Buzz off competition

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Dukeman9988

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Does anyone have any information on the Buzz off competiton June 2, 2012 in West Chester? I can't seem to find any information on it and was wondering if anyone has found anything
 
I was at weak knee homebrew shop in pottstown the other day and they said they were a drop off point but he didn't know any info other than that
 
why so long between the drop off deadline and the contest? I don;t want any of my babies sitting in someone's trunk for two weeks:)
 
Beernewb said:
why so long between the drop off deadline and the contest? I don;t want any of my babies sitting in someone's trunk for two weeks:)
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2 weeks is pretty standard for these competitions.

There is a lot involved in those 2 weeks leading up to the competition. In the BUZZ OFF we regularly get 400+ entries. Entries get picked up from the drop off/mail in locations, we inventory all entries, transport them to the judging location, and let them settle for a couple days in the cold storage before they get judged the day of!

Oh, and car trunk is not our typical storage location! We do care about the beer we drink, and we treat your beer like we would treat our own!

:mug:
 
2BorNot said:
Is the drop off locations cold storage as well?
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No, the drop off locations do not have cold storage for the competition entries. In my experience, this is generally not the case for most competition drop-offs. Typically, the entries will be held/stored at room temperature until 3 to 4 days before the competition and then they are put into cold storage at the judging location (which is Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester, PA for the BUZZ OFF). That being said, your beer won't be left in the sun or in the trunk of a car as mentioned before. The BUZZ Homebrew Club has been doing the BUZZ OFF for almost 20 years, and the process has worked well in the past.
 
thanks for the response and info (never entered a contest before), I was just funnin about the trunk..I have an American Brown that I did that I just bottled 5 days ago, so I am going to be playing it close here with that one if I enter...my beers are usually carb'd in 4 or 5 days, but I transferred this to a secondary (not my usual practice) and dry hopped it so it seems to be lagging a bit in the carbonation dept. I guess I'll open another one Saturday and hopefully it will show enough progress for me to bring it out....I actully combined two yeasts (PACMAN and London Ale) for this beer and it really attentuated out and cleared in 5 weeks time. I've never needed to add yeast at bottling in the past, hopefully this won't be a first, because the beer itself turned out pretty nice.
 
I just dropped of my entries today at How Do You Brew. A question for the coordinator; do you send an email confirmation saying you received our entries? Just so we can be at peace knowing you have received our blood, sweat and tears and it wasn’t lost in transit between the drop off and the judging location.
 
ugg..one of mine is just taking it's good ole time carbonating. going to drp off at home sweet homebrew today, hopefully it carbs enough by cold storage time.
 
vtbiscuit said:
The BUZZ Homebrew Club has been doing the BUZZ OFF for almost 20 years, and the process has worked well in the past.
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Thumbs up to BUZZ. Nice simple and concise, but thorough website and entry form. I entered a couple of competitions recently where this was not the case. It’s great dealing with an experienced club like yours.

Had a new recipe for an American IPA that I wanted some feedback on. Just kegged it yesterday. Used the PET bottle / Carbonator Cap "shake and bake" method to get a couple of bottles ready and off to the drop site at the last minute. Not ideal, but looking forward to hearing the judges thoughts.

Hope to make it out to Iron Hill on the 2nd to meet people and share some beers.
 
AnOldUR said:
Thumbs up to BUZZ. Nice simple and concise, but thorough website and entry form. I entered a couple of competitions recently where this was not the case. It’s great dealing with an experienced club like yours.

Had a new recipe for an American IPA that I wanted some feedback on. Just kegged it yesterday. Used the PET bottle / Carbonator Cap "shake and bake" method to get a couple of bottles ready and off to the drop site at the last minute. Not ideal, but looking forward to hearing the judges thoughts.

Hope to make it out to Iron Hill on the 2nd to meet people and share some beers.
Click to expand...

We might head down. Wife is considering. Might first stop at Longwood gardens. Need to get out of town.........

I've got two new beers I want feed back on and a very nice traditional bock that should do well.
 
2BorNot said:
I just dropped of my entries today at How Do You Brew. A question for the coordinator; do you send an email confirmation saying you received our entries? Just so we can be at peace knowing you have received our blood, sweat and tears and it wasn’t lost in transit between the drop off and the judging location.
Click to expand...

With the number of entries that we receive (400+), emailing out a confirmation would be difficult to do. If you dropped of your entry at a shop, then it will be fine (as should those through other means). Do note that if we receive any broken entries, we will contact you per the info on your entry form.

We are always looking at ways to improve our process for the BUZZ OFF, so, as we get through this one and look to future events, we'll see if we can figure out an easy way to do something like this.
 
Hi vtbiscuit,

First and foremost thanks for the great communication re:the event.

second, I dropped my beers off at Home Sweet Homebrew Saturday. George told me it would be cellared, so i explained to him that it was just bottled a few days ago and needed ambient temps. he stated that all beers were to be treated equally....I understand that, but this beer needs some ambient temps bc it's slow to carb, and that's what i assumed was going to happen until a few days before the event. I moved mine from my basement to my living room and they are carb'ing nicely now, but i fear that won't be the case if the ones i gave George are cellared until the contest.

lastly, i was just wondering when the initial judging was happening compared to the finals on 6/2...every day is important to me in my pursuit of carbonation..lol...

thanks.
 
Beernewb said:
Hi vtbiscuit,

First and foremost thanks for the great communication re:the event.

second, I dropped my beers off at Home Sweet Homebrew Saturday. George told me it would be cellared, so i explained to him that it was just bottled a few days ago and needed ambient temps. he stated that all beers were to be treated equally....I understand that, but this beer needs some ambient temps bc it's slow to carb, and that's what i assumed was going to happen until a few days before the event. I moved mine from my basement to my living room and they are carb'ing nicely now, but i fear that won't be the case if the ones i gave George are cellared until the contest.

lastly, i was just wondering when the initial judging was happening compared to the finals on 6/2...every day is important to me in my pursuit of carbonation..lol...

thanks.
Click to expand...

All beer will be treated equally. I'll have to check with the lead coordinator, but I believe they are all stored at room temp until about 3 days before the event when they are all place into a walk-in cooler. Some categories will be judged Friday evening (6/1) and the rest on 6/2. We have to have some judging Friday night due to the number of entries. Essentially it's one big event (all category and best of show judging are done Friday/Saturday).

Good luck, and I hope your beers carbonation kicks in!
 
Not sure yet if I'll make it down or not. If you see an older guy with shoulder length gray hair in a barrette, that will be me (I'm growing my hair out to donate)
 
Ok. No news to anyone reading my posts, but I'm an idiot. Showed up at Iron Hill thinking I might meet Phil or some other homebrewers. Hmmm . . . looks pretty quiet. Ooops! Wrong Iron Hill. Oh well. The IIPA was excellent. One Belgian that was not so good, but another that was. Crab cake, yum. And the chocolate thing that my wife ordered for desert paired nice with the Wee Heavy.

So, now I'm a drunk and full idiot. :mug:
 
AnOldUR said:
Ok. No news to anyone reading my posts, but I'm an idiot. Showed up at Iron Hill thinking I might meet Phil or some other homebrewers. Hmmm . . . looks pretty quiet. Ooops! Wrong Iron Hill. Oh well. The IIPA was excellent. One Belgian that was not so good, but another that was. Crab cake, yum. And the chocolate thing that my wife ordered for desert paired nice with the Wee Heavy.

So, now I'm a drunk and full idiot. :mug:
Click to expand...

lol. I'm sorry, that made me crack up. Which Iron Hill did you go to?

My wife and I, along with some friends, were drinking in the city at various beer bars. Hit up Farmer's Cabinet for the Mikkeler event. Some damn tasty beers. Just checked the website, has not been updated yet.
 
We went to the Iron Hill in North Wales. Dropped competition beer off at Keystone Homebrew in Montgomeryville a couple of weeks ago. That's not too far from North Wales, so I just assumed it was the place.

(I know. Assume = A$$ of you and me.)

Nothing entered that I felt good about. Just looking for feedback, but was looking forward to seeing some homebrewers. Wife puts on a good face, but I know she gets bored of my beer talk. She was a lot happier with just the two of us and the quiet evening we had.
 
next time hit the one in Chestnut Hil (just down 309 a bit from where you were). Paul has some excellent beers on tap there!
 
AnOldUR said:
Ok. No news to anyone reading my posts, but I'm an idiot. Showed up at Iron Hill thinking I might meet Phil or some other homebrewers. Hmmm . . . looks pretty quiet. Ooops! Wrong Iron Hill. Oh well. The IIPA was excellent. One Belgian that was not so good, but another that was. Crab cake, yum. And the chocolate thing that my wife ordered for desert paired nice with the Wee Heavy.

So, now I'm a drunk and full idiot. :mug:
Click to expand...

That's too bad. I was looking forward to meeting you. My wife bailed on me but a buddy said he'd join me so we showed up as they were finishing up the judging. We ended up sitting at the bar and had the sampler and some dinner (slow service). We finally made it back to the back of the bar where they already announcing the winners. We didn't really have much chance to talk to anybody. We didn't have time to hang afterwards due to the 3 hr drive home.

I did walk away with 1st place in the specialty beer category (out of 48 entries in that cat.) for my Light IPA (4.5% ABV) That was a bit of a surprise, based on how it tasted when I bottled it (from the keg). I was lucky and the beer went through a "change" just a couple days ago. The hops finally came together in harmony - just in time.
 
I got my score sheets today!

Oddly, I was at a Homebrew Club meeting the other day and sampling some beers, the one guy tasted my IIPA and remembered judging it. I explained that I should have entered it as a Barleywine, everyone tasting it completely agreed including the judge. It did so poorly, far worse than the other beers I entered scoring only a 13.5.

At any rate, I'm somewhat pleased with my scores and notes, they were pretty much where I thought they'd be so I'm confident in my judgment of my own beers. I'm not too familiar with what a "good" score is on these except for the little box at the bottom left corner of the score sheet. I scored a 26.5, 28 and 30.5 on the other beers. Apparently that's "good" and "very good", but I'm not sure how it stacks up against others in homebrew contests.

At any rate, how did everyone do? The feedback is wonderful on here and despite the judging talent being wildly different, a lot of the same things were said about my beers.
 
I got my scores today. I entered an India Black ale and both judges scored it a 34. Considering it is my first competition entry, I'm pretty pleased.

One of the judges really put the effort into the comments, which I find extremely useful.
 
I brewed a tweaked all-grain version of Biermuncher's Jalapeño Cream Ale (21A) and it scored a 37 winning silver in the Vegetable/Spice Category. I also entered my all-grain recipe of an aged Old Ale (19A) that scored a 42.5 winning Gold in the Strong Ale Category. It was a good day :)
 

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