NHC 2010, are you entering?

I got pretty low scores from NHC SW in all my entries.
My "The Devout" was entered as two categories. In the Tripel category it got 34.5 and took 1st place. In the Belgian Golden Strong category it took 33.5 and did not place.
My "The Pious" Belgian Dark Strong scored a 34 and did not place. This beer recently won BOS at a ProAm and will be in the GABF ProAm. The same beer has been in the Cat18 Club Only Comp and scored a 43 (no placing) and in another fairly big comp and scored a 42 so I feel that its a pretty good beer.

One of my friends entered two sours, a Flanders Red and BerlinerWeisse, both of which are VERY excellent beers. His Flanders scored a 33 and went on to mini-BOS but did not place, and his BerlinerWeisse scored a 35 and placed 3rd.

Must have been tough judges (score wise) at one or two of the Belgian tables, as low scoring beers advanced over higher scoring beers.

Fortunately this is the intended effect of the whole BJCP system in an effect to even out particular variances in judge/table/comparison. I've judged in BJCP/AHA registered comps and been at both the high table where beers scored well and the low table where we gave the lowest average scores. Sometimes the system runs things through that way but that doesn't mean its being unfair, scores just aren't everything.

My friend's Flanders took first in the SW, and it is a phenomenal beer. But it really does come down to personal taste and order in flight more often than not, so sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. Good beer will always beat bad beer, but when there's a lot of good beer, it can be tough.

Anyone in the NE gotten their score cards yet?

Got my scoresheets today (south). It's now official, I virtually cannot detect diacetyl. Only one had it but apparently it was strong-ish. And I HATE the smell of buttered microwave popcorn and do not like margarine...weird. At least now I know.

Scoresheets were done fairly well imo except one that was just barely legible. But I'm a lefty so I'm used to it.

EDIT: And not one mention of oxidation in my whiskey barrel-aged Porter but both said too much wood. Weird, I virtually could not taste the wood for weeks then it got super cardboardy (to me). Only 3 weeks in the barrel.

Got a 35 for my saison, with good reviews, and it moved on to the mini-BOS, but didn't place. I'm pretty happy with that, first NHC and only 3rd comp. The other 2 at Dry Dock and Lefthand I got a 1st place and 3rd place, so I'm happy with how my brews are coming along.

Several of the points I lost were for low carbonation, which is a bummer. Would have been up around 40 or so with better carbonation, from the tone of the reviews. Bottled off of my kegerator, where the beer was actually carbed quite well, but I don't completely have my bottling practice down yet so I ended up going a bit too foamy, even at a 1 psi trickle and getting a low fill on the bottles.

Pumpkinman906 said:

We've got 7, maybe 8 going into NE First Round...

• Octoberfest
• IPA
• Vanilla Bourbon Porter
• Irish Red
• Pale Ale
• Standard American Lager
• Cider

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The Vanilla Bourbon Porter is moving on with a 2nd in Cat 21, NE region...
Still waiting for scoresheets like everyone else up this way.

Congrats to all who placed in this years comp and will advance to the next round.

I sent in only one entry 10A to this years event and got my scorecard back ( Canada ) on Friday. I scored average 29.3 and while 2 of the three judges were non-BJCP ranked, they still were in the ball park with comments equal to the BJCP judge. I think I'll do better next year with brewing an entry made specifically for the comp, instead of just drawing a brew from my taps without the benefit of a CPBF or the beergun I now own.
Thanks to all the judges, organizers and sponsers who made this event possible.

Pumpkinman906 said:

The Vanilla Bourbon Porter is moving on with a 2nd in Cat 21, NE region...
Still waiting for scoresheets like everyone else up this way.

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Congrats! Added you to the list.

There's four entries from HBT moving forward in category 21.

I had a horse in that race, but didn't show. Curious what the score sheet will reveal.

I got my score sheet in today. Ended up with a 33 for an imperial brown in cat. 23, with one judge scoring 36 and the other 30. I'm actually pretty disappointed since it seems like both judges knocked off the most points for not adhering to the style (in a cat. 23?), and there wasn't a lot of feedback on the recipe. The general consensus was that they could taste & feel the alcohol (it's 9%) and that it was balanced but malt-focused. The one suggestion that was made was to "check recipe formulation and yeast strain". The other judge just said that the flavor was good and balanced.

Considering the main goal was to get some feedback for how to improve our process & recipe, it seems like we didn't accomplish what we wanted. I'm not unhappy with the score we ended up getting, although it seems like it would have been higher if we hadn't specified brown ale as a base style. At least the judges seemed to think the beer tasted good and didn't detect any off flavors.

I have an oaked ale that's been entered in a couple of competitions in category 22 as an Oaked IPA and scored in the mid to upper 30's. Comments have always referred to not enough hop character for an IPA. I had some bottles left so I entered it in NHC as an Oaked APA. You guessed it. "Longer aging with lower hop bitterness will help. Review hop schedule and balance against oak characteristics." 25.5

In all fairness, the numbers put it in the IPA category. Oh well, it was worth a try.

boo boo said:

Congrats to all who placed in this years comp and will advance to the next round.

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Indeed. Congrats to everyone who is advancing. It's not small feat, and there appears to be an abundance of HBT members who will be anxiously awaiting results in June.

Good luck to you all - except those of you who have beers in 16... I hope you all lose.

I wish I could have entered more beers this year, but I just didn't have much of anything ready, so I entered the same beer in 2 different categories. It didn't fare too well in 23, but I'm pretty happy with 50% moving on.

Final round judging is today, anybody else excited to find out how their beer(s) scored?

Hell yeah I am! I've got high hopes for my North German Pilsner that placed 2nd in the first round and it got a gold certificate too. The score was a tie with another entry for the 1st place and it lost out in the mini BOS, but that's splitting hairs, so I think it stands a good chance for a first. I'm stoked. I sure hope the Pilsner is too.

Oldsock said:

Final round judging is today, anybody else excited to find out how their beer(s) scored?

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I'm splittin' my gut here with anticipation. My "other Mead" scored 48.5 in the northeast, the highest score of any entry in any category of anything. Different judges, different opinions, different bottles, so we'll see.

I'm anxiously awaiting. Had a real nice Belgian IPA. It was getting a bit aged and the hop signature had dropped too far so I did a re-brew and blended so as not to lose all the mature Belgian taste that was in the original. The problem was I had a massive head cold when I did the blending and couldn't taste a thing so I just blidly blended 50-50 and crossed my fingers. I tasted a bottle last night that I bottled same day as the comp entries. It's not quite as nice I think as the fisrt one was several weeks ago, but I think it has a fighting chance.

Good luck to all the HBT'ers who have a horse in the race!

Zen_Brew said:

Good luck to all the HBT'ers who have a horse in the race!

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yes, good luck!

Good luck to all. I cracked open my Trippel that advanced. Its a damn good beer and I dare say its peaking right now.

TBH, it's not like I had totally forgotten about it but almost. Getting a couple in the second round and getting all the scoresheets/feedback back was really all I had hoped for and I don't really think my beers have much of a chance at this point. If I had scored a friggin 48.5 I might feel differently. GL all.