First brew ever = Best of Show!!!

[Spludge]

Nice work man, thats awesome! Cool to see an extract brew take the honors.
I'm on AG brew number 30 or so and doubt I could win 'Best of Show'... unless I steal your recipe!!!

What was your fermentation schedule/temps? How long were they bottle conditioned?

 

[Beehemel]

Did it win in the IPA category or specialty?

It won specialty for sure, I don't think it won IPA. Scored a 40.5 in specialty and 39 in IPA, so good scores either way.

I am in Cincinnati and will be joining the Bloatarians as soon as I make it to a meeting.

It was the Cincinnati Malt Infuzers Octobersbest competition.

humor me...

partial or full boil?
tap water or bottled or other? any water adjustments?
aeriation method (if any)?
what was the fermentation schedule?
controlled fermentation temps?

1. Full boil
2. Distilled water out of bottles (didn't know any better at the time)
3. I just poured the cooled wort from the kettle into the bucket, making sure I held it up kind of high to get maximum splash.
4. 1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary on the dry hop, 3 weeks of bottle conditioning
5. I just fermented in my basement, ambient temp is pretty much 70 all the time, actual fermentation temp was around 73.

 

[Beehemel]

Congrats!

Since you seem to be a natural - may I ask what you did for your christmas ale? I'd like to brew one this weekend...

Fermentables/Specialty Grains:
3.3 lb (one can) Amber LME
2 lb Extra Light DME
1 lb Caramunich
1 lb Crystal 60L

Hops:
1 oz Saaz @ 60min
1 oz Kent Goldings @ 30min


Other (all added at 10min):
.5 oz Bitter Orange Peel
1 oz Fresh grated Ginger
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Allspice

Wyeast Scottish Ale yeast.


It smelled a lot like cinnamon when I was done brewing it, I'm going to rack it sometime this week. Nothing out of the ordinary for a holiday ale, just thought SWMBO might like it.

 

[-TH-]

1. Full boil
2. Distilled water out of bottles (didn't know any better at the time)
3. I just poured the cooled wort from the kettle into the bucket, making sure I held it up kind of high to get maximum splash.
4. 1 week in primary, 2 weeks in secondary on the dry hop, 3 weeks of bottle conditioning
5. I just fermented in my basement, ambient temp is pretty much 70 all the time, actual fermentation temp was around 73.

Nice work - looks just like an old pro!

In regards to #2, if I was going to do extract again I would probably go with distilled water. Several around here have had problems using tap water or even bottled drinking water because of the minerals already in the extract that come from the extract mfr's water. The minerals from both combine and cause problems. I've even heard Palmer say recently that using distilled is not a bad way to go for extract brewing.

Anyways, congrats again.

 

[Trooper-Orange]

I just bought the ingredients for this yesterday. Can't wait to try it out, thanks for sharing.

 

[its_manbearpig]

Cool! Think I'd like to try it...

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I would really like to see a better pic of the beer if you can do one.

I gotta be honest here, it doesn't look that great in the blurry pic.

 

[Beehemel]

I know it doesn't look great, but I didn't use any irish moss or anything in it, so it's not clear (I was planning for it to be black, didn't think I would need anything). Has anybody brewed this up? I just drank a bottle over the weekend and boy did the hop flavor and aroma fade fast! It's now a completely different beer, but still tasty. Let me know how everyone's batches go!

 

[MultumInParvo]

Its good to know that there are people out there with much less experience that are already better at brewing than me. Good job! I am going to go pout in the corner now...

 

[BrewRI]

Congrats man I'm gonna have to give your recipe a try sometime soon. How did you get into brewing competitions by the way I've been curious but never really thought about it that much.

 

[DRoyLenz]

I know it doesn't look great, but I didn't use any irish moss or anything in it, so it's not clear (I was planning for it to be black, didn't think I would need anything). Has anybody brewed this up? I just drank a bottle over the weekend and boy did the hop flavor and aroma fade fast! It's now a completely different beer, but still tasty. Let me know how everyone's batches go!

It was probably a good idea that you didn't use irish moss with this extract recipe. Irish Moss tends to go after the smaller proteins responsible for head retention, which would also affect the Free Amino Nitrogens that your yeast need for nutrition. (That was almost a word for word quote from Palmer's How to Brew. I remember him saying it's a bad idea to use Irish Moss in an extract recipe, but I couldn't remember why.)

 

[Beehemel]

Congrats man I'm gonna have to give your recipe a try sometime soon. How did you get into brewing competitions by the way I've been curious but never really thought about it that much.

I just kind of entered on a whim, never really intended to when I started brewing. I have a couple friends who are BJCP judges and they encouraged me to enter it into this competition. They said it would probably win something, I don't think any of us anticipated how well it would score. Just goes to show, it never hurts to try!

 

[Pickngrin]

Beehemel - That is awesome! Congrats. Nice way to start off.

Personally, I've never entered a homebrew competition but need to think about doing so.

 

[mcstout]

My first brew ever just took best of show at Cincinnati Octobersbest over the weekend. I was so surprised, I thought my friend was joking when he called me to tell me. I entered it in two categories, 23 as an India Brown Ale, and 14 as an American IPA. The recipe was supposed to be a black IPA, but it came out brown instead of black so I just rolled with it and changed the name! Still can't believe it won out of 150 beers! I'd say this is a good start to my new favorite hobby. If it weren't for all the reading and research I had done on this site, it would not have happened! Thanks for making this community so helpful and informative! :rockin:

Congratulations

 

[Beehemel]

Anybody brew it yet? I'm eager to hear the results!

 

[Trooper-Orange]

Anybody brew it yet? I'm eager to hear the results!

Drinking some right now. I must concur with the judges. Damn fine beer. The only thing that bugs me is the color, but call it an India Brown, and that problem is solved.

Fantastic friggin beer, thanks for sharing the recipe. I am a new home brewing I think this is my 5th brew and it is easily the best one yet.

I will brew this one again, no doubt.

Thanks again for sharing.

 

[jim4065]

Congratulations!

This kind of thing makes us all realize - it can be done!

And thanks for sharing the good news.

 

[Beehemel]

Drinking some right now. I must concur with the judges. Damn fine beer. The only thing that bugs me is the color, but call it an India Brown, and that problem is solved.

Fantastic friggin beer, thanks for sharing the recipe. I am a new home brewing I think this is my 5th brew and it is easily the best one yet.

I will brew this one again, no doubt.

Thanks again for sharing.

Glad you like it!

 

[BlueSunshine]

This is pretty epic, good job man. I'll be attempting to brew this one in the future.

 

[cheezydemon3]

I think if I ever try this again, I'm going to use dark extract instead of light. I also want to try to make a regular IPA with the same hopping schedule to see how that turns out! So much fun experimenting!

Light extract only and garains is my rule.

Dark extract has god knows what in it to make it dark.

Black patent or chocolate malt will get pretty black, but change the flavor a bit.

 

[Rhoobarb]

That. Is. Amazing. Congrats - that's just unbelievable for a first brew! That winter ale looks good, too. Just brewed with a buddy the other day and his winter ale spices were about the same. It smelled awesome during the boil!

I've found that hop aroma fades fast in the bottle, even when it comes to commercial beers. IMHO, bottled IPAs need to be consumed fresh. It sounds like your timing for this competition was perfect!

I keg now and when and if you get to that point, dry hop with a weighted nylon bag in the keg and that aroma will last and last!

 

[Synovia]

and we're gonna have to steal that recipe.


Nice job.


Put it in the recipe DB.

 

[rwinzing]

Awesome, my first batch was average at best, but it did win best in show in my kitchen.......but my competition was a flat Coors light

 

[maida7]

Nice Job! Sometimes the elitism and snobbery in this hobby can get out of control. It's great to see somebody prove that it's not so complicated. Extract makes award winning beer. Right on brother!

 

[DrinkNoH2O]

Nice job man! I think I'm going to take a stab at this sometime soon (after I'm close to running out of my Ruination Clone).

Do you happen to know what AA% you had on the hops? I'd like to try and get my IBUs as close to your award winner as possible.

 

[spage]

Hey Beehemel, I just now saw this thread, congrats! This beer is definitely on my to-brew list, and you will get credit every time someone pulls a pint of it. Thanks for the recipe!

 

[Beehemel]

I plan on getting this up in the recipes section when I get the time. I'll post again when it's up (probably tomorrow)

 

[Trooper-Orange]

I plan on getting this up in the recipes section when I get the time. I'll post again when it's up (probably tomorrow)

Yeah please do. I am disorganized, and even though I emailed myself the recipe, it would be nice to have it hosted online should I need to look it up. :cross:

 

[Beehemel]

Recipe is posted!

 

[Beehemel]

Hey Beehemel, I just now saw this thread, congrats! This beer is definitely on my to-brew list, and you will get credit every time someone pulls a pint of it. Thanks for the recipe!

Hopefully I'll get to pull a pint of it out of your kick ass fridge! Let me know when you get to this one (I know you have a long list)