Survey of Award Winning BJCP Ciders - Please Submit Yours!

I am compiling a list of BJCP competition winning ciders characteristics, specifically what the stated BJCP Guideline level of sweetness & carbonation were for any past award winning ciders. The 5 levels of sweetness are:

Dry:
Final gravity less than 1.002.
There is no perception of sweetness.

Medium-dry:
Final gravity of 1.002- 1.004.
There is a hint of sweetness but the
cider is still perceived primarily as dry.

Medium:
Final gravity 1.004 - 1.009. Sweetness is now a notable component
of the overall character.

Medium-sweet:
Final gravity 1.009-1.019.
The cider is sweet but
still refreshing.

Sweet:
Final gravity of over 1.019. The
cider has the character of a dessert wine.

And the 3 levels of carbonation ( CO2 vol are my best estimates )

Still
No or little carbonation ( < 1.5 vol CO2 )

Petillant
some carbonation ( 1.5 to 2.5 vol CO2 )

Sparkling
bubbles ( > 2.5 vol CO2 )

If you have entered any ciders into a past or present BJCP competition and placed ( 1st - Honorable Mention), can you please reply to this thread with the category you entered (Common, English, New England, Spiced, etc) and the levels your cider had for sweetness and carbonation. Once all the data is compiled I'll summarize it into a report and post it here.

Please add the state that the competition took place in, and feel free to add the name of the competition if you want.

Thank you!

Follow the examples below if possible: Style - Sweetness - Carbonation - State :

New England Cider - Still - Medium Dry - 2nd, Rhode Island, 2015

New World Cider - Petillant - Dry - 2nd, Massachusetts, 2015

Cider with Fruit - Petillant - Medium Dry - 2nd, New York, 2016

Cider with Herbs/Spices - Petillant - Medium Dry - 3rd, New York, 2016

Jeez... you know, I think I make pretty good ciders, but I have to admit it's never lasted long enough for me to enter it into any comps! It might not be worth much to you, but for whatever it's worth, my preferred ciders in the "Common" style finish about 1.008, are still to petillant, and around 5.5 to 6.5% ABV (OG 1.050-1.060). Also, I'm a Certified judge and cider connoisseur, having tasted about 100 commercial ciders from all over the world from USA to British to Irish to French to Basque, so I think my opinion sort of half-counts, maybe, even if I don't have any "real" BJCP comp data to give you.

Hope you get what you need. Cheers.

Following, good luck on your data mining.

pricelessbrewing said:

Following, good luck on your data mining.

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Me too

Here are some of mine. Some of these are repeat recipes and even same batch in case that makes a difference.

As you can see, I shoot for Medium sweetness (around 1.008 usually) and petillant carbonation (about 2.3-2.4 volumes, since my beer is in the same kegerator and I carb all to the same level).

New World Cider – Medium – Petillant – 1st NHC First Round 2016 (MO)
Cider with Fruit (Black Cherry) – Medium – Petillant - 1st NHC First Round 2016 (MO)
New World Cider – Medium – Petillant – 3rd KCBM 2016 (MO)
New World Cider – Medium – Petillant – 3rd Midwinter Homebrew Comp 2016 (WI)
Cider with Fruit (Black Cherry) – Medium – Petillant – 2nd Midwinter Homebrew Comp 2016 (WI)
Cider with Fruit (Pomegranate) – Medium – Petillant – 1st NERHBC 2015 (NH)
Cider with Fruit (Black Cherry) – Medium – Petillant – 2nd NERHBC 2015 (NH)
Cider with Herbs/Spices (Fireball) – Medium – Petillant – 3rd NERHBC 2015 (NH)

stevo155 said:

Here are some of mine. Some of these are repeat recipes and even same batch in case that makes a difference.

As you can see, I shoot for Medium sweetness (around 1.008 usually) and petillant carbonation (about 2.3-2.4 volumes, since my beer is in the same kegerator and I carb all to the same level).

New World Cider – Medium – Petillant – 1st NHC First Round 2016 (MO)
Cider with Fruit (Black Cherry) – Medium – Petillant - 1st NHC First Round 2016 (MO)
New World Cider – Medium – Petillant – 3rd KCBM 2016 (MO)
New World Cider – Medium – Petillant – 3rd Midwinter Homebrew Comp 2016 (WI)
Cider with Fruit (Black Cherry) – Medium – Petillant – 2nd Midwinter Homebrew Comp 2016 (WI)
Cider with Fruit (Pomegranate) – Medium – Petillant – 1st NERHBC 2015 (NH)
Cider with Fruit (Black Cherry) – Medium – Petillant – 2nd NERHBC 2015 (NH)
Cider with Herbs/Spices (Fireball) – Medium – Petillant – 3rd NERHBC 2015 (NH)

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Thanks for posting Steve, you sure have a collection of hardware, congrats!

In the 2015 California Cider Competition they had some experienced cider judges, and even did a sensory-evaluation workshop for the judges prior to the competition, so I entered in the hope of getting some useful feedback. Instead I won a Double Gold and never got any scoresheets or medals...
http://www.californiacidercompetition.com/results/2015-mas-cider-competition/

eta: I entered four ciders, all were Dry and Petillant. The one that got Double Gold was a New World cider (Golden Russet, Roxbury Russet, Black Twig blend). The others were more like English ciders, tannic and funky; two silvers and a bronze.

DOUBLE GOLD!! congrats, and thanks for posting the link, what SG do you bottle them at, if you don't mind me asking?

I always let my ciders go dry, and keg them after they have gone clear. Trying to stabilize a cider with residual sugar is not worth it to me; I actually have come to prefer dry ciders, though for some of the more tannic batches a little residual sugar would help. If I was serious about competing, I would definitely go to the extra trouble of sorbating & sulfiting to get a sweeter finish, because truly dry ciders (SG 1.000) rarely win. (Especially in homebrew comps.)

As an example, I entered this same cider in the AHA competition, and it did not even place in the regional round. Same cider, different judges.

My best competition cider (and my favorite to drink) is a maple bourbon cider:

Specialty Cider (Common Cider aged with bourbon-soaked oak) &#8211; Medium &#8211; Sparkling &#8211; 1st NERHBC 2013 (NH); 3rd NERHBC 2014 (NH); 1st NHC 1st round (KC), 2014 (made the cat. 28 mini BOS in the finals but sadly didn't medal).

I ferment this cider until it's clear and has had enough time on oak, and then keg, carbonate, and backsweeten to taste with maple syrup. Instead of messing with sorbating etc., I just bottle from the keg and pasteurize.

Albionwood said:

I always let my ciders go dry, and keg them after they have gone clear. Trying to stabilize a cider with residual sugar is not worth it to me; I actually have come to prefer dry ciders, though for some of the more tannic batches a little residual sugar would help. If I was serious about competing, I would definitely go to the extra trouble of sorbating & sulfiting to get a sweeter finish, because truly dry ciders (SG 1.000) rarely win. (Especially in homebrew comps.)

As an example, I entered this same cider in the AHA competition, and it did not even place in the regional round. Same cider, different judges.

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Amen to that, I thought I was the only crazy one perturbed that dry ciders are a kiss of death in homebrew competitions. It is actually quite sad that your double gold entry did not make it past the first round, indication of the judges current lack of knowledge concerning ciders. There will be the second trial cider exam at NHC this year, then hopefully they will finalize and publish the exam and more people can get certified.

roxbob said:

My best competition cider (and my favorite to drink) is a maple bourbon cider:

Specialty Cider (Common Cider aged with bourbon-soaked oak) – Medium – Sparkling – 1st NERHBC 2013 (NH); 3rd NERHBC 2014 (NH); 1st NHC 1st round (KC), 2014 (made the cat. 28 mini BOS in the finals but sadly didn't medal).

I ferment this cider until it's clear and has had enough time on oak, and then keg, carbonate, and backsweeten to taste with maple syrup. Instead of messing with sorbating etc., I just bottle from the keg and pasteurize.

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roxbob, I have been thinking about doing the same to stablize mine, the sulfites tend to linger too long, would you mind sharing some of your times and techniques for pasteurization? PM me if possible to keep the thread on topic

Many thanks

bembel said:

Amen to that, I thought I was the only crazy one perturbed that dry ciders are a kiss of death in homebrew competitions. It is actually quite sad that your double gold entry did not make it past the first round, indication of the judges current lack of knowledge concerning ciders. There will be the second trial cider exam at NHC this year, then hopefully they will finalize and publish the exam and more people can get certified.

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You're not the only one. I also have the same problem with mead.

bembel said:

Amen to that, I thought I was the only crazy one perturbed that dry ciders are a kiss of death in homebrew competitions. It is actually quite sad that your double gold entry did not make it past the first round, indication of the judges current lack of knowledge concerning ciders. There will be the second trial cider exam at NHC this year, then hopefully they will finalize and publish the exam and more people can get certified.

Click to expand...

The scoresheets from the NHC judges were very interesting. One judge's comments suggest to me that he doesn't really know much about cider (suggested I "try using a sweeter varity [sic] apple") and basically just wanted it to be sweeter. The other judge wrote longer comments, much more insightful, and she had more interesting suggestions ("almost a whiskey-like experience and I found myself wishing for a little oak"). I would say that they are both correct in that some sweetness might improve this cider, because it has noticeable tannin character, which accentuates the dryness. Too bad for me, as this is actually the least tannic of the batches I considered entering!

Albionwood said:

The scoresheets from the NHC judges were very interesting. One judge's comments suggest to me that he doesn't really know much about cider (suggested I "try using a sweeter varity [sic] apple") and basically just wanted it to be sweeter. The other judge wrote longer comments, much more insightful, and she had more interesting suggestions ("almost a whiskey-like experience and I found myself wishing for a little oak"). I would say that they are both correct in that some sweetness might improve this cider, because it has noticeable tannin character, which accentuates the dryness. Too bad for me, as this is actually the least tannic of the batches I considered entering!

Click to expand...

I've had some interesting judge's comments as well, telling me to "lower the amount of crab apples in the blend" when the cider was entered as a single variety, or listing flavors from certain spices that were never used, but that's how it goes, (I'm slowly learning)

I started the thread to learn what the judges 'in general' favor at BJCP competitions, and so far my hunch seems right. When the Glintcap results get posted tomorrow it will be interesting, I sent in 6 ciders, 3 of which were bone dry, and all 3 of those were also entered in NHC but failed to advance as well, where as my 2 flavored, semi-dry entries advanced.

GLINTCAP should be a great place to enter dry ciders - you should get a fair judging there. A very different crowd from the homebrew comps. Wish I'd entered... Good luck to you!

btw - thanks for the congrats on the Double Gold - it's a long story but it was a big surprise. Now I am trying to get my homebrew club to call me "DG."

Albionwood said:

GLINTCAP should be a great place to enter dry ciders - you should get a fair judging there. A very different crowd from the homebrew comps. Wish I'd entered... Good luck to you!

btw - thanks for the congrats on the Double Gold - it's a long story but it was a big surprise. Now I am trying to get my homebrew club to call me "DG."

Click to expand...

So GLINTCAP results are just posted, 214 entries in the non-commercial division. Ciders ranked 30-37 get a bronze, 38-44 get a sliver and 45-50 a gold. I asked the organizer to share data regarding the sweetness and carbonation levels of the medal winners, will wait and see.

I took Silver for my New England Cider, I listed it as Still, Dry, but since learned that even with sorbate and sulfite it continued to ferment so it was petillant carbonated and had an SG of 999 vs. the 1.001 which I bottled it at, tasted completely different. Lessons learned!

Specialty Cider and Perry - Still - Sweet - GLINTCAP 2016 - silver
"Pappy`s Pub hard cider"

I've placed 14 ciders over the years, mostly common a few specialties. All of my ciders have finished at 1.000 or lower and are petulant. Like them nice and dry!

Albionwood said:

In the 2015 California Cider Competition they had some experienced cider judges, and even did a sensory-evaluation workshop for the judges prior to the competition, so I entered in the hope of getting some useful feedback. Instead I won a Double Gold and never got any scoresheets or medals...
http://www.californiacidercompetition.com/results/2015-mas-cider-competition/

eta: I entered four ciders, all were Dry and Petillant. The one that got Double Gold was a New World cider (Golden Russet, Roxbury Russet, Black Twig blend). The others were more like English ciders, tannic and funky; two silvers and a bronze.

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What exactly is a double gold? I'm not familiar with the term.

bembel said:

So GLINTCAP results are just posted, 214 entries in the non-commercial division. Ciders ranked 30-37 get a bronze, 38-44 get a sliver and 45-50 a gold. I asked the organizer to share data regarding the sweetness and carbonation levels of the medal winners, will wait and see.

I took Silver for my New England Cider, I listed it as Still, Dry, but since learned that even with sorbate and sulfite it continued to ferment so it was petillant carbonated and had an SG of 999 vs. the 1.001 which I bottled it at, tasted completely different. Lessons learned!

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entered 4 in GLINTCAP this year, and judged.
New England still semi-dry
Fruit Cider petillant semi-sweet
Ice Cider still sweet
all Gold

of course, my New World - Heritage (sparkling medium) is IMO the best thing I make. 26/50, haha. Shared the remaining bottles with talented amateurs and pros, almost universally loved. It happens, and we're working on improving judging and cider knowledge. Am on Cider Exam Committee. There will be a third beta cider exam at NHC Baltimore with a plan to be Live next year in Minnesota.

cheers--
--Michael

Everyday Simplest Dry Cider New World Cider, C1A 1st Standard Cider, 1st BOS Cider, GTA Brews Spring Seasonal 2016. Dry 1.000 Petillant
Redheaded Stepchild, (New World) Cider with Herbs and spices, 1st Specialty Cider 2nd BOS GTAbrews Spring Seasonal 2016. 1.006, but comes across Med Dry, Petillant
Edwort's Apfelwein, C2C Applewine, 2nd Specialty Cider GTAbrews Spring Seasonal 2016 Medium/Medium-Dry, Petillant

mwilcox said:

entered 4 in GLINTCAP this year, and judged.
New England still semi-dry
Fruit Cider petillant semi-sweet
Ice Cider still sweet
all Gold

of course, my New World - Heritage (sparkling medium) is IMO the best thing I make. 26/50, haha. Shared the remaining bottles with talented amateurs and pros, almost universally loved. It happens, and we're working on improving judging and cider knowledge. Am on Cider Exam Committee. There will be a third beta cider exam at NHC Baltimore with a plan to be Live next year in Minnesota.

cheers--
--Michael

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Mike, you should get a second Best in Class for being so humble,

CONGRATULATIONS!

I'm planning to take the beta exam in Baltimore, hope I get a chance to connect with you!

PS, please bring a bottle of the NW-H that got the 26 with you to NHC, I'm in the same damn boat, IMO my best cider to date is a NW-H (petillant-dry) that ALSO scored a 26 at Glintcap,

bembel said:

Mike, you should get a second Best in Class for being so humble,

CONGRATULATIONS!

I'm planning to take the beta exam in Baltimore, hope I get a chance to connect with you!

PS, please bring a bottle of the NW-H that got the 26 with you to NHC, I'm in the same damn boat, IMO my best cider to date is a NW-H (petillant-dry) that ALSO scored a 26 at Glintcap,

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Don't think I've ever been called humble before, ha!

I'm bringing a different Heritage blend to NHC but close enough. Think I've got 9 ciders and two cysers in the car (left yesterday) so find the guy surrounded by 5'10" bearded overweight fruit flies.