Hi,
I'm from Birmingham, AL as you may know is one of the last states in the country other than Mississippi to finally legalize home brewing (not that the law stopped folk from doing it anyway). Legal status has really opened up a lot more opportunities for local brewers and one of our local craft breweries will be hosting a home brew competition the first in the city or possibly even the state. I've only been brewing for a couple years now but everyone who has tasted my beer (friends, family, colleagues, etc.) has told me how good it is. I'm of course my own worse critic so I continue to try to do better with each batch. Sometimes I do experiment with different flavors, I've been really good at IPA's especially with adding Rye Malts. I would really like to enter but I do have some apprehension about it because I'm still an extract brewer and the home brew shop where I get my ingredients from mostly sells close clones of beers that are already on the market like Sierra Nevada, Blue Moon, etc. Those are great for home consumption but I don't know if I get something from them if its good enough for competition. That and I don't want to enter with a stolen recipe that my home brew shop owner created but I'm not that experienced yet to select my own grain bills and malts to create flavors. So my question to the forum is what do you think, should I a second year extract brewer enter a first annual home brew competition with a kit bought from the brew shop or should I skip this year to learn more and maybe go for it next year?
Thanks in a advance for the feedback.
I'm from Birmingham, AL as you may know is one of the last states in the country other than Mississippi to finally legalize home brewing (not that the law stopped folk from doing it anyway). Legal status has really opened up a lot more opportunities for local brewers and one of our local craft breweries will be hosting a home brew competition the first in the city or possibly even the state. I've only been brewing for a couple years now but everyone who has tasted my beer (friends, family, colleagues, etc.) has told me how good it is. I'm of course my own worse critic so I continue to try to do better with each batch. Sometimes I do experiment with different flavors, I've been really good at IPA's especially with adding Rye Malts. I would really like to enter but I do have some apprehension about it because I'm still an extract brewer and the home brew shop where I get my ingredients from mostly sells close clones of beers that are already on the market like Sierra Nevada, Blue Moon, etc. Those are great for home consumption but I don't know if I get something from them if its good enough for competition. That and I don't want to enter with a stolen recipe that my home brew shop owner created but I'm not that experienced yet to select my own grain bills and malts to create flavors. So my question to the forum is what do you think, should I a second year extract brewer enter a first annual home brew competition with a kit bought from the brew shop or should I skip this year to learn more and maybe go for it next year?
Thanks in a advance for the feedback.
