Embarrassing Results From First Brew Competition - What Went Wrong?

[weirdboy]

Personally speaking, if my beer tastes like a dirty diaper, that's what I want people to tell me. Don't sugar coat it or skate around it or anything like that. I am trying to make better beer, not feel good about myself when I make crappy beer.

 

[SenorPepe]

It just sounded, to this uninformed reader, like something Jeffery Steingarten would say on Iron Chef.

LOL! I love this. So true. I feel like he pops an old man boner every time he calls someone's food "pedestrian". He gets this little Dick Cheney grin on his face.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Oh hey I agree, and Mike set me straight so I am not arguing my point any longer. Mike let me know, which I appreciated, that baby diaper is actually descriptive of WHY they didnt like the beer, whereas I thought it said "this beer smells like $hiz... go home." Two entirely different intentions.

Its like the sauerkraut that I am finishing up tonight. If my friends say "this was too salty" or "it has a weird aftertaste... really not my thing" or worst case scenario "I think this went bad" I will feel horrible for serving it, but I will be glad to know it wasnt to their liking and why (or that I f'ed up the kraut fermenting... again). "Dude this tastes like $hiz" would be a good way to get me defensive.

Personally speaking, if my beer tastes like a dirty diaper, that's what I want people to tell me. Don't sugar coat it or skate around it or anything like that. I am trying to make better beer, not feel good about myself when I make crappy beer.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Problem is he has a remarkable pallet and CAN give incredibly constructive criticism, when he WANTS to.

LOL! I love this. So true. I feel like he pops an old man boner every time he calls someone's food "pedestrian". He gets this little Dick Cheney grin on his face.

 

[inkman15]

Personally speaking, if my beer tastes like a dirty diaper, that's what I want people to tell me. Don't sugar coat it or skate around it or anything like that. I am trying to make better beer, not feel good about myself when I make crappy beer.

Completely agree. That's what I want - honest feedback that's going to help me recognize how to improve

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Final explanation, and Yoop go ahead and shoot me if I threadjacked, before I shut up... My kneejerk crack about free beer didnt mean what it sounded like. IF the judge had been intentionally being a jerkwad and IF he had used a word that (you have to admit) could sound as inflammatory as "baby diaper" then the question in my head was "what could he possibly get out of being such a jerk? Its not as if they just paid hard-earned money for a crappy pint!"

Unfortunately the 2 dimensional medium of typed text doesnt always allow for nuance, so I wind up misrepresenting what I am saying (not that I dont sometimes do the same in person).

 

[Jwood]

You're a new brewer. On top of it, you entered a beer that you knew was infected (you stated Brett infection). They judge it against the style it was entered, I don't see what the surprise is (I would be more discouraged if they didn't detect any off flavors!). Have you saved a couple infected bottles and tasted them now? Unless you are 100% confident in your beer, you should enter a competetion for feedback alone, not to win overall. Either way don't be discouraged. Racking under a Brett infection won't rid the finished product of that Brett characteristic. That would be like saying that racking under the krausen rids the beer of yeast.

Basically, enter a beer that you feel represents your ability to the fullest and work off of the criticism to that. Don't take it to heart and feel that this represents your true ability as a brewer.

 

[Phillyphoodie]

Problem is he has a remarkable pallet and CAN give incredibly constructive criticism, when he WANTS to.

Truth. He doesn't pull any punches, and that is why I respect the man. Also, if you have a chance (and haven't already done so), read his book "The Man Who Ate Everything." He is like an encyclopedia of food knowledge.

 

[Jcoz]

nm

 

[bottlebomber]

If you age a baby diaper beer, does it start to taste like Depends?

 

[Grizz]

If you age a baby diaper beer, does it start to taste like Depends?

Well that will depend if he was brewing with dingle berries or not.

 

[whitehause]

Completely agree......I want an honest opinion when judged. If you don't know whats wrong you don't know what to fix. Obviously knowing it's infected going in probably meant you should have passed on that competition as the only thing learned is something you already knew.

 

[jonmohno]

Dont feel so bad the "baby diaper" i got from the first time i tried a smuttynose ipa and who knows how long it was sitting on the room temp shelf. So you know what/ they can rate that beer like yours then. The more i think about baby diaper the more i think bandaid combined with cat piss aroma.Really that should be a common term. Ever smelled a baby nursery?Smells like animal crackers and baby body stink..ha ha.
Honestly from what i remember it could be those cat piss hops, but on that i had a hunch it was overspent yeast and bad storage long shelf life, or just hops can go acrid smelling like that or something with well lit room temp for months and months..My ipas dont do that though.
Just a thought.