Just wanted to post a 3rd place result in an AHA/BJCP competition with BIAB. For those that do not know AHA is American Homebrewers Association.
My wife entered in category 14B the American IPA category (I hate the stuff so she entered it). It was one of the bigger categories in the competition. I think there were 16 entries in this category. We had something like 136 total entries in the entire competition.
I am still enjoying the glow of sampling so many brews but will try to get all the important information.
This was a small club competition with entries from Oregon and Idaho, the heart of high IBU IPAs. The beer we entered just made the category with over 40 IBUs. The score results were 35 and 37 out of 50. The basics of the scores were - slightly high bottle fill, Sweet, too dark or red, Sweet or malt unbalanced with bitterness. Some of the notes do not agree so I included the ones that did.
The note was made that it was oxidized. This was a keg brew and I forgot to purge the keg after filling even though I hit it with some CO2 before filing. The bottles were filled with a picnic tap with a tube attached (a poor mans counter pressure filler).
We showed up when they were judging the best of show. When we found out we looked in the cooler and found our entry so knew it was not a first place entry. One of the judges was there so we asked him to give some input. We were not even sure if we entered the correct category. He gave lots of advice but said it was not an American IPA. He did well in the competition with several first place ribbons and won best of show (the reason why he was not in the final round of judging). My wife was sure she had no chance of a ribbon after his input. I can only wonder what the flaws were in the other entries. I know several of the entrants and they make very hoppy IPAs. I can only guess that they did not have a good balance in the hops and malt.
This was our first entry in a competition. We have been brewing for the last year and a few months and this is about our 6th or 8th all grain brew. I have a poor memory and would have to look at the notes to see how may brews we have done (that is why we have recipes). I can say we would still be brewing with extract if it were not for BIAB. I am a bit of a maverick and all the bad comments from American brewers made me look into it more. I could not find any reason why BIAB would not work.
The brewing water was adjusted with salts because one of our first BIABs was a disaster so I took the time to learn more about water. I need to look at the notes to see if I made an error in my water adjustment and accentuated the malt or if that was just from the malt bill. Remember I am just back from sampling all the left over beer.
BIAB WORKS. We have the traditional home brew mentality that home brew is best. We have tasted lots of brews we did not like that were brewed on traditional all grain systems. We have tasted several that were good. The difference is not what system the beer was brewed on but how much the brewer followed good brewing practice. That practice has more to do with what you do with water and in the fermenter then what you do in the mash. I am a firm believer that you should leave the brew in the fermenter long enough for it to become beer. This one was left in for 4 weeks. Fermentation temperature is critical. The water was adjusted for the beer color. The idea that if you can drink the water you can brew beer is bunk in my opinion. Good fresh ingredients are important also.
Final comment is brew what you like to drink. After talking to the BJCP judge and sampling all the beers I did I know it only maters what the person thinks when they taste the beer. I sampled a stout and liked it but one guy did not like it. He brews stouts with extra hops and was marked down on his entries because of that.
My wife entered in category 14B the American IPA category (I hate the stuff so she entered it). It was one of the bigger categories in the competition. I think there were 16 entries in this category. We had something like 136 total entries in the entire competition.
I am still enjoying the glow of sampling so many brews but will try to get all the important information.
This was a small club competition with entries from Oregon and Idaho, the heart of high IBU IPAs. The beer we entered just made the category with over 40 IBUs. The score results were 35 and 37 out of 50. The basics of the scores were - slightly high bottle fill, Sweet, too dark or red, Sweet or malt unbalanced with bitterness. Some of the notes do not agree so I included the ones that did.
The note was made that it was oxidized. This was a keg brew and I forgot to purge the keg after filling even though I hit it with some CO2 before filing. The bottles were filled with a picnic tap with a tube attached (a poor mans counter pressure filler).
We showed up when they were judging the best of show. When we found out we looked in the cooler and found our entry so knew it was not a first place entry. One of the judges was there so we asked him to give some input. We were not even sure if we entered the correct category. He gave lots of advice but said it was not an American IPA. He did well in the competition with several first place ribbons and won best of show (the reason why he was not in the final round of judging). My wife was sure she had no chance of a ribbon after his input. I can only wonder what the flaws were in the other entries. I know several of the entrants and they make very hoppy IPAs. I can only guess that they did not have a good balance in the hops and malt.
This was our first entry in a competition. We have been brewing for the last year and a few months and this is about our 6th or 8th all grain brew. I have a poor memory and would have to look at the notes to see how may brews we have done (that is why we have recipes). I can say we would still be brewing with extract if it were not for BIAB. I am a bit of a maverick and all the bad comments from American brewers made me look into it more. I could not find any reason why BIAB would not work.
The brewing water was adjusted with salts because one of our first BIABs was a disaster so I took the time to learn more about water. I need to look at the notes to see if I made an error in my water adjustment and accentuated the malt or if that was just from the malt bill. Remember I am just back from sampling all the left over beer.
BIAB WORKS. We have the traditional home brew mentality that home brew is best. We have tasted lots of brews we did not like that were brewed on traditional all grain systems. We have tasted several that were good. The difference is not what system the beer was brewed on but how much the brewer followed good brewing practice. That practice has more to do with what you do with water and in the fermenter then what you do in the mash. I am a firm believer that you should leave the brew in the fermenter long enough for it to become beer. This one was left in for 4 weeks. Fermentation temperature is critical. The water was adjusted for the beer color. The idea that if you can drink the water you can brew beer is bunk in my opinion. Good fresh ingredients are important also.
Final comment is brew what you like to drink. After talking to the BJCP judge and sampling all the beers I did I know it only maters what the person thinks when they taste the beer. I sampled a stout and liked it but one guy did not like it. He brews stouts with extra hops and was marked down on his entries because of that.
