National Homebrew Competition 2015

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Do you plan on submitting beers to the 2015 NHC?

  • Yes

    Votes: 18 69.2%

  • No

    Votes: 8 30.8%
  • Total voters
    26
rcubed said:
Sounds like a Cat 23 or Cat 16e entry to me. I find most judges don't really understand the reason for 16e. I'm done entering 16e at this point and will wait for the new guidelines.

In my experience most judges are not qualified to judge feral/funky/sour beers.
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It was described as a sour Brett saison aged on cherries and blended with sour wit beers for 16e. I would think such a description would not lead both judges to conclude its sourness and acidity was a flaw, as sourness is absolutely allowed and encouraged in the category.

Clearly 16e is a waste of time, which is SARA's joke with that label.

I didn't enter as a fruit lambic in part because both the color and flavor contribution of the cherries were subtle. My feeling was that saison would be funny and earn my lowest scores ever, 16e would be accurate but perform poorly, and geueze would be highest scoring but least accurate. This was true.
 
dgthrasher said:
I've done this before for certain beers. What did you declare for belgian speciality? also was it pink and the cherry noticable? might have done better as a fruit lambic. (or straight unblended might have helped with the B.Brux missing. I find how somone describes, is a big deal, describe what you taste not what you did.

I once a long time ago when there was less entries, etc Won three times with the same beer, at the same competition, straight unblended lambic, berliner weise, and fruit lambic (adding one oz of cherry syrup to the bottle) Back then there were very few lambics, and no berliner weises commercially available in the area. Which I also think helped.
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Describing what I tasted is honestly why it wound up in geueze at all.
 
drgarage said:
Describing what I tasted is honestly why it wound up in geueze at all.
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I was wondering what you put for special ingredients/ brewing process for the specialty category. For any specialty category you have to be very descriptive in what the taste is, not necessary what you do. As a simple example
If you see brewed with ginger and cherries and bottled with B.brux. But in the beer taste there is no ginger, and no B.Brux characteristics, then the beer will score very bad.. as it lacks B.brux and ginger characteristics.. Plus in this example if the brewer said just cherries it would be a fruit beer, so its entered wrong.

As a judge specialty categories are very hard to judge. Most of the the time no information, or a lack of information causes them to get low scores.

For the other comment about judges not being qualified to judge sour beers, I think this was often true 10 years ago, when sours were limited commercially, if at all... but with the sour microbrew rage, there are plenty of people who can judge sours at competitions. The problem has been judging American sours, as no guidelines existed, with no guidelines what is an acceptable amount of XXX?

Despite all this when your sitting at a table the correctly entered, best beers almost always win. But you never know your competition and how good or bad it is, so you may not place every time... but if you do its a clear sign of a world class beer.
 
dgthrasher said:
I was wondering what you put for special ingredients/ brewing process for the specialty category. For any specialty category you have to be very descriptive in what the taste is, not necessary what you do. As a simple example
If you see brewed with ginger and cherries and bottled with B.brux. But in the beer taste there is no ginger, and no B.Brux characteristics, then the beer will score very bad.. as it lacks B.brux and ginger characteristics.. Plus in this example if the brewer said just cherries it would be a fruit beer, so its entered wrong.

As a judge specialty categories are very hard to judge. Most of the the time no information, or a lack of information causes them to get low scores.

For the other comment about judges not being qualified to judge sour beers, I think this was often true 10 years ago, when sours were limited commercially, if at all... but with the sour microbrew rage, there are plenty of people who can judge sours at competitions. The problem has been judging American sours, as no guidelines existed, with no guidelines what is an acceptable amount of XXX?

Despite all this when your sitting at a table the correctly entered, best beers almost always win. But you never know your competition and how good or bad it is, so you may not place every time... but if you do its a clear sign of a world class beer.
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The cherry aspect got compliments. The sourness was judged a flaw. Both were called out in the description. That is poor judging. I'm not mad -- I wasn't expecting to place well. I'm just confused as to how an essential component of the description could be considered a flaw.
 
drgarage said:
The cherry aspect got compliments. The sourness was judged a flaw. Both were called out in the description. That is poor judging. I'm not mad -- I wasn't expecting to place well. I'm just confused as to how an essential component of the description could be considered a flaw.
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Had something similar happen with my 'tart saison' in 16C. Scored a 27. One judge commented that the beer was infected. :confused: The other judge said it would have scored better in the sour category. Apparently a description of 'TART SAISON' was not straightforward enough. Meh. The beer I thought had the best chance of moving forward did. Good to get feedback on the others from strangers.
 
Beerontwowheels said:
Had something similar happen with my 'tart saison' in 16C. Scored a 27. One judge commented that the beer was infected. :confused: The other judge said it would have scored better in the sour category. Apparently a description of 'TART SAISON' was not straightforward enough. Meh. The beer I thought had the best chance of moving forward did. Good to get feedback on the others from strangers.
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Tart saision, doesn't really fit in 16C. A light tartness is acceptable. Even if you add tart saision, it would still be judged as a saision, as that is the category. Tart also isn't a good word. I would have entered it into into 16E, and put something like a saision, that was secondary fermented with lacto/ sour blend, etc depending on how it tastes.
 
dgthrasher said:
Tart saision, doesn't really fit in 16C. A light tartness is acceptable. Even if you add tart saision, it would still be judged as a saision, as that is the category. Tart also isn't a good word. I would have entered it into into 16E, and put something like a saision, that was secondary fermented with lacto/ sour blend, etc depending on how it tastes.
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I appreciate the feedback. It appears proper categorization can be half the battle!
 
Beerontwowheels said:
I appreciate the feedback. It appears proper categorization can be half the battle!
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I haven't figured out, not had any 2 people be able to agree/explain, the difference between 23/16e yet... I know what the guideline says, but it's human interpretation leaves much to be desired. seen crazy things get marked down for having flaws or for being in the wrong category (stating the other was correct)
 
ncaudle said:
I haven't figured out, not had any 2 people be able to agree/explain, the difference between 23/16e yet... I know what the guideline says, but it's human interpretation leaves much to be desired. seen crazy things get marked down for having flaws or for being in the wrong category (stating the other was correct)
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I can't stand 16e...I made a Belgian Tripel with cherries...ok so category 20, fruit beer right? No. Dinged for not being 16e. Did another competition did 16e and 20, just to see, 16e wrong category, 20 gold. Make up your mind BJCP!

My understanding if it is a Belgian beer based then you have to put it into category 16e. 23 is basically a free for all.
 
Noob judges are not always the problem, it's non-bjcp judges and arrogant judges who think they know everything and don't read guidelines...

Half the battle of entrying correctly and that the info is passed to judges (info would be in written on your score sheet if it was) some comps have trouble passing this info on, and I don't enter these catogeries again at a comp if this is the case......

For 16e it should be Belgian based, better if similar somehow to a commercial example.

The new guideleines should make things clearer.....but feel free to send me a beer for free judging and categorization :)
 
I have been enjoying the hell out of this thread. Thanks for reminding me why I don't enter comps and only judge a few times a year.
 
Printed off bottle and shipping labels this morning. Getting a little bit excited even thought it's unlikely that my 3rd place entry will medal in the final round.

For anyone proceeding to the next round, bottles are due between 5/18 and 6/2.

If the TalkBeer Homebrew Club is your primary club, make sure you represent!
 
Beerontwowheels said:
Printed off bottle and shipping labels this morning. Getting a little bit excited even thought it's unlikely that my 3rd place entry will medal in the final round.

For anyone proceeding to the next round, bottles are due between 5/18 and 6/2.

If the TalkBeer Homebrew Club is your primary club, make sure you represent!
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In my experience final round is a crapshoot. I have 3 friends that received GOLD in the final round for third place in the first round...all depends on the judge and their palate for the day...roll the dice and hope for the best.
 
bigk84 said:
In my experience final round is a crapshoot. I have 3 friends that received GOLD in the final round for third place in the first round...all depends on the judge and their palate for the day...roll the dice and hope for the best.
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I would disagree, that its a crapshoot. It also depends on style. I've judged second round, and had beers in.. Some styles need to be re-brewed for example I did cream ales one year, 1/2 were in the 20's as they were old.. Also sometimes the second batch made isn't the same as the first. In our category the top three were obvious standouts.

The bad part about nationals is that its really two competitions first round and then second round. And they are several months apart.
 
Looks like I'm brewing up a beer for the BJCP Reception on Wednesday. Still working on the details but it's going to be a short turn around.
 
Have any of you guys sent your bottles in for the final round? I shipped mine, and got charged an address change by FedEx, thanks AHA...

alesmith.jpg
 
My bottles were delivered yesterday. Hope they didn't suffer in the heat too much. Paid for 2 day air.
 
I told myself I wouldn't get my hopes up for nationals since my two beers that advanced both only came in third at regionals, but here I am, buzzed and disappointed.

On the bright side, someone from my club to gold for sours for his gueuze. Now I don't feel bad about the fact that I've been chasing him this year. In our club competition he swept sours and I got an honorable mention, and in the NY regionals he took first and second, and I took third.
 
axeman9182 said:
I told myself I wouldn't get my hopes up for nationals since my two beers that advanced both only came in third at regionals, but here I am, buzzed and disappointed.

On the bright side, someone from my club to gold for sours for his gueuze. Now I don't feel bad about the fact that I've been chasing him this year. In our club competition he swept sours and I got an honorable mention, and in the NY regionals he took first and second, and I took third.
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I need to try that beer since it beat my entry (I got 2nd). I talked the guy who brewed it after the awards but the details are fuzzy....
 
rcubed said:
I need to try that beer since it beat my entry (I got 2nd). I talked the guy who brewed it after the awards but the details are fuzzy....
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They have a 30 gallon wine barrel and use a solera style system to make their sours. I believe they just use Wyeast lambic blend to sour the wort.
 
rcubed said:
I need to try that beer since it beat my entry (I got 2nd). I talked the guy who brewed it after the awards but the details are fuzzy....
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I got to try it at our club meeting last night, and I have to say it was pretty spectacular. One of the best gueuzes I've had in a while.
 

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