Future competitions

I just got my score from the most recent competition, and it's another 28.5. My previous contests of different styles were all 28.5. Judge comments were all favorable, but the beers were not quite to style. Does anyone have any resources that can tell you which hops and malt combos to more properly nail the style? I want to break into the 30's someday

 

Buy the book Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. Goes through the proper ingredients of every style.

 

Thank you! I just bought the digital edition.

 

Water chemistry (if you're doing all grain) and proper yeast management (pitch rates, wort temp at pitching, and fermentation temps) are as important (if not moreso) as the malt/hops used.

 

Read the BJCP guidelines

 

Enter the beer into the category it fits the best, not what you were trying to make. I had a 28 point Marzen that wasn't quite dark or hoppy enough. Judges really liked it but said it would do better as a Vienna.

 

Great Advice schematix!!! I made an English Brown ale that ended up with a few fruity esters... suffice to say, it was an excellent beer, but somewhere in the fermenting I let it get a little too warm, and the fruity esters took it out of the style. Had I looked up a different style that was supposed to have that little bit of fruit taste to enter it in, it probably would have done very well. That one came back at 28.5 as well. Judge notes for flavor were
"light caramel and toasty malt. Noticeable fruity esters. Hops Balanced. Clean. hops balanced. Crisp finish." With an overall impression of:
"Generally to style, but fruity esters way too prominent for style."

That book, "Designing great beers" has a TON of incredibly useful information on every style, including charts on which beers used which ingredients and won most often. The BJCP guidelines just don't go into enough detail about the malts and hops varieties for each style, but that book is awesome, so thanks again homebrew57!