Sam Adams Longshots

Who here has entered this? This has been a dream of my brew partner for along time, to enter and win. Well now that he is 3 batches into brewing he wants us to enter. Is it a wot? Would be both of ours first competition entry.

What could it possibly hurt to try?

I have been brewing for a while now, totally for my own consumption. I've recently started brewing for competitions, mainly to get feedback on my brews. Maybe you and your buddy should do the same.

I had planned on gettin ginto competitions this year as i finally think my beer is good enough( im my own worse critic). Lol was just not certain I wanted this to be my 1st. LOL course 5k 1st prize cant hurt either.

Competitions are a blast.... plus this is one of the few without an entry fee. I say go for it.

I'll enter it this year I think, never did before.

You might luck into winning it but a lot of the people that win are long time successful competition brewers who enter several beers every year for years to win. It's one of the biggest honors in homebrewing. I would guess most of the people who win it could care less about the money, they are in it for the challenge and validation.

Some recent winners include Ben Miller who won GABF Pro Am the same year, Mike McDole who was one of the best competition brewers in CA for years and has a bunch of NHC second round medals, Rodney Kibzey who has won twice and been Midwest Homebrewer of the Year and Meadmaker of the Year.

So these are the guys you are up against. By all means enter for the scoresheets because the Longshot judging is pretty darn good. But before you set your heart on winning consider the words of (IIRC) Gordon Strong in The Brewing Network: "You should win something small before you try to win something big."

Now I've jinxed the whole thing and you'll win this year in your first competition so thank me later.

Just finished reading all the rules. then downloaded the bjcp guidelines(first time ever reading those) made up my mind im going for it why not.

I dont know if the best beer/recipe actually wins, i think the best tasting one that they think will sell the best wins.

Also out of the three, i think a fruit beer always wins

like you might have a amazing blonde ale, but i doubt a blonde ale would ever be selected a winner for this contest

molsonG said:

I dont know if the best beer/recipe actually wins, i think the best tasting one that they think will sell the best wins.

Also out of the three, i think a fruit beer always wins

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I think it is all category 23 this year, just like last year.

The semi-finalists?? are selected by judging against BJCP guidelines by BJCP judges, not BBC employees.

BBC then narrows it down a bit but by this point almost all of the entries were eliminated by non-employee judges.

Then the last step is a people's choice at the GABF.

So BBC has some influence over what wins, but really relatively little.

One of the beers is always from the internal BBC employee hombrew comp rather than the public comp (which the other two come from). This tends to be a "odd" beer. It was grape pale ale, cranberry wit, lemon pepper saison and honey lavender ale in the last four years.

molsonG said:

like you might have a amazing blonde ale, but i doubt a blonde ale would ever be selected a winner for this contest

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Probably not, but then they don't win BOS anywhere very often. It is an inspid style generally (the US version).

Relatively tame styles like traditional bock have one in the recent past.

I am submitting a Boston Lager clone.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

I am submitting a Boston Lager clone.

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LoL

Nice.

Pretty good example of something that fits in 23 and is not too weird.

I was thinking of a gose or maybe gratzer or lichtenheiner. I could do a black IPA but given that one was in the pack this year, it is a near guarantee it would get cut in the semifinal stage. Whatever it is, need to brew it next weekend.

You guys sure its category 23 this year?

On the rules page:

. Which category do I enter?

It is up to you. Enter your brew in the category and subcategory where you feel it will perform best. Judges do not see your entry form. Judges or organizers will not classify or reclassify your entry. If your beer falls outside of the category’s guidelines written here, your beer will not be disqualified. The LongShot ® Samuel Adams® American Homebrew Contest® uses the 2008 Beer Judges Certification Program Style Guidelines. A downloadable version of the complete style descriptions is available at http://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.php . Please note this competition only includes style numbers 1 to 23.

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vinyl_key said:

You guys sure its category 23 this year?

On the rules page:

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You're right. Its all categories this year.

Guess not, thought I heard that somewhere.

Dont forget a hazelnut beer won before as well.

this year's sixers have recently been released. only tried one of the three so far, the black IPA, it's really good.

I picked up a sixer on Friday. Best stuff Sam Adams ever brewed.

I'm submitting my Black IPA... really just so I can say I did... don't really care about being cut.

TheBeerNerd said:

I'm submitting my Black IPA... really just so I can say I did... don't really care about being cut.

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Same here. I just ran out of mine so I rebrewed it Friday with the Longshot in mind.

tchuklobrau said:

Who here has entered this? This has been a dream of my brew partner for along time, to enter and win. Well now that he is 3 batches into brewing he wants us to enter. Is it a wot? Would be both of ours first competition entry.

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Go for it.
I did and got this



Cheers,
ClaudiusB

Wow grats Claudius!
Was going to say, this is a heavy comp for a first time. Be aware that they will use all very experienced judges, and they will hold your beer to the proverbial fire. I entered, and was humbled oh well, I know I could do better.

Hey Budzu, you still have some of that Imp Stout? I had some last night and it has really come into its' own!!!1

Sorry to hijack, carry on.

I really want to enter this year, but they say you need to send in 4 bottles, and have 3 on hand in case they need more? I don't mind for quicker beers to brew, but for all my strong ales that have been aged, thats a lot to give up! Local competitions only require 2-3. Do more judges judge your beer at longshot, so you'd get like 4 scoresheets per beer or something? If so that would be worth it.

robertvrabel said:

I really want to enter this year, but they say you need to send in 4 bottles, and have 3 on hand in case they need more? I don't mind for quicker beers to brew, but for all my strong ales that have been aged, thats a lot to give up! Local competitions only require 2-3. Do more judges judge your beer at longshot, so you'd get like 4 scoresheets per beer or something? If so that would be worth it.

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The four are for the first round. I'm not sure why they can't do it with three (for large categories I think you should have two and then you need a third for BOS, I think NHC first rounds should be two and not one, but I digress). The extra three are for the second round where BBC picks the finalists.

No extra judges.

I wouldn't enter something that takes like 9 years to taste good. The finalists are judges by attendees at GABF based on a BBC pilot brew of the recipe that will be fresh. If it doesn't taste good like that, it won't win.

To go off topic again, I had the luxury of trying Claudius beer, and it was a life changing experience. Cheers!!

To the OP If you can, and got the beer ready go for it! As previous posters have said you have nothing to lose, and only something to gain whether you win, get shot down, or get some kind of positive feedback.

It was bottled 2day after 4 years of tweeking this beer i think it is worthy. Am actually rushing things a bit as i will not have time to lager the bottles after 4 wks of conditioning. My buddy has his oyster stout entered. I will be going online and entering my brew when i sober up in the am.

Sent my 2 entries off this morning. Northern English Brown and a Cat. 23.

sent mine and my buddies this am cat 23 and a 16E an oyster stout and a dubbel with red currants

Do they actually send you a scoresheet? or only something if you win like the certificate above?

I sent off a black IPA yesterday.

Entry deadline is this friday?? The only thing I could enter by that time is my o-fest, and it isn't quite ready yet...

mrk00k said:

Do they actually send you a scoresheet? or only something if you win like the certificate above?

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Also, Do you know what they mean by Classic Style in the entry form? Don't know what to put there.

Sent mine off today. American IPA (with a little Rye), Black IPA (Category 23), and a Maibock that I think is pretty tasty. Hopefully FedEx doesn't smash them before they get to Cali.

mrk00k said:

Also, Do you know what they mean by Classic Style in the entry form? Don't know what to put there.

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For category 23, you would put the base style there. Same for fruit beers. Using my entry as an example, I brewed a Black IPA and put American IPA in the Classic Style box.

The rules do say that the max for the OG of ales is 1.068, and the max for the OG of lagers is 1.090. I wonder why this is? It doesn't make much sense to me that lagers have a higher allowed OG than ales.

http://www.samueladams.com/promotions/LongShot2011/rules.aspx

Lager:
· OG Range: 11.8 – 20 ºP (1.044 -1.090)
· Fermentation Temperature: 53 - 60ºF
Ale:
· OG Range: 11.8 – 16.5 ºP (1.044 -1.068)
· Fermentation Temperature: 65 - 70 ºF

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Entering an Imperial Red and a Belgian-style Barleywine

big malt, big hops!

driving down to the brewery tomorrow afternoon!!!

mrk00k said:

Do they actually send you a scoresheet? or only something if you win like the certificate above?

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they are supposed to send u an actual score card from what i read

tchuklobrau said:

they are supposed to send u an actual score card from what i read

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I got score sheets last year and a t-shirt.

I work near the Sam Adams brewery in Boston. I dropped my beer off Thursday. However, so that we could all start on an equal footing, I actually put the beer in my car Wednesday, drove it all around, left it in the car overnight, then dropped it a few times onto the pavement, then dropped it off at the brewery on Thursday.







Actually, didn't drop it on the pavement, but the rest is true.