Homebrew Competitions

[DevilNuts]

Hey all,

Having settled in to my new home in Southern California, I've been toying with the idea of entering something into a local brew competition. I'm not really looking to take home the gold, I just think it would be a good opportunity to get plugged into the homebrewing community, do some networking, meet people, learn something and who knows - maybe my beer is good enough to impress someone.

Thing is, I have no idea how this works. I know what the BJCP is, but beyond that I'm lost in the sauce. Can anyone who has entered beers give a few pointers to the new guy as far as what to look out for, and what to expect?

 

[microbusbrewery]

Definitely enter a comp, it's a good way to get feedback. I'd also consider stewarding at the comp. It's a cool way to see what goes on behind the scenes of a comp and it can be a good way to meet fellow brewers. You'll get a chance to try good and bad examples of different styles without the pressure/responsibility of judging. Also, join a local homebrew club. Comps are great places to get objective feedback but so are clubs and usually on a more frequent basis.

As for comp tips, here are a few things I can think of:

1. If you enter one of the specialty categories, be sure to specify the base beer style. Judges aren't mind readers and it tends to tick them off when they have to guess the base beer.
2. If you enter one of the categories that require you to list special ingredients, do so but only list ingredients that are detectable. For example, if you've used a spice like vanilla but the vanilla character has faded, you might get dinged for listing it if they can't identify it.
3. Evaluate the beer yourself and enter it in the category that best fits how the beer turned out rather than what you intended it to be. For example, if you brewed an IPA but for one reason or another it fits better in the pale ale category, enter it as a pale ale.
4. Remember judges are not perfect. They do their best to objectively score your entry, but things like flight order can impact scoring. Say you enter it an IPA and it's the last beer in the flight. The judges will likely be suffering from palate fatigue and will score it differently than if it was the first beer in the flight. So don't get discouraged if your entry doesn't score as well as you expected.

 

[Lazer Wolf Brewing]

Where in SoCal did you move to?

 

[DevilNuts]

I'm in Twentynine Palms, about a two hour ride from San Diego.

 

[DevilNuts]

I found one pretty close by that goes in March, but I think I am disqualified already :smack: The rules say bottles must be capped silver or gold, and the Belgian I want to enter is capped orange.

One thing I am definitely NOT doing is recapping those bottles.

 

[Wolfbayne]

Just sharpie marker the cap black. They just want all plain Jane bottles..lol.

What comp are you looking at that is close?

I'm at Ft Irwin..just right down the road. Welcome to the high desert!

 

[kev211]

Im gonna be entering the Romancing the Brew Competition that is done by thousand oaks homebrew club. Looks like a pretty good competition. Two things I would recommend, join the AHA; its a great way to find out about competitions AND get good guidelines for them. Also, if you can find a Homebrew Club up there, maybe in Yucca Valley or Morongo they can provide valuable resources for entering competitions and feedback on your brews