How far in advance...

[Jako]

How far in advance do you guys start brewing for a competition? Beside the obvious x amount so the beer is aged correctly.

For me my local brew off is the first week of September. I started 2 weeks ago. I am now finishing up my 3rd batch (its chilling now). But even before that I started to plan and prep my gear a month ago.

 

[Sadu]

How far in advance do you guys start brewing for a competition? Beside the obvious x amount so the beer is aged correctly.

For me my local brew off is the first week of September. I started 2 weeks ago. I am now finishing up my 3rd batch (its chilling now). But even before that I started to plan and prep my gear a month ago.

There's a few ways to look at it. Sometimes I'll just brew beer, make sure I keep a few bottles from every batch, then come submission time I'll submit what I think is good or what I want feedback on. For this reason, I rarely brew off-style.
Other comps require you to brew something specific. I like to allow a couple of extra weeks on top of what I think the beer needs so that it's not rushed and if there's any issues like slow carbonation those can be dealt with. So if I'm normally drinking a hefe in 2 weeks, I'd brew that 4 weeks out. You can also win comps by keeping a box of aged yummy stuff in the basement for a couple of years. That trick has served me well.
I suspect everyone has their own way of doing things.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Generally I brew when I want, and if there's a competition that arises and I have something ready to submit, I'll enter it. So I am not exactly the "brew for a competition" type.

That said, something that is scheduled and for which you'd really want to participate, like your own homebrew club's internal competition, I understand the reasoning. I think my club is doing a brew-off against another club late this year so I'll be brewing specifically for that one.

The short answer is that there is no clear answer. It all depends on the styles you are brewing, scheduling them so they're at the optimal age.

The longer answer, however, is for most beers that you'd probably err towards fresher rather than not. Anything that requires strong hop aroma should be as fresh as you can do. Anything that is very low gravity tends to prefer freshness. Beers that are more neutral, higher ABV, and won't fade can go a bit longer. This of course takes into account the assumption that if all your processes are good, freshness is better. I'm not a big believer that beers "need" to age to taste good, because I know that I can go grain to glass in under two weeks on some beers and they're great.

So the key is to plan out exactly what you want to brew. Figure out what ages better or worse, and plan your brew days accordingly such that the beers that need to be freshest are the last ones to brew. And obviously if you're brewing something that really appreciates age, you want to brew those as far in advance as possible.

 

[Jako]

Generally I brew when I want, and if there's a competition that arises and I have something ready to submit, I'll enter it. So I am not exactly the "brew for a competition" type.

That said, something that is scheduled and for which you'd really want to participate, like your own homebrew club's internal competition, I understand the reasoning. I think my club is doing a brew-off against another club late this year so I'll be brewing specifically for that one.

The short answer is that there is no clear answer. It all depends on the styles you are brewing, scheduling them so they're at the optimal age.

The longer answer, however, is for most beers that you'd probably err towards fresher rather than not. Anything that requires strong hop aroma should be as fresh as you can do. Anything that is very low gravity tends to prefer freshness. Beers that are more neutral, higher ABV, and won't fade can go a bit longer. This of course takes into account the assumption that if all your processes are good, freshness is better. I'm not a big believer that beers "need" to age to taste good, because I know that I can go grain to glass in under two weeks on some beers and they're great.

So the key is to plan out exactly what you want to brew. Figure out what ages better or worse, and plan your brew days accordingly such that the beers that need to be freshest are the last ones to brew. And obviously if you're brewing something that really appreciates age, you want to brew those as far in advance as possible.

this is exactly the approach i took. what yeast i had available played into it. its hard to justify 10$ for a batch of yeast that i will only use once. brewing like this gave me a little more appreciation for the guys who brew 10+ beers to enter the planning and gear needed to line all that up is insane. but i am also having a ton of fun planning and making lots of beer.