Any HME kit competition winners?

[huckdavidson]

Has anyone ever won or medaled in a competition using an HME kit like Coopers, Mr. Beer, ABC crafted, Muntons, Pinter, etc...?

What kit was used and what was the recipe?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

... or any one with a BJCP competition score above 29?

 

[VikeMan]

I would bet that it's more likely we'll get a "yes" to @BrewnWKopperKat's question than to @huckdavidson's.

If one of these kits ever won a Best of Show round medal or even a flight first place in a real BJCP comp, I'd be pretty surprised. If one did, I'd recommend rebrewing the same beer and entering it into as many competitions as possible, to see if it's really indicative of quality or just a statistical aberration.

 

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

I don't think the beer kit I recently brewed would score above a 29.

I would believe it's possible, but it would have to be highly modified.

 

[wetmk]

I'm a legend in my own mind. Does that count?

 

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

I have just started reading the book Simple Homebrewing and in the extract chapter they mentioned a homebrew Jay Ankeney that has been an extract brewer since the 80's and it mentioned he likes Coopers HME. Search the interwebs I found this post that shows an award winning recipe. For those that don't want to click on links the interesting part is below.

"The notes from Jay's favorite recipe for Porter that took Best of Show at the first L.A. County Fair homebrew competition and a First Place at the Dixie Cup in the same year, read:

1 can (3.3 lbs or 1.5 kg) Coopers Bitter liquid malt extract
1 bag (3 lbs or 1.33 kg) Brewmaster dark dry malt extract (for the wort)

1 cup (0.25 liter) Roast Chocolate grains
1 cup (0.25 liter) Dark Caramel grains (for the mini mash)

2 oz. (57 grams) pelletized Bramlings hops-boiled 30 minutes
1 oz. (28 grams) pelletized Saaz hops-boiled 20 minutes
2 oz (57 grams) pelletized Hallertauer hops-boiled10 minutes

Ale yeast pitched from a friend's cultured starter

Bottled with one cup brewers sugar for priming"

 

[AlexKay]

Why?

I mean, you could also buy commercial beer, transfer it into unmarked bottles, and enter that into a competition. That might work, too.

 

[fluketamer]

i dont think hes trying to win a competition i think he wants a good beer to brew very quickly. likely if it won a medal it should be very drinkable and he wouldnt have to take my word or another posters word on whether its good. or not.

btw pinter which i never heard of before and doesnt appear to be available here in the states has according to there website won a few awards



coopers kits are great probably the best hme kits available in the states.


my zamba lager is outstanding

zamba lager (4.5 gallons)
1 can of coopers lager
4 oz maltodextrin
3 oz brewers crystals
4 oz carapils
4 oz flaked corn
1 oz zamba hops
12 oz golden light dme
diamond lager yeast

put two 1 gallon spring water jugs in the freezer. you will need cold water to cool down the wort you are not using ice bath or wort chiller.

bring 12 to 16 cups of water to 160 deg. steep 4 oz flaked corn and 4 oz carapils for 30 mins at 155 - 160 . sparge with 2 cups of hot water.
while grains steep dissolve 4 oz of maltodextrin and 3 oz of brewers crystals in 1 qt of cool water. Brewers crystals are dextrose corn syrups solids and malto dextrin i think.
when the steep is done and sparged, bring the grain water to a boil and add .25 ounces of zamba hops. i love zamba it has a melon flovor that works great for summer lagers. but you could use any citrusy low alpha hop. boil for 5 mins remove from heat and at flameout add . 75 oz zamba hops. ,12 oz of golden light dme, the brewers crystal/ MD solution, and one 4 lb can of coopers lager .

add water to top up to 2.5 gallons and temper wort so as not to pour boiling liquid into 5 gallon pail.

add 40 degree icewater from freezer to bring vol to 4.5 and temperature down to 68 deg. pitch lager yeast. i use lalbrew diamond lager yeast . i usually give it a day at 65 to 70 to really get a good kreusen before i drop temp down to 50's.

it spits al lot of sulfur which i havent had a problem with in the final product. ferment cold 54 to 59 deg. for 10 days then DAR for 4 days then keg.



i dont gelatin and i dont cold crash

its one of my favorite brews but a pain with all the added ingredients. still easier then boiling wort for an hour

i have also warm fermented this with the same yeast at 68. i find the only difference is that it takes longer to clean up in the keg ( about twice as long.)

cheers

 

[Somesaymybeerisdrinkable]

Why?

I mean, you could also buy commercial beer, transfer it into unmarked bottles, and enter that into a competition. That might work, too.

Are you suggesting that HME kits are as good as the commercial beer you can buy? Because so far that has not been my experience.

 

[VikeMan]

I have just started reading the book Simple Homebrewing and in the extract chapter they mentioned a homebrew Jay Ankeney that has been an extract brewer since the 80's and it mentioned he likes Coopers HME. Search the interwebs I found this post that shows an award winning recipe. For those that don't want to click on links the interesting part is below.

Intrigued, I checked out the Maltose Falcons link. Apparently, that award winning recipe was at the first LA County Fair Homebrew Competition, which I think was in 1988.

 

[ncbrewer]

It seems like the processes described here really have little to do with the simplicity of HME. I think LME or DME would make more sense for a simple batch.

 

[mac_1103]

i dont think hes trying to win a competition i think he wants a good beer to brew very quickly. likely if it won a medal it should be very drinkable and he wouldnt have to take my word or another posters word on whether its good. or not.

That makes sense. But if that's what he's going for then one can of Cooper's in a fairly complex mini-mash recipe wouldn't seem to fit the bill. Just use three more pounds of DME and another ounce of hops.