Hello Everyone.
I sent off a Belgian Wit to a competition to see how it got judged. Everyone I let taste the beer around me said it was really good (I thought it was too!). The judges thought different.
"
Everyone I let taste the beer around me said it was really good (I thought it was too!)"
There's your "Judges."
I LOVE Belgian ales above all others. For me, the fun of brewing Belgians is trying to see what flavors the yeast can coax out of the grain and hops using different mashing processes and fermentation temperature control. Getting the flavors of coriander and orange without using any coriander or orange, (for me) is the challenge.
All that said: I read some interesting studies that were conducted with some of the leading wine tasting judges in the world. In one exercise they poured 2 glasses of the exact same white wine, but put red food coloring in one, and the vast majority of judges believed they were drinking two different wines, a white and a red. They poured cheap wine in expensive bottles and expensive wine in cheap bottles, and even poured 3 glasses of the identical wine. The end result was that the supposedly best and most prestigious wine tasters in the world are nothing but a bunch of self-righteous, pretentious, frauds and snobs. I don't know if any similar studies have been done in the field of beer tasting, but I'm fairly confident that the results would probably be the same. Watch a few youtube beer reviews. "I'm getting dark fruits, apricots, Brazilian Kiwi, dank cat pee, and just a hint of Georgia red clay . . ."
Yes . . . of course. That's what I get too.
... One also suggested that I use coriander and orange peel. I used .4oz coriander and 1.5oz fresh orange peel in the last ten min of the boil.
He didn't suggest you should add "
more" coriander and orange peel, (
which I don't believe any competent Belgian Judge would ever say). He suggested you should add
some. Since you already did add those things, what does that say about his taste buds? I followed a recipe for a Belgian Tripel that called for 1/2 oz of orange peel, (also a 5.5 gallon batch). I bought the orange peel in a 1 oz package and on brew day, without paying attention, I opened it and threw the whole ounce in the last 10 minutes of the boil. It didn't ruin the batch, and it does seem to be mellowing out as it ages. Every beer is different, (obviously), but I think it's safe to say 1.5 ounces of orange peel in a 5.5 gallon batch would be most definitely noticeable.
If I was a beer Judge and had to judge barley wines they'd all lose - I've never met a barley wine I liked. The same is true if I had to Judge beer aged in wine barrels or bourbon barrels . . they'd all lose as well. If my son were a Judge no IPA would ever win anything - he despises IPA's.
My point is that all beers are different, all tastes are different, all preferences are different. Beers get high ratings based as much on hype as anything else. There was also a bunch of psychological studies conducted that show the overwhelming majority of people are basically follow the heard sheep, not leader of the pack wolves. Reading the ratings on Beer Advocate pretty much substantiates that hypothesis.
If you and your friends like it - you're winning. If a BJCP Judge who can't taste 1.5 oz of orange peel in a 5.5 gallon batch doesn't like it - who cares?
