stratslinger
Well-Known Member
I entered a local homebrew comp earlier this month, and scored pretty well. Among my entries was an American Stout I brewed earlier this year, and I got some interesting feedback on it - I'm curious to see what people here might do with this feedback.
Without getting too much into the specifics of the recipe or process, suffice it to say this was an American Stout that was brewed in mid February and entered into a comp in early June - so basically any late hop additions were pretty much gone. But this beer, in my opinion, was the best stout I've made to date, and I've gotten a lot of great feedback on it.
It scored a 37, which I was pretty darned happy with. Further, I spoke with one of the judges afterward, and he told me that it would have done better except it didn't have a pronounced roast bitterness or american hop presence. That said, his advice was to not change a thing about it - he said it was fantastic the way it was and he wouldn't touch the recipe. His exact words were "I would buy this beer" which, coming from a BJCP certified LHBS and small brewery owner, made me feel pretty darned good about my work!
Now, I know what I'm going to do with his advice. But I'm interested to see how others on HBT would take that advice. Would you take the judge's advice and keep the recipe as-is and continue to enjoy a really good recipe, or would you tweak it to try to get a few more points out of it in future comps?
Without getting too much into the specifics of the recipe or process, suffice it to say this was an American Stout that was brewed in mid February and entered into a comp in early June - so basically any late hop additions were pretty much gone. But this beer, in my opinion, was the best stout I've made to date, and I've gotten a lot of great feedback on it.
It scored a 37, which I was pretty darned happy with. Further, I spoke with one of the judges afterward, and he told me that it would have done better except it didn't have a pronounced roast bitterness or american hop presence. That said, his advice was to not change a thing about it - he said it was fantastic the way it was and he wouldn't touch the recipe. His exact words were "I would buy this beer" which, coming from a BJCP certified LHBS and small brewery owner, made me feel pretty darned good about my work!
Now, I know what I'm going to do with his advice. But I'm interested to see how others on HBT would take that advice. Would you take the judge's advice and keep the recipe as-is and continue to enjoy a really good recipe, or would you tweak it to try to get a few more points out of it in future comps?