# 2022 Hunter Homebrew Comp - 4th June 2022



## bcavan (23/2/22)

Hunted United Brewers are excited to announce the annual 2022 Hunter Homebrew Competition which will be held on *Saturday 4th June* at (soon to launch) Thirsty Messiah Brewery, 140 Lambton Rd, Broadmeadow.

Entries will be judged against the AABC Guidelines, closing date for entries will be *Wednesday 25th May 2022*.

All details regarding Styles, Prize Classes and the entry process are available on the comp website at:

Comp.hunterbrewers.com

Judges, Stewards and Volunteers can also register their interest to participate in the comp through the website, we would encourage all interested (whatever your experience level) to take part as there's plenty to learn about beer judging and appreciation.

We have a fantastic array of prizes up for grabs this year so be sure to put your best beers forward and best of luck to all entrants!


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## Barry (24/2/22)

bcavan said:


> Hunted United Brewers are excited to announce the annual 2022 Hunter Homebrew Competition which will be held on *Saturday 4th June* at (soon to launch) Thirsty Messiah Brewery, 140 Lambton Rd, Broadmeadow.
> 
> Entries will be judged against the AABC Guidelines, closing date for entries will be *Wednesday 25th May 2022*.
> 
> ...


I can not connect to the site, security warnings.


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## sp0rk (24/2/22)

Yep, security certificate expired 2 weeks ago


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## TMcKenzie91 (24/2/22)

Sounds good! Hoping the security cert gets updated so I can register


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## Simon N (8/3/22)

Website still seems to be struggling. Are you able to post up here further details of the comp?


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## bcavan (16/3/22)

Thank you all for your patience, but boy has the wait has been worth while!
Our Sponsors have really brought their A-Game and then some.
HUB are very proud to announce that this years comp will have the biggest prize pool yet with a jaw dropping $5,125 (yes you read that correctly) in prize value to be won!!
Prizes include a mega haul of Hops, Yeast, Vouchers, A Grainfather S40, Brewing Experiences, Merchandise and of course Beer.

Our website is undergoing an overhaul to include even more Beer Styles but rest assured that it will be up and running soon and in plenty of time to register your entries in time for the closing date of 25 May 2022.
For now the new and improved Beer Style List and Class Categories (incorporating the latest 2021 BJCP Styles) can be accessed using the following link: Box

Happy brewing and may the best brews win!!


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## Cloud Surfer (31/3/22)

I just entered my beers in this years HUB homebrew competition. I was surprised to see I'm entrant number 1. Still 2 months to go I guess. With that huge prize pool I'm sure it will turn into a big comp. I look forward to helping out as a steward again this year, and tasting a heap of tasty beers.


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## sirons (31/3/22)

Cloud Surfer said:


> I just entered my beers in this years HUB homebrew competition. I was surprised to see I'm entrant number 1. Still 2 months to go I guess. With that huge prize pool I'm sure it will turn into a big comp. I look forward to helping out as a steward again this year, and tasting a heap of tasty beers.



I'm planning on getting some bottle off the tap this week, once they're properly carbed.

Did you already mail yours / drop them off? Or just registered them?


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## Cloud Surfer (31/3/22)

sirons said:


> I'm planning on getting some bottle off the tap this week, once they're properly carbed.
> 
> Did you already mail yours / drop them off? Or just registered them?


No, just registered. I haven’t started making the IIPA or Hefeweizen yet. Barley Wine is just finishing up conditioning on dry hops, so I’ve still got some work to do. I’ll drop everything off close to the closing date at the end of May.


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## sirons (31/3/22)

Cloud Surfer said:


> No, just registered. I haven’t started making the IIPA or Hefeweizen yet. Barley Wine is just finishing up conditioning on dry hops, so I’ve still got some work to do. I’ll drop everything off close to the closing date at the end of May.



Nice. I just popped some Wattleseed brown ale into bottles. Hopefully they have a decent amount of time to bottle condition a bit.

I have a pale ale in the fermenter, and ingredients for another pale ale. But, I'm worried that the pale category gets a bit crowded. 

Its my first time entering a competition. Any advice?


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## Cloud Surfer (1/4/22)

sirons said:


> Nice. I just popped some Wattleseed brown ale into bottles. Hopefully they have a decent amount of time to bottle condition a bit.
> 
> I have a pale ale in the fermenter, and ingredients for another pale ale. But, I'm worried that the pale category gets a bit crowded.
> 
> Its my first time entering a competition. Any advice?


Nice beers. Last year was my first time entering a comp and also helping out as a steward. It was a great experience. Sitting down with the judges all day, the most common fault was guys not leaving their beer in primary long enough. The judges picked up lots of faults they said would have been cleaned up had the beer been left on the yeast a little longer.

Personally I took away a couple of good ideas. Lots of people, me included, leave too much headspace which helps the beer oxidise. I leave at most 1” now and perhaps even less. Also, to do well in the comps, your beer needs to be judged at peak drinking. So I brewed my RIS, Barley Wine and big Belgians last year so they’ll be half decent by June. My Hefe and IIPA will be finished and bottled two weeks before hand so they are in peak freshness.

You’ll get tasting notes from the judges as well, which you can use to improve your beers for next time.


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## mynameisrodney (1/4/22)

I am really hoping to enter again, but havent brewed in 6 months due to home renovations. Getting the new brew area set up now. Need to get a move on.


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## Cloud Surfer (16/4/22)

Who’s been brewing for the comp recently? I’m just transferring my IIPA into the fermenter. This is the third time I’ve made this beer now, so I’m getting closer to what I’m aiming for.


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## clarkejw (17/4/22)

I'm thinking about having my first ever go at a competition. I have an Australian Sparkling Ale, a Czech Premium Lager that I'm quietly happy with, and an English Strong Ale in Fermzilla at the moment. All I have to do is to summon up the courage!


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## Cloud Surfer (17/4/22)

No courage required. At worst you’ll get some great feedback from the judges to help improve your beer. I got a couple of tips from last year I’ve used ever since. At best you might win something. I won a bunch of different stuff for my RIS last year which I wasn’t expecting. So you might be surprised.


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## sirons (24/4/22)

clarkejw said:


> I'm thinking about having my first ever go at a competition. I have an Australian Sparkling Ale, a Czech Premium Lager that I'm quietly happy with, and an English Strong Ale in Fermzilla at the moment. All I have to do is to summon up the courage!



It's going to be my first competiton, too! I'm excited. Looking forward to getting a less biased review of my beer. I wanted to brew an Australian Sparkling Ale, too, but borked it and ended up with what I think most closely resembles an ESB. We'll see what the judges think.

Good luck to you! Let me know how you go.


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## depecid (24/4/22)

Yew, i have a couple of Belgians that are approaching 12 months old so I'll have my first crack at a comp too!

I'd love some proper feedback as my friends don't like to pick my beers apart like I do.


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## Cloud Surfer (24/4/22)

depecid said:


> Yew, i have a couple of Belgians that are approaching 12 months old so I'll have my first crack at a comp too!
> 
> I'd love some proper feedback as my friends don't like to pick my beers apart like I do.


What type of Belgians are you entering?

Belgians are my favourite to brew and drink. Especially the Dark Strong Ales. I’ve got a La Trappe quad clone that’s got a year of bottle age, and also a Rochefort 10 clone I’ll be entering.


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## MHB (24/4/22)

You probably shouldn’t say too much about what you’re entering. People who judge are supposed to be doing so blind!
There won’t be all that many Belgians with a year or so of age on them, better to save detailed comments until after the comp.
Mark


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## depecid (25/4/22)

MHB said:


> You probably shouldn’t say too much about what you’re entering. People who judge are supposed to be doing so blind!
> There won’t be all that many Belgians with a year or so of age on them, better to save detailed comments until after the comp.
> Mark



Interesting! I have an Orval clone which I am labelling as an Orval clone so I don't think there's any harm in saying that. I had a read through the criteria and I think I'm better off just calling it what it is.

My other is a Dark Strong Ale... again, I won't go into details but it's being labelled as such.

I started off brewing nothing but Belgians but now love my hoppy Ipa's, although they're tricky to get right. They always taste amazing for the first week and then fade pretty quickly.



Cloud Surfer said:


> Belgians are my favourite to brew and drink. Especially the Dark Strong Ales. I’ve got a La Trappe quad clone that’s got a year of bottle age, and also a Rochefort 10 clone I’ll be entering.



That's awesome, Rochefort 10 is the reason i started home brewing. I found a local bottle shop that sells them and quickly got over paying $50 a four pack. La Trappe Quad is also amazing, i love the banana that comes off it and will being trying that soon. I also want to do a Tripel Karmeliet.


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## Cloud Surfer (25/4/22)

Tripel Karmeliet is my favourite Tripel. I haven’t brewed one yet.

I like my big, hoppy IIPA’s. The one I entered last year was my very first all grain beer. It was past its best at judging time. Didn’t stop Mark scoring it very highly though.  I learnt a lot from that beer. I do everything with low/zero oxygen now to preserve the hops.


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## Naboo (5/5/22)

G'day @bcavan - or anyone else who may know
Keen to put in a couple of entries. Are there any other drop off locations?
Cheers


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## MHB (5/5/22)

Jason from IBC brought a couple of kegs of Tripple Karmeliet in some years ago, 1 keg lasted 90 minutes on tap at a pub. Which was a bummer as I only got 1 glass. Went back for a second and it was sold out...
Unfortunately the keg version is so much better than the bottled offering it sort of spoiled one of my favourite Belgians for me.

If you want to get close to the original get the right yeast, Wyeast offer it as a seasonal once a year, it makes a world of difference.
If you want to brew something close the recipe on the Candi Syrup Inc website is a great start. I probably wouldn’t invest the money required to use Blanc sugar, I think white cane sugar works well enough, maybe if it was aiming at the nationals, the Belgian Candi would be worth the extra but if it’s just for drinking, nah.
Mark


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## depecid (6/5/22)

MHB said:


> If you want to get close to the original get the right yeast, Wyeast offer it as a seasonal once a year, it makes a world of difference.
> If you want to brew something close the recipe on the Candi Syrup Inc website is a great start. I probably wouldn’t invest the money required to use Blanc sugar, I think white cane sugar works well enough, maybe if it was aiming at the nationals, the Belgian Candi would be worth the extra but if it’s just for drinking, nah.
> Mark



Thanks for the tips! I never use Blanc Candi sugar and always substitute with cane sugar after reading similar suggestions. I have purchased D-90, D-180, and the generic Dark and Dark 2 and have found them pretty similar. 

I have brewed about 6 or 7 recipes from Candi Syrup Inc and have found that for me, they don't taste like clones but are nice in their own right. This is probably more to do with my lack of skill though.

I didn't know there was a different Wyeast yeast for the Karmeliet, I was just going to try and source the sweet mead yeast (WLP720) as indicated on the Candi Syrup Inc recipe.


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## Half-baked (6/5/22)

Hi HUB, pretty keen to enter the comp again this year, from previous experiences it was very well run and well judged.

Like @Naboo I'm pretty keen to know if there are any drop-off locations. In the past there's been one in Sydney. Any chance of that again?

Edit: also, are cans allowed? The conditions of entry indicate bottles and kegs are allowed... If I end up having to send entries via mail, would prefer to send cans.


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## MHB (7/5/22)

Sorry depecid, there isn’t a specific Karmeliet yeast, I was thinking of Wyeast 3463-PC - Forbidden Fruit Yeast.
Which works very well in this beer. Mind you it’s only available occasionally so if you get some, maybe a Forbidden Fruit clone would be a good call. Probably do a bunch of Belgians back to back to build up enough yeast to do a Triple justice. I would be tempted to start with a Belgian Pale and work up in gravity from there.
Mark


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## clarkejw (9/5/22)

Is there a list of drop-off points yet? I can't seem to find one.


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## Cloud Surfer (13/5/22)

I thought the organisers might reply. But here's a list from the website. Needs to be received by 25th May.

*Postal Entries*
Hunter United Brewers
C/O Thirsty Messiah Brewery
140 Lambton Rd,
Broadmeadow NSW 2292

*Newcastle Brew Shop / Noble Barons* (02 4962 2442)
91 Maitland Road, Islington

*The Brewers Market* (02 4945 5333)
453 Pacific Hwy, Belmont


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## Naboo (13/5/22)

Thanks @Cloud Surfer


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## clarkejw (13/5/22)

Cheers! You have better eyes than my old ones, couldn't see it! Thanks for that.


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## Naboo (27/5/22)

Anyone get an entry in?


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## clarkejw (27/5/22)

I do, 3 categories.


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## Cloud Surfer (27/5/22)

When I dropped my beers off a few days ago, they were over 100 entries so far. So it’s a bigger comp than last year.


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## Naboo (28/5/22)

Cool. I ended up posting a couple of entries in. One is a probably a bit early, one a bit past it, but thought I'd get them in anyway. It's good to be part of.


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## The Mack (29/5/22)

Constructive feedback in a blind tasting environment has been invaluable, the feedback from last years comp was so good I also put a few entries in this year... It seems like a very well ran comp with pretty quick turnaround of results!


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## DazGore (5/6/22)

How did the comp go yesterday?

I'm sure a great day was had by all whom participated.

Looking forward to the results and especially my feedback. I have a couple of entries that I was really happy with so will be good to see what the official tasters thought.

Daz


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## Cloud Surfer (5/6/22)

The comp day was great. Over 160 beers were judged, so a very busy day for the judges and stewards. It was a lot of fun again and a great chance to try a lot of different beers. The scores seemed quite a bit lower this year than last year even though I thought the standard was pretty high. The calibration beer at the start got marked quite low, which I think set the tone for the day. So I wouldn’t worry if your beer scored lower than you expected.


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## depecid (6/6/22)

I'm excited to hear some proper feedback as this is my first comp. I tried both of my entries yesterday and I can't imagine I will score that well, but feedback is what I'm after. 

My Orval clone has developed (to my palette) a bit of a soapy taste that wasn't present a few months back. I'm not sure if that is the Brett taking over or something else. My Quad is undercarbed unfortunately as it was my first attempt at bulk priming and it didn't deliver, but it's tasting good.


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## bcavan (8/6/22)

HUB are very pleased to announce the results from the 2022 Hunter Homebrew Comp held this past weekend at Thirsty Messiah Brewery.

Congratulations to all prize winners and thanks to all Entrants, volunteer Judges & Stewards without whom a great comp like this wouldn't be possible.
Congratulations to Craig Dunbar for taking out the Champion Brewer prize.
This year also saw the introduction of a new prize category being the Hunter Champion Brewer, congrats Andrew Rostas for taking out that prize.
For those interested the methodology for awarding these prizes is outlined on the comp website. 

Huge thanks to this year's sponsors who contributed an incredible $5,125 worth of prizes, please show your appreciation by supporting those who support us:
Platinum Sponsors: FogHorn Brewery , Hop Products Australia , Grainfather , Bluestone Yeast & Grainfed Brewing Company
Gold Tier Sponsors: Shout Brewing, Newcastle Brew Shop & Modus Merewether
Silver Tier Sponsors: Six String Brewing Company, BeerCo, Lallemand Brewing & Brewman
Bronze Tier Sponsors: Method Brewing, The Brewers Market, Belmont & Ironbark Hill Brewhouse


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## Brewman_ (8/6/22)

Well done Chaps.

Pete Ptolemy would be Proud.

He is missed in the Home Brewing community. A top bloke, in every sense of the word.

And was an amazing brewer, State Champ, and National Champ.

And a friend of mine and to many here.

Cheers
Steve


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## Simon N (10/6/22)

Score sheets are out!! Massive thanks to all involved for the huge effort and time taken in providing considered feedback.


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