Should I enter this competition?

Okay, so let's say for the sake of argument that I have brewed a batch of the best IPA I have ever had in my life. It's big (sorry, BIG) bodied, perfectly hopped with great color and aromas. Just my luck, there is a local home brewing competition that I am sure this beer will do well in. The winner will have their beer commercially produced by one of our local microbreweries (we have a lot of them where I live) and sold on tap at a local tap house and in bottles at the local wine, beer and cheese shop. This all sounds great and I feel my chances are good...the only problem I can see is that my beer is an extract brew.

I am an all-grain brewer on any normal day but about 2 months ago I found myself with some spare time and about $50 kickin' around and thought "well I don't have time to brew anything from scratch but I suppose an extract won't kill me."

With that all said, my questions are as follows:

Should I enter an extract brew into a competition?
Could a brewery replicate what was developed from extract with an all grain alternative (assuming I won of course)?
Does anyone want this recipe? (I love to share a good thing)

I would check with the brewery first. A few breweries by me do a similar competition, but they only will accept AG recipes. This I believe has mostly to do with cost. Before making it up, I would check.

timothymwilson said:

Could a brewery replicate what was developed from extract with an all grain alternative (assuming I won of course)?

Click to expand...

I would think that would pose a big problem:
What exactly went into the extract?
How would the brewery duplicate the procedure in what I assume would be an AG situation?

As far as I know there are quite a few micro breweries across the nation that use extract for all their beers. Are you sure the "local brewery" you are dealing with is all grain?

- All great questions here. I will answer a couple real quick.

First, I am not sure if the brewery is one that brews with extracts or not. Like I said before I am an AG brewer and love the labor, this particular brew of mine was mostly an accident from a brainstorm at my HBS. If anyone is interested in the brewery, it is the Penobscot Bay Brewery/Winery in Winterport, ME.

- As far as what went into the beer for extract...scratch that. Here is exactly what I used.

9lbs Briess light DME
1.75 lbs Crystal Malt 10L
2oz Warrior Hops
1oz Amarillo Hops
10z Chinook Hops

OG - 1.072
FG - 1.014

I boiled for an hour with this particular brew. I am sure others may mix it up if they try this recipe. Feel free to try the continuous hop thingy. I don't have the time for that, I just hopped once every 5 min until the end of the boil.

I also used another 2 oz of Amarillo and Chinook to dry hop for 10 days in secondary.

For yeast, I maintain a culture in my basement that originated from safale 04 and 05 yeast strains. They always seem to do well, for this I used the 05 strain.

- As far as the question relating to the replication, I would imagine that someone could come close, given that most extracts (plain unhopped) are derived from either 2 or 6 row malts. I would think that a little math could determine how much would be needed to fit the grain bill and then add the crystal malt.

One last thing, if anyone found their site...notice that they don't have an IPA. IT IS TIME!

I was thinking of the LME or in your case the DME. What goes into them? If you can enter it, and the Penobscot Bay Brewery can/will try to duplicate it, the whole idea seems fascinating. Explore the entry and GOOD LUCK.

Had one of their beers a few weeks ago when I was up in the area, Whig Street Blonde. Nice beer! Good luck if you do end up entering the competition.

Keep in mind, they're going to have to tweak whatever the winning recipe is, even if it is an AG recipe, just to match the particulars of their system. And, converting from extract to base grain isn't that big a deal.

Go ahead and enter it without thinking twice.

I know this is an old post, but what was the resolution?

Also, as i read I noticed no one said anything about the type of yeast used, which gives beer most of its flavor. The question of whether or not they would accept extract conpared to AG is relavent, however thats more of an issue of fermentables rather than taste character and body, the real question is would you be able to provide that same yeast strain for commercial availability?

Thanks for all of the great responses everyone. I did enter the competition with that IPA and placed 2nd in the category.

Since then I have been improving the recipe. Adding more hops and umm...alcohol.

The improved recipe is as follows for those of you interested. AG by the way

Grains:

15 lbs 2 row
2 lbs caramel 15L

Hops:

.75 oz Warrior @ 60 min
.75 oz Warrior @ 45 min
1 oz Amarillo @ 15 min
1 oz Falconers Flight @ 5 min (If you don't know what these are you have got to find some. It is a blend of the 7 C's and is very friendly to the nose)
2 oz Cascade for the dry hop (My next batch will be dry hopped with the Falconers but for the sake of argument lets post a delicious recipe that has been made already)

Gravity

OG - 1.084
FG - 1.017

ABV 8.79 %

Yeast

I used safale 05 from previous batches of this recipe but be sure to make a starter. I made a 1L starter and that works quite well for this @ 5 gallons
Mash @ 154 degrees for 1 hr and brew according to hop schedule.

Fermentation:

If you can brew an AG Imperial IPA you probably know all about this

Random:

Irish Moss (Whirlfloc) @ 15 min boil

Hope those of you that brew this enjoy it. It's a bit of work and time but I am sure you will enjoy it.

Let me know what happens

Well I thought I had posted to this thread but maybe not. WHAT KIND OF WEB DEVELOPER AM I? Anyways, I did well in the competition. I got 2nd in the category and a rye IPA finished first. I have tried the rye IPA and it was a very nice brew. I am improving on the recipe for next year. I have also started working on a minty chocolate milk stout brew (I will work on the title) for the next competition as well. Recipes for both are available at request

timothymwilson said:

Thanks for all of the great responses everyone. I did enter the competition with that IPA and placed 2nd in the category.

Since then I have been improving the recipe. Adding more hops and umm...alcohol.

The improved recipe is as follows for those of you interested. AG by the way

Grains:

15 lbs 2 row
2 lbs caramel 15L

Hops:

.75 oz Warrior @ 60 min
.75 oz Warrior @ 45 min
1 oz Amarillo @ 15 min
1 oz Falconers Flight @ 5 min (If you don't know what these are you have got to find some. It is a blend of the 7 C's and is very friendly to the nose)
2 oz Cascade for the dry hop (My next batch will be dry hopped with the Falconers but for the sake of argument lets post a delicious recipe that has been made already)

Gravity

OG - 1.084
FG - 1.017

ABV 8.79 %

Yeast

I used safale 05 from previous batches of this recipe but be sure to make a starter. I made a 1L starter and that works quite well for this @ 5 gallons
Mash @ 154 degrees for 1 hr and brew according to hop schedule.

Fermentation:

If you can brew an AG Imperial IPA you probably know all about this

Random:

Irish Moss (Whirlfloc) @ 15 min boil

Hope those of you that brew this enjoy it. It's a bit of work and time but I am sure you will enjoy it.

Let me know what happens

Click to expand...

Would you be able to give the AA% of the hops used? I'd like to try the extract version of this recipe and will need to adjust with boil volume, etc. in order to get the same total IBU's from your recipe. Thanks

timothymwilson said:

Thanks for all of the great responses everyone. I did enter the competition with that IPA and placed 2nd in the category.

Click to expand...

Hey man, good job on the podium finish, thats awesome!

I used warrior hops in the brew thats in the keg right now. Tastes great, altho i need to adjust the recipe because the IBUS are a little too high. Ive heard good things about Falconers flight as well, ill have to try that in my next pale ale or IPA batch.

AA was 17% for Warrior, 10.3% for Amarillo, 9.9% for Falconers and the cascades (whole leaf) were 7.1%

If your beer is too hoppy with the warrior hops then up the barley. I know that most people would tell you to use a less effective hop...but not me (and I've got the ribbons to go with it). It only makes sense to balance the hop flavor with more malt and perhaps a bit of alcohol pungency. Why neuter your beer?

Total IBU's = 114.7