Anyone else entering Upper Mississippi Mashout?

[sidepart]

Here are the last two versions. Both very good drinkers. Both scored ok-solid in a couple comps. 28-34. The second one is the one I sent to UMMO. I added the various specialty grains to #2 in the never ending pursuit of adding "complexity" and "substance" to a 1.040 type beer. I have #2 in a couple other comps in the next two weeks so that will allow me to sort of "average" the feedback and see if I notice any consistencies in what the judges are saying.

Main knocks on the recent one were too much carbonation, not enough malt aroma and flavor. Just a little too "lifeless" too neutral.

Your second recipe has a ton of different malt in it. I've never brewed a mild so I could be giving you really crappy suggestions here. For the fermentables, I'd scrap the Victory and Munich malts. I don't know why, but those just mentally put me in the wrong place. Instead of in mild land, I'm feel like I'm at Gasthof's on Oktoberfest.

Briess 2-Row is good, but I've lately discovered Canadian Malting's Pale Ale Malt. It's roughly the same but...maltier I guess? I haven't gone back to plain old Briess 2-row in awhile. I like Golden Promise. Ever think of throwing in some Aromatic Malt? Sometimes the malt aroma does more for the tongue than actual malt flavors.

 

[Braufessor]

yeah - I knew it was a little high on carbonation. I filled out of a keg though and thought I might lose a little, plus, sometimes I think maybe they sit after opening and pour for a while. The gravity was over specs, but, in my experience, almost every beer I have brewed that has done well in competition tends to be right at the high end of the specs, or even over. So, I always tend to enter them down a category - I routinely enter "technical" IPA's as APA's for example
As for the adjustments - I am thinking they only adjusted within the mini BOS and judged the overall BOS as normal - not assigning scores, just ranking. This way, beers are ranked by score against each other within category. Just a guess though.

 

[KurtB]

I don't think they really factor in scores in the actual BOS round - they just pick the best beer overall.

Your understanding is correct, at least for every competition that I have looked into entering. For the BOS there is normally no "scoring" involved. I think of it more as a "ranking" of the beers from "the best" to "not quite the best".

Congratulations! to everybody that entered and scored well.

 

[Mmbeer]

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