I've seen this and similar statements posted several times around the forum: "If you don't submit your beer to contests, you don't know if your beer is good". The point they are making is that without having a contest score associated with your beer--OR--a large homebrew club sampling with BJCP judges, you don't know if your beer is good or not.
This argument stems from the fact that it may be hard to judge your own homebrew in an objective manner. And if you can't do that, what good is your recipe when it comes to sharing it? Take this as you wish, but those posters are somewhat correct. However, I also don't think you need a BJCP judge at your homebrew club or a high score sheet to tell if your homebrew is good or not. In fact, this article will go over how you can better judge your own homebrew in an objective way.
Question 1: Are you a perfect brewer?
If you answered yes, move along. This article isn't for you. If you said no, then you're right, and I can work with you.
The Form
I created a form to fill out when I sit down to judge my own beer. I wrote the questions specifically to reduce the effect of a brewer missing issues in their own beers. This is what separates it from filling out a contest score sheet for yourself.
There are no scores associated with different answers. There are also no questions comparing your beer to a specific BJCP style guideline. This is your beer in a vacuum.
The Sections
The first section is basic information, but tracking how a batch tastes as it ages will help you know when it is at its peak and how long it stays there.
The next section covers the appearance of the beer. Filling out this section covers head retention, color compared to your plan, and clarity. A 1-10 scale helps reduce the "my beer is perfect" mentality. Maybe the color was just a little off compared to what you had in mind when making a grain bill. If the color did turn out to be off, you can increase or reduce the specialty malts to get it next time (maybe to get that perfect red).
Is this a good beer? Without objective analysis it's hard to tell. Image courtesy of Scooby Brew
The third section is for evaluating flavor and aroma. Is the aroma malty or hoppy? Can you tell? If not that's fine too. Notice that I didn't include any middle-ground here. Why? I want myself and others to take a stand on their beer instead of staying in the gray. There are a few lines to fill in what the beer smells like. These can be any things that come to your mind when judging. Special B is supposed to smell like plums, but what does the beer actually smell like as a whole? There's no penalty if it smells like farts, hot dogs, and pineapple, so you should write those down.
There is also a part about writing one thing you like and one thing you don't like about your beer. This will help you think about your beer in a different way. Having something you don't like about the beer doesn't have to be a glaring diacetyl flaw either. Just being a little less bitter than you wanted can be something you don't like.
The last 2 questions bring it all together:
How do you think your beer can be improved?
Will you brew it again?
You've gone through the tasting and judging and you realize "hey, my beer lacks this," or "it could be better with that!" You may also realize this was a fun one-off but maybe isn't the best combination of ingredients. After completing the form as honestly as you can, you are left with a road map to making the beer better if it needs to be.
The form can be downloaded here:
http://hivemindmead.blogspot.com/p/objective-homebrewing-form.html
This argument stems from the fact that it may be hard to judge your own homebrew in an objective manner. And if you can't do that, what good is your recipe when it comes to sharing it? Take this as you wish, but those posters are somewhat correct. However, I also don't think you need a BJCP judge at your homebrew club or a high score sheet to tell if your homebrew is good or not. In fact, this article will go over how you can better judge your own homebrew in an objective way.
Question 1: Are you a perfect brewer?
If you answered yes, move along. This article isn't for you. If you said no, then you're right, and I can work with you.
The Form
I created a form to fill out when I sit down to judge my own beer. I wrote the questions specifically to reduce the effect of a brewer missing issues in their own beers. This is what separates it from filling out a contest score sheet for yourself.
There are no scores associated with different answers. There are also no questions comparing your beer to a specific BJCP style guideline. This is your beer in a vacuum.
The Sections
The first section is basic information, but tracking how a batch tastes as it ages will help you know when it is at its peak and how long it stays there.
The next section covers the appearance of the beer. Filling out this section covers head retention, color compared to your plan, and clarity. A 1-10 scale helps reduce the "my beer is perfect" mentality. Maybe the color was just a little off compared to what you had in mind when making a grain bill. If the color did turn out to be off, you can increase or reduce the specialty malts to get it next time (maybe to get that perfect red).
Is this a good beer? Without objective analysis it's hard to tell. Image courtesy of Scooby Brew
The third section is for evaluating flavor and aroma. Is the aroma malty or hoppy? Can you tell? If not that's fine too. Notice that I didn't include any middle-ground here. Why? I want myself and others to take a stand on their beer instead of staying in the gray. There are a few lines to fill in what the beer smells like. These can be any things that come to your mind when judging. Special B is supposed to smell like plums, but what does the beer actually smell like as a whole? There's no penalty if it smells like farts, hot dogs, and pineapple, so you should write those down.
There is also a part about writing one thing you like and one thing you don't like about your beer. This will help you think about your beer in a different way. Having something you don't like about the beer doesn't have to be a glaring diacetyl flaw either. Just being a little less bitter than you wanted can be something you don't like.
The last 2 questions bring it all together:
How do you think your beer can be improved?
Will you brew it again?
You've gone through the tasting and judging and you realize "hey, my beer lacks this," or "it could be better with that!" You may also realize this was a fun one-off but maybe isn't the best combination of ingredients. After completing the form as honestly as you can, you are left with a road map to making the beer better if it needs to be.
The form can be downloaded here:
http://hivemindmead.blogspot.com/p/objective-homebrewing-form.html
