# Inner Sydney Brewers - Harbour City Brew-Off



## Colbatt (12/12/16)

Inner Sydney Brewers Club is pleased to announce the launch of our 2017 Home Brew Comp - *Harbour City Brew-Off*

All of the details are on the web site -

 http://colbatt.wixsite.com/isbbrewcomp2017 

Entries close on 25 February for judging on 11 March so it's time to get brewing now and over the Christmas break! 

This is a BJCP registered comp and we are looking for judges and stewards - you'll find the on-line application on the web site 

Good luck to everyone! 

Inner Sydney Brewers


----------



## Colbatt (23/12/16)

We've received some fabulous support from sponsors for this Comp, especially the Best in Show prize from Ss Brewtech - $500 for their fabulous Ss equipment!!

Also great support from 4 Pines, Hop + Grain, BeerCo/Gladfield Malts, The Brew Shop, Modus Operandi, Wayward and hopefully White Labs.

Check it out here... http://colbatt.wixsite.com/isbbrewcomp2017

Get brewing!! This is a comp worth entering!!


----------



## Headmeister (18/1/17)

Hi Colbatt,

I like the sound of this comp! 

A quick question, I notice you have 21A American IPA and 21B Specialty IPA Brown and 21B Specialty IPA Black.

I happen to have a recently brewed IIPA (definitely too strong to fit the 21A category at nigh on 10%ABV) but probably not quite dark enough to be considered brown. 

Can I enter this in the 21B Specialty category anyway or must these be brown or black? 

Many thanks in advance


----------



## barls (18/1/17)

mate you can enter it where ever you would like. appearance is only 3 points anyway so long as it ticks all the boxes your good. if not you will still get some feed back on it.


----------



## Colbatt (21/1/17)

Barl's is right - you can enter it under any category you like (or all three!)

I suggest you print off the relevant pages of the Style Guidelines, open a bottle and, as you sniff, sip, etc, think about where it fits best

Good luck!


----------



## Headmeister (23/1/17)

Many thanks Barls and Cobalt. 

It's definitely in the Imperial IPA category, with almost 500g of hops and almost 10kg of grain in 23 litres for this one. That's why I thought it really doesn't fit any of those categories, 

Barls, I saw your post from 2015 on the ISB thread, about joining a mailing list for ISB, is that mail still active and if so I guess I could PM you my address?


----------



## Reman (24/1/17)

Headmeister said:


> Barls, I saw your post from 2015 on the ISB thread, about joining a mailing list for ISB, is that mail still active and if so I guess I could PM you my address?


Might be better joining the FB group, it's a bit more active than the mailing list and now is the place for meet up events.


----------



## Colbatt (13/2/17)

Guys, don't forget entries close on 25 Feb. Some really great prizes up for grabs!


----------



## Headmeister (14/2/17)

Looking forward to it Colbatt, I'm planning on dropping in 3 or 4 entries on the 25th at Wayward sometime between noon and 2pm.


----------



## Colbatt (18/2/17)

Great! Meet Brendan there


----------



## Weizguy (19/2/17)

Headmeister said:


> Many thanks Barls and Cobalt.
> 
> It's definitely in the Imperial IPA category, with almost 500g of hops and almost 10kg of grain in 23 litres for this one. That's why I thought it really doesn't fit any of those categories,


FWIW, I was just reading the intro to the 2015 BJCP style guidelines and the message I got was that the guidelines are not designed to rule out good beer, but to allow the style boundaries to be flexed to accommodate great quality, skilfully crafted beer which is aimed at a certain 'target' style.
This allows judges to be flexible regarding beer that fits at the edges or outside the boundaries of a given style.


----------



## Headmeister (23/2/17)

Thanks for that Les, much appreciated. I did also notice in the BJCP 2015 doc under Specialty IPA 21B the overview, before it goes into the various colours of specialty IPA: 

'Entry Instructions: Entrant must specify a strength
(session, standard, double); if no strength is specified, standard
will be assumed.

Currently Defined Types: Black IPA, Brown IPA, White
IPA, Rye IPA, Belgian IPA, Red IPA Vital Statistics: Variable by type Strength classifications:
Session – ABV: 3.0 – 5.0%
Standard – ABV: 5.0 – 7.5%
Double – ABV: 7.5 – 10.0%'



Turns out I couldn't have made it to Wayward on Saturday, so have just dropped in my entries to Daves at North Sydney. 

Looking forward to turning up at Wayward late morning on judgement day though. 

Odd that dates on the website when submitting the electronic form appeared to be at odds with your Wix site Col? It said judging on the 12th march and had a different day for entry cutoff, might have said the 27th Feb. Website says Judging Sat 11th March and enrty cutoff Sat 25th feb


----------



## barls (23/2/17)

id go with the 11th and 25th mate.


----------



## Colbatt (10/3/17)

Judging is on tomorrow at Wayward! We have about 120 entries so should be finished by lunch time. 
Hope we can get results up quickly and scoresheets out next week.
Good luck to all!


----------



## Colbatt (12/3/17)

Results are out!!

See
http://colbatt.wixsite.com/isbbrewcomp2017/results


----------



## Barry (13/3/17)

Nice surprise, beers aged for a while (kolsch and saison) seem to be better than those straight from the fermenter (APA APA), must remember that. Congratulations to all ESB'ers, judges, stewards, ISB, Wayward and sponsors. Special thanks to Brendan, Col and others who put in the hours and effort.
Looking forward to looking at the Ss Brewtech site.
Still very surprised.


----------



## huez (13/3/17)

Well done Barry, well deserved. I equalled your saison so I'm happy with that! I have mixed emotions about my 3rd place pale ale with a score of 29, looking forward to the score sheet on that one.
Cheers to all the organisers and sponsors, was a well run and organised comp.


----------



## Dan K (13/3/17)

Thanks for the quick turn around with the results Colbatt and congratulations Barry! Also big thanks to ISB for putting the comp on once again... As for me a 17 is better than a 13 so I'm going with it! [emoji13]


----------



## Codehopper (13/3/17)

A quick woo-hoo post for my Belgian Pale Ale which took 2nd place. The 5th or 6th attempt at the style over the course of the last 2 years, which I finally got presumably right.


----------



## Colbatt (14/3/17)

Scoresheets have all been emailed.

Sit back, crack a beer and see if you can relate to the judges' comments


----------



## huez (14/3/17)

Thanks for the quick turn around colbatt. 
Most of the comments were what I was expecting. Obviously had bottling issues with my apa as it doesn't reflect what's currently in the keg unfortunately. Officially the last time I use the beer gun the bottle for comps!


----------



## Headmeister (14/3/17)

Many thanks Colbatt for all of your efforts here. 

Judges comments on my three entered are very professional and most importantly insightful, very much appreciated, thanks to the judges too.


----------

