British Ales Competition (vic) 2010 - May 16

[Fourstar]

Yes but then there's beers that fall in both categories - bitter and hoppy but malty and caramel. My current fave (Youngs SLA) is a good example. I may enter a bottle into the comp but the clarity is lacking and I'm not sure I can get a bottle to drop off points or the actual comp in time.

I guess it's just a matter of accepting that style guidelines are simply guidelines, not style restrictions. No-one's going to make a million dollars from winning a comp so if you think it vaguely fits - enter it and take the scores and feedback with a grain of salt, no matter whether you win or whether you come bottom (unless infection was the reason). Competitions need some standard on which to judge as beer tasting is very subjective. Style guidelines and basic beer faults seem like a good beginning point.

At the end of the day - chuck it in and get an ego stroke if you win and some good, honest feedback if you don't.

Yeah thats an issue if you are trying to enter and not brewing to guidelines. Too much hop character might burn you if entered as a bitter but the crystal malt will burn you if entered as a pale ale. Persoanlly id go with the Bitter category as it should be more forgiving as it allows moderate to high hop aroma/flavour. The key for the Bitter is in its balance. Evenly balanced Hop bitterness:Malt character and usually less focused on the hop flavour/aroma comapred to an APA.

 

[fraser_john]

snip... and father-john's details retrospectively in the system.

Huh?

 

[brendo]

Huh?

Sorry - it wasn't you fraser_john... my bad... shouldn't do too many things at once - like work and surf AHB h34r:

 

[Fourstar]

Sorry - it wasn't you fraser_john... my bad... shouldn't do too many things at once - like work and surf AHB h34r:

isnt work, surfing AHB?! :icon_cheers:

 

[haysie]

Being lotsa talk of styles etc. May I change direction> Does MB actually expect a decent showing of entries? I suspect there hasnt been enough notice out in the community for people to respond/brew.
On the upside I think I have some good entries, on the downside i expect few/little entries due to the late orginisation. On the all in all, I have never received judging sheets from beers entered at Beerfest in Feb, and now MB`s implementing an online entry? :unsure: , I have decided to save my entries for Vicbrew.

edit.. MB member!

 

[felten]

Well I was planning to bottle on the 9th but I guess it could be pushed back a day.. but maybe theres no point as it won't be carbed for the comp after only a week =\

 

[Wolfy]

Well I was planning to bottle on the 9th but I guess it could be pushed back a day.. but maybe theres no point as it won't be carbed for the comp after only a week =\

A week in the bottle is probably going to have more carbonation than many 'traditional' British cask ales - but I don't know how that would fit with the guidelines.

 

[Fourstar]

A week in the bottle is probably going to have more carbonation than many 'traditional' British cask ales - but I don't know how that would fit with the guidelines.

if its a bitter... perfect! :icon_cheers:

 

[hazard]

A week in the bottle is probably going to have more carbonation than many 'traditional' British cask ales - but I don't know how that would fit with the guidelines.

The problem will be not the carb level, but residual priming sugar - may well be sweet, not bitter, if not fully carbed.

 

[Fourstar]

I just noticed on the entry webform, the scottish ale is noted as a 70/- and not an 80/- as per the flyer.

Cheers. :icon_cheers:

 

[Andyd]

Being lotsa talk of styles etc. May I change direction> Does MB actually expect a decent showing of entries? I suspect there hasnt been enough notice out in the community for people to respond/brew.
On the upside I think I have some good entries, on the downside i expect few/little entries due to the late orginisation. On the all in all, I have never received judging sheets from beers entered at Beerfest in Feb, and now MB`s implementing an online entry? :unsure: , I have decided to save my entries for Vicbrew.

edit.. MB member!

The comp's been listed with Vicbrew (on the Vicbrew website) as an event from the start of the year, and clubs were informed that it would be on in March via Vicbrew - at the club we first announced it at the Feburary meeting and have been talking about it since then. So although notice on AHB could have been earlier, people have known about it.

This is a small competition for us, and we kind of like it that way. It's designed so that people have a chance to get some experience in running a competition under their belt. So if we get 40 entries we'll be happy. At this stage we're sitting on 20.

Andy

 

[Andyd]

I just noticed on the entry webform, the scottish ale is noted as a 70/- and not an 80/- as per the flyer.

Cheers. :icon_cheers:

Thanks,

Good pick-up. Fixed on the forms now.

Andy

 

[Fourstar]

This is a small competition for us, and we kind of like it that way. It's designed so that people have a chance to get some experience in running a competition under their belt. So if we get 40 entries we'll be happy. At this stage we're sitting on 20.

Andy

Is that counting them incrementally or total form submissions including deletions? For some reason one of my entries came up with two of the same, with one not paid and now deleted. You should find entry #14 does not exist. :icon_cheers:

 

[Andyd]

No - that's total excluding cancelled entries.

 

[brendo]

Hi guys,

Just a quick reminder that if you are looking to drop off your entries at either the Brewers Den, Grain & Grape, or Greensborough Homebrewing that entries must be dropped off by no later than 12 pm tomorrow (Saturday 8/5).

Of course entries can be dropped off in person on the day at the comp.

Good luck and hope to see you there!!

Cheers,

Brendan

 

[Fourstar]

I'll be collecting the entries from Greensy home brewing at 12, i might (most probably) hang around for abit. Feel free to say hi! :icon_chickcheers:

 

[fraser_john]

Who went? Good day? Report, pics?

Any ideas when results will be available?

 

[brendo]

Hi guys,

The British Ales competition has been run and won for yet another year.

Firstly a big thanks to all who supported the competition - either by entering, stewarding, judging or just turning up and soaking up the atmosphere!! If you haven't been down to Oscar's Alehouse in Belgrave, you really should make the effort as Brett & Gypsy have an awesome array of beers available and it is mere stumbling distance from the Belgrave train station. (Take the kids on Puffing Billy, then grab some refreshment for yourself on the way home h34r: )

In the end we have about 37 entries presented for judging and overall the quality of the beers was pretty good - so well done all.

Full results and scoresheets will be available soon via http://www.compmaster.com.au, however here are the top three places for each category.

Category 1: (Mild, Northern English Brown, Irish Red, Scottish /80)
1st : Rod Patterson, Mild, 119.5 points
2nd : Braden Jackman, Irish Red, 110.5 points
3rd : Chris Taylor, Northern English Brown, 102 points

Category 2: (Ordinary Bitter, Best/Special Bitter, Extra Special Bitter)
1st: Brendan Guild, ESB, 120 points
2nd: Rod Patterson, Best Bitter, 119 points
3rd: Braden Jackman, Best Bitter, 116.5 points

Category 3: (Old Ale, Strong Scotch Ale, English Barleywine)
1st : John Kingston, Strong Scotch Ale, 106 points
2nd : Robin Brown, Strong Scotch Ale, 92.5 points
3rd : Brendan Guild, English Old Ale, 79.5 points

Well done to all who placed - we will be in touch with individuals to organise getting your prizes to you. In the meantime, feel free to PM me if you want to organise something. I will post again as soon as the full results are available. As for photos, I know that Wolfy was wandering around with a camera, so hopefully he might share some of the action shots with you all soon.

Once again, a big thank-you to all who participated and we hope to see you all again next year.

Cheers,

Brendan Guild
Melbourne Brewers - British Ales Competition Organiser.

 

[Fourstar]

Brendan Guild
Melbourne Brewers - British Ales Competition Organiser.

Great work on the organisation and co-ordination of the event Brendo! Was a faultless day! (ignoring AndyD's Data entry!) :lol:

 

[brendo]

Great work on the organisation and co-ordination of the event Brendo! Was a faultless day! (ignoring AndyD's Data entry!) :lol:

thanks mate... all seemed to go pretty smoothly and the website that AndyD built worked pretty well. The comp was useful for helping to iron out any tweaks required for it, so it should be even better next time around.