it, check out the thread on the Biermuncher bottle filler. If I am bottling anywhere from half a keg to a couple of kegs, then the beer gun is my weapon of choice. But if I am doing only a couple of bottles, I just use my Biermuncher setup. Easy peasy.

http://homemadesodaexpert.blogspot.ca/2011/03/equipment-biermuncher-bottle-filler.html
 
If you haven't seen it, check out the thread on the Biermuncher bottle filler. If I am bottling anywhere from half a keg to a couple of kegs, then the beer gun is my weapon of choice. But if I am doing only a couple of bottles, I just use my Biermuncher setup. Easy peasy.

http://homemadesodaexpert.blogspot.ca/2011/03/equipment-biermuncher-bottle-filler.html

Yeah, I think the "Bowie Bottler" will allow me to do the exact same thing. Only advantage is that I can fit it straight into my Perlick faucet so I don't have to open the keezer to attach a picnic tap.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f41/bottling-wand-perlick-525-75-aka-bowie-bottler-228344/
 
Digging up an old thread but for any competition judges out there, do you like to see the specific ingredients listed on the competition sheet? I just entered a competition and the form (which was optional) asked for grains, hops, yeast, mash temps, dry hop days, ferment days, etc. I chose not to give all of the details because I wanted a true blind test from the judges. Although giving the details of the brew may give them better insight to critique the beer? I'd be curious to hear from any BJCP judges on here.
 
Digging up an old thread but for any competition judges out there, do you like to see the specific ingredients listed on the competition sheet? I just entered a competition and the form (which was optional) asked for grains, hops, yeast, mash temps, dry hop days, ferment days, etc. I chose not to give all of the details because I wanted a true blind test from the judges. Although giving the details of the brew may give them better insight to critique the beer? I'd be curious to hear from any BJCP judges on here.

No, since it's a "blind competition", I don't even look or know about that stuff. The only exception is specialty beers, or fruit beers, where a base beer is named and then the special ingredients (coconut, fruit, spices, etc) are listed.

I don't know of any competitions where the judges would want that or need it.
 
Thanks Yooper, good to know. One other question, do you see the names of the beers when you judge? People often give them descriptive names like "Bob's Chocolate Stout", so you would expect some chocolate notes in that one.
 
Thanks Yooper, good to know. One other question, do you see the names of the beers when you judge? People often give them descriptive names like "Bob's Chocolate Stout", so you would expect some chocolate notes in that one.

No. I see "entry # 402. 6C. Kolsch."

But since chocolate beers would be in the specialty category, we'd see the notes on that. For example, "Entry # 200. 21A. Spice, Herb or Vegetable Beer" Then, under specialty notes: "Coconut pumpkin robust porter" or whatever.
 
I wonder why on the BJCP entry form we have to write the whole recipe down in detail? If no one looks/reads it might as well leave it blank.
 
I wonder why on the BJCP entry form we have to write the whole recipe down in detail? If no one looks/reads it might as well leave it blank.

I do leave it blank. I only fill out the basic entry portion - name of beer, style information, and additional info if it is a "specialty" type beer. I have probably sent beer to 15-20 comps and have only filled out extra stuff once - when it was specifically required. Otherwise, I skip the rest. I think it often says "not required."
 
Yeah I bother with that extra info for beers in cat 23 or if a competition specifically requires a recipe.

First competition of the year coming up...trying to decide on number of entries; somewhere between 12 and 18.
 
One competition I entered a while back required the recipe. I think it was more as proof that you brewed it, and if you won you agreed to put that recipe on the website. I don't think it was looked at by the judges at all, based on the feedback I received!
 
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