Good for you! I only two people on that list, I think, just you and Racheal (hotbreakhotel here on the forum). Good job!
Homebrew on the WEB 2012
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Good for you! I only two people on that list, I think, just you and Racheal (hotbreakhotel here on the forum). Good job!
That's pretty sweet that John Palmer may have judged my Berliner ( and the recipe even came from him & Jamil's book ! ). I brewed it last year, and I almost didn't enter it because I don't have much left. It actually is the simplest beer I ever brewed - low grain bill, 15 min. boil, brewday was about half as long as usual. I didn't do a sour mash or anything, I just used White Labs' "Berliner Weisse blend" that they release once a year. Next time I probably will go with a sour mash, because it took a long time (6+ months) to get the amount of sourness I wanted with the blend. Until then, it just tasted really bland whenever I sampled it.
AdamWiz said:
This is probably what I have found to be the biggest benefit of joining a club. It's nice to get knowledgeable feedback on the competition score sheets, but it's one-way feedback. At club meetings, you can share your beers with several people and get constructive feedback right away where you can ask questions about ways to improve, different processes, etc.
jdrowell15
Well-Known Member
Jesse, 2nd Cali Common. Sorry Adam! 
We want to be in a club, but the only one fairly close is KGB and in my opinion they are already pretty large and only going to grow with the popularity of homebrewing lately. Anyone want to help us get a Clawson brew club going? LOL
We want to be in a club, but the only one fairly close is KGB and in my opinion they are already pretty large and only going to grow with the popularity of homebrewing lately. Anyone want to help us get a Clawson brew club going? LOL
jdrowell15
Well-Known Member
BTW, I heard a rumor that Phil is brewing at Kuhnhen's. So he may be a bit too busy to enter as much beer as he usually does.
fishkid
Well-Known Member
Jesse, 2nd Cali Common. Sorry Adam!
We want to be in a club, but the only one fairly close is KGB and in my opinion they are already pretty large and only going to grow with the popularity of homebrewing lately. Anyone want to help us get a Clawson brew club going? LOL
I like brewing. I live in Clawson. I'd help with a Clawson brew club.
jdrowell15
Well-Known Member
fishkid said:
Awesome! Looking forward to reading through you thread about the Detroit water report and comparing it to the report I got after sending in a sample of our water. I've done some adjustments and have gotten great results. Our first 1st place at the Ren. Fest. was water adjusted!
cshamilton
Well-Known Member
This was my first competition and I just got my scoresheets! The e-mail says they hope to get them all out by Thursday.
My IPA didn't fair well, but I knew it had some issues.
My best was a 32/50 for a Sour Stout (cat 23) - I also sent some Apple Wine that scored a 32. Lots of good feedback - I've got less than a year under my belt, so I'm happy with the results.
My IPA didn't fair well, but I knew it had some issues.
My best was a 32/50 for a Sour Stout (cat 23) - I also sent some Apple Wine that scored a 32. Lots of good feedback - I've got less than a year under my belt, so I'm happy with the results.
fishkid
Well-Known Member
Oh that sounds great, I would like to know how accurate those reports are. I've been thinking about sending in water to Ward Labs, is that who you used?
fishkid
Well-Known Member
I also just received my scoresheets,
APA1 - 32
APA2 - 35
Dry Stout - 34.5
Belgian Dark Strong - 36
Black Licorice Porter - 35
I'm pretty happy with the scores although I'd prefer to be decorated in gold
APA1 - 32
APA2 - 35
Dry Stout - 34.5
Belgian Dark Strong - 36
Black Licorice Porter - 35
I'm pretty happy with the scores although I'd prefer to be decorated in gold
Jesse, 2nd Cali Common. Sorry Adam!
Congrats! - no hard feelings. Yours must have been pretty darn good, because the one I entered was pretty much my best recipe. I have brewed and tweaked it several times, and have it pretty much spot-on to Anchor Steam (still one of my favorite commercial beers). It is usually people's favorite among my offerings.
*BTW, anyone else notice that category 7 is pretty much always won by an Altbier? It sems that no matter what, a well-made Alt beats out a well-made Cali common every time. I'm not sure how that happens, since the beers are judged against their own style and not head-to-head. I guess Altbier is just a more liked/respected style, thus scores tend to be higher. Same thing with category 6 - it seems a Kolsch always trumps a cream ale. Anyone else ever notice this?
jdrowell15
Well-Known Member
Yeah I'm pretty sure Ward Labs is who I used fishkid.
Adam, sounds great, how did u score on it?
Adam, sounds great, how did u score on it?
Still no score sheets here - I figured that for people who have medals coming, they are jut going to mail the score sheets with the medals. On the website it says "score sheets for non medal winners will be emailed only" - so I guess if you were a medalist, you don't get them emailed? Did you get yours emailed, and if so, what did you score?
wolverinebrewer
Well-Known Member
My medal and score sheets came in the mail yesterday in a big yellow envelope. I had been waiting for an email but when I got home yesterday from work there it was, in the mail. I have to get to work now.
I won cat 21 and got a silver in 20.
I think Phil scaled back a bit. He does NOT brew at Kuhnenns. He works there sure, but not as a brewer. He has his kolsch on tap but that was from winning a homebrew comp not because he was being paid to be a brewer. Phil is an awesome guy and gets far to many haters.
Not hate - motivation. I don't want to beat him because I dislike him or anything, I want to beat him because he is obviously the top dog right now. It's about wanting to beat the best, no hate involved. I love all my fellow homebrewers!
Fair Enough. I suppose I just mean he gets haters in general. There are alot of people out there that don't like to lose to him all the time...
In sports, most athletes want to compete against the best. It improves their own play and it means more to win.
Nah, not that I know of. He did go in and Brew his Kolsch there as sort of a "Great job winning Midwest Homebrewer of the year". I must say, that beer is absolutely amazing.
Adam, I agree, there should be an american Wild Ale category or something along the lines of what GABF does. A lot of my sours that I sent in the judges complained that they had a lack of body..... really, because at 1.004 it should have amazing body? Come on....
Also comments on my belgian Dark Strong were hilarious. recipe was 100% base malt with JUST 1lb D-90 and 1lb D180 Belgian Candi syrup. I got comments like "Great attempt for a stout", "lacks signature dark Fruit", "Too many Roasted grains"....
mlyday
Well-Known Member
Im wondering if they are ever going to update the honorable mentions section on the results. They remove the old names, but so far nothing new.
I'm starting to wonder when they're going to do anything. Mail just came today, still nothing. No emails either. I know people who live close to me who got their sheets 3 days ago. I'm dying here!!!!!!!
I think a lot of judges just don't judge sours well. I swear, if I get one more "lack of body" knock on a sour beer I will scream. And I'm usually pretty dissapointed in the judging of the Belgian styles, too. Strange thing, the Belgian categories should be some of the most widely varying and open to different interpretations, yet many judges seem to have a pretty narrow view of what a good one should be. And they're obsessed with every singe Belgian needing to be an absolute ester and phenol bomb. I may just need to stop entering Belgians, because my tastes are obviously not what they're looking for, and I'm not going to brew a beer I like less just to score higher.
Yeah, unless it's a Dupont clone, don't bother entering a saison. Apparently Dupont is the only true saison out there in judges' eyes. Saison is a WIDELY varying style, yet seems to be the beer most commonly called "off syle" by judges. And there definitely needs to be at least one more sour category - other than Berliner Weisse, the only way to enter a beer with any sourness and not have it ripped to shreds is if it's a Flanders red or brown. But there are wild beers out there besides those two styles. But outside those styles, sourness is almost always counted as a flaw - even in category 23, which should be open to anything.
My Saison that place was made with a blend of wyeast saison strains (3724/3711) and they said that it was so lactic that it was nearly out of style. One judge erased and changed a couple scores on it, thank god it still made it to the MINI bos where a more experienced judge knew what he was drinking. LOL
You know you can enter sour beers in category 23 or 16E if it doesn't fit one of the already defined styles. When you enter your beers in one of these specialty categories be sure to describe exactly what the beer is. Remember the judges don't know anything about the beer except what you tell them when you enter it in one of these categories. You will need to specify a point of basis for them to judge it against. If you just say 'sour beer' how can a judge judge that against anything... Even just putting 'American Sour Ale' in the comments isn't going to do you any favors. Tell them about the beer so they know what they are judging.
FYI I got a silver with a tart apricot saison.
FYI I got a silver with a tart apricot saison.
Thats exactly what I did with a few beers and they scored ok except my sour imperial stout that was in 23. Noted that it was intended to be a loose clone of JP Madrugada Obscura and noted every detail about it. I got comments complaining about the lack of body and that it didn't retain any of the stout character (roast/chocolate). I sent this same beer into the Michigan beer cup last year and scored a 44 on it from ranked judges and I also sent it in to BrewBubbas in which they reviewed it with Todd parker from copper canyon. He called it a sour breakfast stout and Craig said it could actually be a Jolly pumpkin beer. All three guys loved it. It really just all comes down to who the beer gets put in front of and their own interpretation of the guidlines. I'm not mad at all about it and understand that its all people volunteering and I appreciate that. I take the comments with a grain of salt when it comes to sours.
Was your Tart Saison in cat 16E? Congrats! Was it tart from the fruit?
Actually it was 20-A. Fruit beer. The tartness did come from the apricots in this case. I received a 13 on this beer in another competition because they assumed the tartness was due to infection. I wasn't very specific in my description i just said apricot saison.
Yeah I could see both sides. Typically if you enter a beer as a sour russian imperial stout the judge will judge it to the russian imperial stout guidelines while taking the sour notes you state into account. If they cannot perceive the base style listed then they should give it a lower score. So my advise would be if it doesn't have stout characteristics list a different base style for them to judge against. If it does have stout characteristics then maybe you just had a bad draw. Judging is def subjective.
Yeah I could see both sides. Typically if you enter a beer as a sour russian imperial stout the judge will judge it to the russian imperial stout guidelines while taking the sour notes you state into account. If they cannot perceive the base style listed then they should give it a lower score. So my advise would be if it doesn't have stout characteristics list a different base style for them to judge against. If it does have stout characteristics then maybe you just had a bad draw. Judging is def subjective.
The problem with category 23 is that since there are no style guidelines, it ends up just being a matter of the judge liking the beer or not. And even though 23 should be open to anything, since it is not a defined sour category, a lot of times sour beers get knocked for either "infection", lack of body, or not being close enough to the closest base style (if I was trying to make something closer to the base style, I wouldn't have soured it!). A Flanders Red doesn't get knocked because the style guidelines specify it should be like that( plus the judges who volunteer for the sour category tend to like the funky stuff) - but a sour beer in cat. 23 only gets judged by that particular judge's tastes, so if they aren't a fan of sours you're not going to be scoring well. I know 23 is the toughest category to judge, so I'm not whining or saying that my beers are all better than the judges think or that I've been robbed or anything like that. It just seems that it is hard to get a sour beer judged fairly unless it is one of the defined sour styles. And in category 16E, only a tiny bit of sourness or Brett character seem to be well recieved. Any significant funkiness seems to get the beer knocked. I'm pretty sure I could send in a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin "La Parcela" (a MAGNIFICENT beer) to a homebrewing comp. in category 23, and it would probably score about a 26.
Did you list a club? If so, maybe someone from your club was there and grabbed them, but yeah get ahold of Jay.
mlyday
Well-Known Member
Still no Honorable mentions posted either.
for a beer in category 23 to be judged properly you have to clearly tell the judges what the intent of the beer is. in 23 a judge can only judge what you tell them you've entered.. If it's a sour beer they are going to be looking to see if it is multi-dimensional or just 'sour', etc...
Perhaps there was a mistake on the entry form? Spelling error? Transposed numbers?
mlyday
Well-Known Member
Have you check with your neighbors. We get packages that were intended for or neighbors all the time. It was really tough walking that box of omaha steaks the neighbor bought over to their house. That one almost "got lost in the mail.
I just got an email from Jon, the registration guy who mailed everything out. He's going to email me the scoresheets, but we still don't know where the medals are yet. I'm sure they'll turn up here or there eventually, it's really the scoresheets that I want to see. I'll post the results when I get his email later on.
You're a good neighbor. I may have had to grill at least one before I "remembered" that I didn't order any steaks.
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