Competition Question

Hello,

I'm looking to enter some of my beers in a competition. This will be the first competition I'm entering.

The problem I have is that all of the beers that I want to enter have been marked on the cap and the rules for these competitions say the beers entered can't have any markings on the bottles or caps.

Can I open these beers quickly and re-cap them with unmarked caps? I'm thinking this will oxidize the beer and screw up the carbonation.

Any ideas on this one?

I think you should be able to do it OK. If you chill the bottles for a couple of days first, you should be able to recap without losing too much carbonation, although you will lose a little.

Have you tried cleaning off the markings, perhaps with some rubbing alcohol?

Usually the rules state that all you have to do is to black out the cap with a sharpie marker...

I usually use a combination of black avery dots and a wide black sharpie..Put the dot on, the cover all the remaining area...

Do not re-cap!!!! You want you beer as perfect as possible....Don't mess with them.

jds is right.

You should be fine recapping them if you can't erase the makings.

One thing is you might want to wait to recap until the last possible minute.

If you do introduce any O2 (unlikely since the neck of the bottle will have a nice cloudy blanket of CO2 in there), then there won't be enough time for the O2 to really do much. Oxidation is not instantaneous. It occurs over time.

Pop the cap...immediately lay another cap in place...crimp.

You should be fine.

Here's an example of what the rules usually say...

Every bottle must be 10 to 25 ounces in volume and be free of paper labels. Obliterate any lettering or graphics on the cap with a permanent black marker. Corked bottles are acceptable; however, you must crimp a crown cap over the cork. Bottles not meeting these requirements will be disqualified.

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Thanks for the suggestions. I have a follow up question. I'm wondering about temperature of beer that you're shipping.

I realize you can't control it once it's in the mail but should I send beers that have already been sitting in the fridge or send ones that have been sitting at room temperature and never chilled.

I know that chiling then warming and chilling and warming again, can effect flavor right??

mangine77 said:

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a follow up question. I'm wondering about temperature of beer that you're shipping.

I realize you can't control it once it's in the mail but should I send beers that have already been sitting in the fridge or send ones that have been sitting at room temperature and never chilled.

I know that chiling then warming and chilling and warming again, can effect flavor right??

Click to expand...

I'll keep mine chilled until the night before shipping. Since you have to attach labels, I find it best to get them to room temp so you don't have a condensation issue and end up with labels that get wet.

mangine77 said:

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a follow up question. I'm wondering about temperature of beer that you're shipping.

I realize you can't control it once it's in the mail but should I send beers that have already been sitting in the fridge or send ones that have been sitting at room temperature and never chilled.

I know that chiling then warming and chilling and warming again, can effect flavor right??

Click to expand...

Mine are usually from the ones at room temp, when I deliver them.