what creates award winning beer

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A good recipe, fresh ingredients, proper sanitation and fermentation temperature control, proper yeast handling and pitch rate, good packaging practices, proper bottling handling protocol by the competition stewards... I'm not really sure what you're asking for here.
 
I think the most important things are the fundamentals of sanitation, patience, pitching the right amount of yeast, and maintaining proper fermentation temps. The other important thing to doing it consistently is knowing both your brewery, process, and the ingredients you're using. The only way you get that knowledge is through brewing. The etexample I'd use for showing the necessity of knowing your brewery is the reality that if Jon Kimmich came to my house to brew with my cooler mash-tun, water, how I heat strike/sparge water, etc. and we made a similar beer I'm betting if it were his first time on my system it'd be a dead heat for who makes the best beer. Not because I'm a better brewer, the man has more talent in his pinky and has forgotten more about brewing through tens of thousands of hours of practice than I will ever learn in a lifetime. The reason? Because I know my system a lot better than him... good luck big boy hitting strike temp and knowing how my crush reacts etc.

There is no perfect answer to it. The first tripel I ever brewed would surely have placed in a comp had I entered it. On the flip side I just won 1st place in 2 of 7 total categories in a brew comp and my blonde finished 3rd overall in the BOS round. That blonde is perhaps the 5th blonde I've made, revising the recipe as I go, plus having learned about that base beer every time I've made similar brews such as Belgian blondes or lighter pale ales. There just is no perfect answer but I assure you the more you brew, study, learn from your experiences, and 'do the work' the better brewer you will be.
 
Sorry I guess I meant what truly makes an amazingly great beer not award winning. That's what I meant
 
I'll add my two cents. I trust most on here to be able to brew so I'm going to go with the recipe.
 
I'm gonna be the devil's butt hole here. you can have a great recipe with all the best ingredients, but if you have problems in your process you'll have problems in your beer. such as: under pitching (common), not aerating/oxygenating (especially higher grave beers), poor grain crush, mashing too high or low for the recipe, fermenting too high or too low (depending on the taste profile of the recipe), sanitation, sanitation, sanitation, opening the bucket every 2 hours to see if anything has changed, oxidizing at bottling or kegging, light struck, etc...
 
Sure good point. I think I got lucky with some of this because I dump my beer into the fermenter I think it aerates the wort. A packet of yeast seems to do it. I'll be the devil butthole Guess my faith is a little higher. Do you do all that stuff? You wouldn't assume I do would you
 
Ultimately I think there is no answer to this question. What makes a great beer depends a lot on the preference of the drinker. Some people like sweet and malty, some people like dried out and bitter.

I think most of these answers are excellent advice for how to not make BAD beer. By brewing over and over, trying different styles, getting feedback and adjusting your recipe/process you can make a beer that you think is great. And isn't that what should really matter to a home brewer?
 
In addition to what others have said: simplicity. We have so many ingredient options (specifically malts) that it's easy to include way too many ingredients and muddle the flavor. Often the simplest recipes are the best.
 
Billy-Klubb said:
I'm gonna be the devil's butt hole here. you can have a great recipe with all the best ingredients, but if you have problems in your process you'll have problems in your beer. such as: under pitching (common), not aerating/oxygenating (especially higher grave beers), poor grain crush, mashing too high or low for the recipe, fermenting too high or too low (depending on the taste profile of the recipe), sanitation, sanitation, sanitation, opening the bucket every 2 hours to see if anything has changed, oxidizing at bottling or kegging, light struck, etc...
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I'm going to counter butthole... If you have a great recipe, that is going to trump process. The only caveat is yeast, which trumps all. I take many of my process cues from cooking. A great recipe can go without an ingredient or two and a missed step in the process. This is all considering your taking the brewing mis like pitching enough yeast.

I also would like to include my own personal belief, that mash temp has some, but very little to do with how the final beer tastes with today's modified grains. Most recent beer I brewed, my process changed, and I mashed at 148 - 146. Is it drier then when I mashed at 154? Marginally... but the yeast and it's temp rules all. I raised the temp too fast on this beer, and the esters, are king/queen, and the fact that I mashed too low is only a slight difference. :mug:
 
applescrap said:
Sure good point. I think I got lucky with some of this because I dump my beer into the fermenter I think it aerates the wort. A packet of yeast seems to do it. I'll be the devil butthole Guess my faith is a little higher. Do you do all that stuff? You wouldn't assume I do would you
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I personally don't assume anyone does that. But brewing is VERY process-driven. If you want to great great beer, relying on getting "lucky" will not consistently do it.

It's easy to make good beer. It's actually not that hard to make good beer consistently. But to make great beer consistently requires having great brewing process.
 
I don't consider beer art, it's artisan. While there are aspects of art, the craftsmanship is what brings it home.

To win awards, you need to have a great recipe and a great process. I would also add, you want to be at the top end of the style - and any addition should be prominenet - if it's vanilla beer, it had better be vanilla.

Finally, you have to really pay attention to the category you enter.
 
applescrap said:
Sure good point. I think I got lucky with some of this because I dump my beer into the fermenter I think it aerates the wort. A packet of yeast seems to do it. I'll be the devil butthole Guess my faith is a little higher. Do you do all that stuff? You wouldn't assume I do would you
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I always assume people make mistakes. the reason why is because people are made out of humans. humans make mistakes.

BreezyBrew said:
I'm going to counter butthole... If you have a great recipe, that is going to trump process. The only caveat is yeast, which trumps all. I take many of my process cues from cooking. A great recipe can go without an ingredient or two and a missed step in the process. This is all considering your taking the brewing mis like pitching enough yeast.

I also would like to include my own personal belief, that mash temp has some, but very little to do with how the final beer tastes with today's modified grains. Most recent beer I brewed, my process changed, and I mashed at 148 - 146. Is it drier then when I mashed at 154? Marginally... but the yeast and it's temp rules all. I raised the temp too fast on this beer, and the esters, are king/queen, and the fact that I mashed too low is only a slight difference. :mug:
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so I can have a great recipe and it will always turn out to be great beer? I don't have to sanitize anymore? sweet! improve your process (as well as your recipes/ingredients) and you'll improve your beer.:rockin:
 
If you really want to win the County fair ribbon wouldn't you make one pie.......i would think the best beer possible would be made in one gallon batch no?
 
It's a balance. A really amazing recipe can be ruined by shoddy sanitation or poor temperature control, and having all your processes down to a fine science probably won't help if your recipe just involves throwing a bunch of random stuff in the brewpot and hoping for the best.

I would say process is slightly more important (so you can reproduce a good recipe without relying on dumb luck) but you can't neglect one side to focus entirely on the other.
 
Don't forget water. Water, to me , is right after fermentation temp control for importance in quality beer.

That whole 'if it tastes good it'll be good for brewing' line is too broad of a generalization. One of the steps to making a good beer great is making sure your water is right for your recipe.
 
The_Bishop said:
Don't forget water. Water, to me , is right after fermentation temp control for importance in quality beer.

That whole 'if it tastes good it'll be good for brewing' line is too broad of a generalization. One of the steps to making a good beer great is making sure your water is right for your recipe.
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I feel this is an overlooked ingredient in recipe formulation. it's just as important as other quality ingredients and as important as fermentation control and sanitation.
 
I have to agree to disagree and find a way to respect peoples passion for a process that is really difficult to screw up I know because I would have by now. I started brewing in a $9 Walmart pot and moved up to a 8 gallon tamale pot that was $20 mostly because I wasn't sure my stove would work and I didn't want to waste money on a pot I didn't need. I will say that I am blessed with an above average ability to cook and that skill no doubt likely aids me in ways it might not others. My sister probably couldn't brew. And perhaps I should see my skills in the kitchen as not everyone having. But when I first started brewing I was shocked at my local beer store how worried they were about not having an ingredient or getting the weight right. They were like you mean you want to substitute! Or that I would just change the recipe adding different s*** as I saw fit. I can say with definitive proof and knowledge what you put in it is what you get out and yes affected by the process. I've tasted every grain in every store I've been in if you haven't then you really don't understand a very massive piece of brewing. expensive equipment won't make better beer than a $20 pot because What's in either pot is what matters. Don't believe me check out some of jamil z. Recipes. All this being said I will give respect to the process in that my sister probably couldn't brew and it could be harder for some than others. Unless you're competing worrying about all this stuff doesn't make sense to me. As a final note brewing on the stove I think has made it easier as well
 
As someone who has submitted beers with average scores as low as 25 and as high as 44, I would say that luck has a bit to do with it as well. My breakdown would be:

33% Recipe
33% Process
34% What the judges are looking for
 
applescrap said:
Sorry brah just assume most people have more than $20 invested
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and what if they do? are you better than them because you didn't "need" to spend as much as them? are they arrogant for having more expensive equipment? why would this even be brought up when no one else had mentioned it?
 
applescrap said:
But when I first started brewing I was shocked at my local beer store how worried they were about not having an ingredient or getting the weight right. They were like you mean you want to substitute! Or that I would just change the recipe adding different s*** as I saw fit. I can say with definitive proof and knowledge what you put in it is what you get out and yes affected by the process. I've tasted every grain in every store I've been in if you haven't then you really don't understand a very massive piece of brewing.
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No one is knocking substitutions. They're fine if handled intelligently. Subbing Citra because the LHBS was out of Amarillo will probably work, subbing a lager yeast in a saison (and treating it like a saison yeast)...not so much.
 
Frankly, if you want to win awards, you have to learn how to 'game' competitions.

I don't really design beers to strictly meet BJCP categories. I brew what I like. There are a lot of tricks to winning awards, not necessarily the same as making great beer. A dead perfect blonde ale can win a category, but probably won't win a best of show.

Finally, know the rules - is it BJCP 08, 15, just people's choice...
 
MattyIce said:
As someone who has submitted beers with average scores as low as 25 and as high as 44, I would say that luck has a bit to do with it as well. My breakdown would be:

33% Recipe
33% Process
34% What the judges are looking for
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Good for you for admitting luck plays a role. I absolutely agree. I'm a decent golfer but I gotta tell you for a really good round there has to be some luck
 
Billy-Klubb said:
and what if they do? are you better than them because you didn't "need" to spend as much as them? are they arrogant for having more expensive equipment? why would this even be brought up when no one else had mentioned it?
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Revised it to speak to the true spirit of what I was trying to say.
 
paperairplane said:
Frankly, if you want to win awards, you have to learn how to 'game' competitions.

I don't really design beers to strictly meet BJCP categories. I brew what I like. There are a lot of tricks to winning awards, not necessarily the same as making great beer. A dead perfect blonde ale can win a category, but probably won't win a best of show.

Finally, know the rules - is it BJCP 08, 15, just people's choice...
Click to expand...

Really well said on winning .... this would be great advice for someone who wants to win. I wouldn't even know how to fit into a style. i like everything strong for starters. The style I like is what's made and readily available for me to drink today while I watch football. Yeah I revise the post earlier on what makes really good beer not award winning I'm curious what you think makes a really good beer
 
as stated before:
What makes a great beer depends a lot on the preference of the drinker.
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process and recipe formulation have everything to do with what makes a great beer, not luck. luck runs out. it's personal taste that ultimately decides if your beer is great. some folks don't like stouts (heathens!), some folks don't like IPAs (more heathens!), some don't like sours (heathens to a slightly lesser degree). but it doesn't mean because any of the people (dirty dirty heathens!) don't like certain offerings that these beers aren't great to the people that drink/brew them. nailing down process will eliminate things like oxidation, skunking, infection, and yeast derived off flavors from stressed yeast. nailing down recipe formulation/quality ingredients will eliminate all sorts of flavors that don't seem to work well together and ingredient derived off flavors (usually perceived as a staleness and or twang). but in the end, it's what you taste and what you like. what truly makes a really good or great beer will depend on your personal taste profile. are you hitting what you're aiming for?
 

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