fowlbrew2, entering any competition can be a boon or a bust. My first entrance was crappy beer with lots of wrong things. As mentioned above, my ego got crushed so I got angry to be honest. If you are openly willing to take whatever is said constructively, ( at first I wasn't) then go for it. I would like to make one suggestion if I could, make the exact same beer the exact same way, unless of course we were doing something "wrong", then fix it first, try again, and then think about it, one more time.
You don't need big fancy equipment to make great beer, but you may need more time. I won a competition using a home made Zapap tun, no pump, no fancy BK with a spout or hardware, and regular stock pots on the stove to heat sparge water in. Yes, it took longer with a lot of "babysitting", but I still made great beer on the cheap. I now have a 30 qt turkey fryer setup and a 40 qt aluminum stock pot for a BK, and no new lauter/sparge tun, or hardware. Would a 10 gal round cooler be nice to have, you bet. How about a small pump for sparging, also nice, but until after tax time, I will do the best i can with what I have. If this sounds like whining, I openly apologize. My point is, if you are creative enough, and, on a budget, you can still make beer you are proud of.
