Philly area Homebrewers

[AnOldUR]

It was the end of the case I had bottled for WOtW . . .I have 2 (the last 2) of those bottles ear marked for NHC.

How'd it make out at WOTW

And unless you plan to rebrew, you'll need four bottles for NHC.

 

[dfess1]

Took 1st (out of 49 entries) in cat 23 . Already had to rebrew (this time a 10 gal batch), big crew is looking to try it this sat!

 

[AnOldUR]

Took 1st (out of 49 entries) in cat 23 .

Congrats! Quite an accomplishment to win 23 with a low gravity beer.

Were you there for the awards? What’d you pick?
War of the Worts is a great competition.

 

[dfess1]

Congrats! Quite an accomplishment to win 23 with a low gravity beer.

Were you there for the awards? What’d you pick?

Yeah, I was. I picked up the Dock St Growler, and a gift cert to their place. None of the equipment that was there was usable to me. I guess i could have gone with a gift cert to keystone instead. I like the swingtop growlers though, and wanted another one. i was ok with it. The beer was a 4.5% (on the button) chocolate peanut butter stout (Ode to a Reese's Cup).

 

[AnOldUR]

The beer was a 4.5% (on the button) chocolate peanut butter stout (Ode to a Reese's Cup).

Heard them announce that, but figured it was a really big sipping beer. Sounds delicious! You'll be a shoo-in to play with the coffee.

 

[dfess1]

i primarly make session beers. 1.060 and less, accept for a few different occasions.

I found the table for prizes kind of commical. In that the big ticket items you'd think people would take first, well most of the people that took "first" most likely already had that. I can imagine there was a fight over a wort chiller when second and thrid got up to pick!

 

[AnOldUR]

Yeah, I grabbed the Weyerbacher swag and left some more pricey things behind. The Weyerbacher prize was stuff that I'd never buy for myself.

 

[dfess1]

nice, what'd you win with ?

 

[AnOldUR]

Table 18 - English and Imperial IPA (22 Entries)

 

[Coff]

Yeah, I was. I picked up the Dock St Growler, and a gift cert to their place. None of the equipment that was there was usable to me. I guess i could have gone with a gift cert to keystone instead. I like the swingtop growlers though, and wanted another one. i was ok with it. The beer was a 4.5% (on the button) chocolate peanut butter stout (Ode to a Reese's Cup).

Sounds incredible, good luck in the second round of this thing. I think the winners from Barry's will be announced tomorrow.

The beer I entered turned out great, but its just a pretty standard ESB so I'm not sure its what the judges will be looking for. If they wanted wacky and wild then I likely wont be advancing, but if its basically who can brew a well crafted beer then I think Ive got a shot.

 

[dfess1]

Table 18 - English and Imperial IPA (22 Entries)

nice! Congrats!

Sounds incredible, good luck in the second round of this thing. I think the winners from Barry's will be announced tomorrow.

The beer I entered turned out great, but its just a pretty standard ESB so I'm not sure its what the judges will be looking for. If they wanted wacky and wild then I likely wont be advancing, but if its basically who can brew a well crafted beer then I think Ive got a shot.

I have no idea if I'm in the second round or not, i'll wait until I have confirmation on that one. I don't think they wanted anything wacky, just "sessionable". That said, I'm not really sure if mine is sessionable. It's pretty sweet, just low in alcohol.

 

[AnOldUR]

I think the winners from Barry's will be announced tomorrow.

I think that shops were going to be swapping bottles with other shops for judging. How did you find out where or when your entries were being judged?

 

[dfess1]

the lack of communication on this thing is annoying. Can't find anything on the phillybeerscene site.

 

[Coff]

I think that shops were going to be swapping bottles with other shops for judging. How did you find out where or when your entries were being judged?

Yea thats what I was told as well, but I wonder if they changed that format since some shops had a bunch of entries and others only had 2.

I saw on Barrys facebook page that they will announce the winners in their newsletter that comes out tomorrow. I dont know if that means its just the winners from Barrys or the winners from each shop.

 

[Coff]

Dfess, your system is sick.

That is all.

 

[AnOldUR]

Dfess, your system is sick.

Made me look.

Damn, you're right. Nice job!
I want to brew at his house.

 

[dfess1]

well I don't get Barry's emails (since I've never been there). Let me know what it says!

Thanks for the compliments guys. Next brew day, you're welcome to come on over. Usually have something on the smoker as well as the brew.

 

[BrewThruYou]

Here's my water report from Ambler done on 14 Jan 2011 by Ward Labs:

pH 6.9
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est 337
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.56
Cations / Anions, me/L 5.9/5.5
Sodium, Na 19ppm
Potassium, K 3ppm
Calcium, Ca 74ppm
Magnesium, Mg 15ppm
Total Hardness, CaCO3 248ppm
Nitrate, NO3-N 2.6ppm (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 8ppm
Chloride, Cl 62ppm
Carbonate, CO3 <1ppm
Bicarbonate, HCO3 188ppm
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 154ppm

It's pretty alkaline. I go to Whole Foods in Plymouth Meeting and fill up jugs of distilled water and cut my tap water for pale beers. I also use phosphoric acid to acidify my sparge water in order to reduce alkalinity.

 

[Coff]

Winners for the battle of the homebrew shops has been posted. I didn't advance lol any winners in the thread?

http://www.phillybeerscene.com/2012/03/and-the-winners-are/

 

[dfess1]

Nice! Well, I submitted mine at Keystone. Derek Fess - dfess1 = very original...

Now, coffee in a beer that is not a porter or a stout. hrmm

 

[AnOldUR]

Nice job Derek!
Good luck in the second round.


Guess if I want to experiment with coffee, I have to do it on my own dime.

 

[AnOldUR]

Things we'll probably never know:

How many entries at each location?
Styles of beers that won?
Where the beers from each store were judged?
Who judged the beer and their qualifications?
What was the criteria for choosing winners (to style, uniqueness, sessionability, . . .)

We are looking for a well-brewed, flavorful interpretation of a session beer.

It&#8217;s obvious that Derek crafted a great beer, but in what world is Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout a session beer?

Looks like the geniuses at Philly Beer Scene don&#8217;t know that low alcohol and session are not the same thing.
It follows that you could have entered a 12% abv Barleywine because, "f the rules, we're looking for good beer."

Gives an appreciation for what the BJCP attempts to do.

OK, time to move on . . .

 

[Coff]

Nice work Derek!

Things we'll probably never know:

How many entries at each location?
Styles of beers that won?
Where the beers from each store were judged?
Who judged the beer and their qualifications?
What was the criteria for choosing winners (to style, uniqueness, sessionability, . . .)




It&#8217;s obvious that Derek crafted a great beer, but in what world is Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout a session beer?

Looks like the geniuses at Philly Beer Scene don&#8217;t know that low alcohol and session are not the same thing.
It follows that you could have entered a 12% abv Barleywine because, "f the rules, we're looking for good beer."

Gives an appreciation for what the BJCP attempts to do.

OK, time to move on . . .

Well yea, this is why I dont get overly excited for competitions like this since there isnt much feedback to be gained. It is more a marketing thing then anything. Its a reason to get people to brew, then drop off the entries and say "oh while Im here I might as well pick up some ingredients".

I happen to always brew a 4.2% ESB anyway so I figured why not. But if youre looking for feedback these are not the type of events you want to enter. I usually go for Hops Bops or War of the worts (though I missed it this year).

Here is part of Barry's Homebrew newsletter.

We have the Winners of
Battle of the Homebrew Shops
*Round 1*


Have you ever typed a word so many times it looks misspelled?

That's what the word "Winner" is looking like to us right now, and no matter how many times we spell check, it just doesn't look right. So we're going to switch it up and use another word that we think is a bit more deserving of this accomplishment.

And The Champions Are!
*drum-roll*

Wait, before we announce our heros, we want to let you all know that we were told the judging wasn't easy because there were so many good beers. We also had the second largest entries in the entire region. That's 10 homebrew shops, extending as far as Delaware state to Bethlehem, PA. We want to thank you all for participating, and because of the support we have, we will be announcing a Brew-B-Q party this coming May 5th in the parking lot beside our store. Read on for more details, but for now, let's annouce our subjugators.

And The Vanquishers Are!
*yes, we used a thesaurus*

Tom Ballingall - Rye Pale Ale
Robert Skypala aka RJ - Berliner Weisse

Anyone that came to the last two homebrew meet-ups at our store were lucky enough to try both of these outstanding beers. Congratulations to both of these guys for putting in their best to represent our store. The two of you need to come in and pick up your pound of coffee, provided by One Village Coffee, and start thinking about what to brew for round 2.

 

[dfess1]

Things we'll probably never know:

How many entries at each location?
Styles of beers that won?
Where the beers from each store were judged?
Who judged the beer and their qualifications?
What was the criteria for choosing winners (to style, uniqueness, sessionability, . . .)




It’s obvious that Derek crafted a great beer, but in what world is Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout a session beer?

Looks like the geniuses at Philly Beer Scene don’t know that low alcohol and session are not the same thing.
It follows that you could have entered a 12% abv Barleywine because, "f the rules, we're looking for good beer."

Gives an appreciation for what the BJCP attempts to do.

OK, time to move on . . .

well, it was flavorful.

I hear what you are saying. Again, this isn't a serious competition, more about getting Village One's name out there, along with Perch Pub, and Philly Beer Scene getting some advertising revenue. That said, my beer wasn't overpowering. Not "youngs double chocolate" choclaty, and not a "licking the Jif off the spoon" peanut butter either. They are both there, but not overpowering in anyway.

 

[InityBrew]

Congrats to the winners

 

[BrewThruYou]

Who judged the beer and their qualifications?
What was the criteria for choosing winners (to style, uniqueness, sessionability, . . .)

If you want style guidelines, feedback and registered judges, just stick to entering BJCP comps. This contest was more or less a marketing opportunity that was free to enter. If you are really that opposed to comps like this, just either don't enter or drop some infected revenge beer on the judges

 

[dfess1]

So I'm trying to figure out a way to either take Friday off, or be working out of my garage while I brew. I have a few beers that need to get brewed:

• Olde English Ale for an AHA comp in December
• This coffee beer (still undecided)
• Some beer with Raspberry in it for our homebrew club comp in June (though I should probably brew that with my wife)
• Stones 02.02.02 for our Vertical Epic Tasting party in December
• More house pale ale (yes, it goes quickly)
• Our first sour
• Another batch of this Stone 15th Anniversary Clone (assuming I can find some Pacific Jade)

Man, looking at that list also reminds me of how much I have to keg this week too!

Anyone else looking to brew this week in the beautiful weather? I can always throw something on the smoker if you're interested in stopping over/brewing with me...

 

[SixFoFalcon]

Any area competitions open for submissions now or in the near future? I'm pretty damn happy with my last few brews and would like to get some judges' feedback.

 

[dfess1]

There should be one coming up in June I believe, but I forget which one it is.

 

[BrewThruYou]

Any area competitions open for submissions now or in the near future? I'm pretty damn happy with my last few brews and would like to get some judges' feedback.

There's usually 4 or 5 major local ones - next one is BUZZ OFF on June 2nd (entries due May 19th).

After that, you'll see Malt Madness, SCH ABC and HOPS BOPS.

If that's too long of a wait, you can always ship your entries to other comps:

http://www.bjcp.org/apps/comp_schedule/competition_schedule.php