Castle Hill and NSW State Homebrewing Competition 2014

[Barry]

Thanks to Stu who did a sterling job as always, never loses his good humour. Heather, and her helpers, were greatly appreciated by all for their tireless efforts.
A big thanks to all the sponsors, please don't forget who they are, every comp needs sponsors who are willing to support home brewing with more than words.
Great to meet all the old faces again and even some new ones. The standard of entries was great, very few with brewing problems. Most scores reflected style interpretation and perception variations more than anything else.
Hope to see more brewers at the ANHC in October.

 

[Bribie G]

Second Barry's comments re sponsors, and the quality. There were a couple of shockers at our table (and I bet they were individual bottle infections - they had all the hallmarks such as acetobacter. But they were just so vile that no brewer would deliberately have put them in, and you can't go opening and closing every one of your bottles prior to the day) but they were very few and far between.
The rest of the beers were very sound and as Barry says it usually boiled down to how well they fulfilled individual aspects as set out the the BJCP guide. Many were vastly superior to some well known commercial craft brews.

 

[mckenry]

Try to forget the war, son. It's not good for anyone. I know!

As for your beer being the best. At the very least, it's *arguably* the best beer, or best beer submitted for evaluation.

Les (2 cents)

definitely les. Comp is for fun and feedback. BTW I never said best, just scored highest. I was only saying pretty much what grant was saying. Different day, different judge. No nasty intentions from me. Thanks to all involved.

 

[Weizguy]

definitely les. Comp is for fun and feedback. BTW I never said best, just scored highest. I was only saying pretty much what grant was saying. Different day, different judge. No nasty intentions from me. Thanks to all involved.

Nothing nasty in what you said. I was making an insider joke for those who know of my Berliner weisse win in 2006. Therefore, don't mention the war.

 

[waggastew]

Having judged the wheats on Sunday morning paying close attention to the style guidelines really is the key to doing well at comps. A lot of US wheats with banana and clove etc. Some great beers that don't score well because they miss the mark on style as mentioned by others.

Awesome job by Stu, show crew, sponsors etc. If you haven't come along before put the date in the diary for next year.

 

[Blind Dog]

Having judged the wheats on Sunday morning paying close attention to the style guidelines really is the key to doing well at comps. A lot of US wheats with banana and clove etc. Some great beers that don't score well because they miss the mark on style as mentioned by others.

Awesome job by Stu, show crew, sponsors etc. If you haven't come along before put the date in the diary for next year.

[SIZE=10.5pt]Apologies for my mislabelled IPA. Hope it wasn’t too much of a shock to the system on a Sunday morning! [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]First time stewarding and had an absolute blast and learnt heaps. Already begun negotiations with SWMBO for next year[/SIZE]

 

[skb]

I am sure a silly question what does HC mean ?

 

[skb]

To clarify there is 1,2,3rd and HC

 

[huez]

To clarify there is 1,2,3rd and HC

highly commended

 

[skb]

To clarify there is 1,2,3rd and HC

 

[timmyf]

Thanks to everyone involved. Look forward to seeing the feedback.

 

[MCHammo]

Awesome job by Stu, show crew, sponsors etc. If you haven't come along before put the date in the diary for next year.

Unfortunately, the date was already in my diary, but something else came up. Was really hoping to make it this year. Hopefully will be there next year!

 

[petesbrew]

It was great to help out on Sunday and catch up with some old & new faces. There were some great beers to taste.
Thanks to Stu & all for running this, and the Castle Hill Show ladies for the great lunch.

2nd last place for my IPA... WTF went wrong?!?! Looking forward to the notes haha.

 

[moodgett]

Congrats moodgett, I'd be keen to see your winning recipe if you'd be willing to share!

Cheers,

no probs mate, PM sent

 

[mkstalen]

OK. So for all those people who placed, what's the process for the AABC? There's very little information regarding how to enter or what's required.

 

[Weizguy]

OK. So for all those people who placed, what's the process for the AABC? There's very little information regarding how to enter or what's required.

Keep an eye here http://www.aabc.org.au/
"AABC 2014 is to be held in Canberrra on Thursday 16th October 2014 as part of ANHC 2014 "

Entry forms will be posted on the site prior to the competition date, but for now the link is not available.
That's all for now.

 

[dagryll]

Thanks to all involved for making it happen. Much appreciated.

This was my second year entering and I must admit I was surprised to see that my beers this year, which I thought were significantly better than my entries last year, rated quite low - they were all better examples of their style, and better balanced, etc. It must have been a better year overall, is all I can deduce. My Imperial IPA, for example, basically got a fail. (47 out of 100 is a fail by any standard).

Oh well, I'll wait til the scorsheets turn up and see what the judges said.

Next year I definitely plan to go along and steward - see how it all works....

 

[black_labb]

Thanks to all involved for making it happen. Much appreciated.

This was my second year entering and I must admit I was surprised to see that my beers this year, which I thought were significantly better than my entries last year, rated quite low - they were all better examples of their style, and better balanced, etc. It must have been a better year overall, is all I can deduce. My Imperial IPA, for example, basically got a fail. (47 out of 100 is a fail by any standard).

Oh well, I'll wait til the scorsheets turn up and see what the judges said.

Next year I definitely plan to go along and steward - see how it all works....

From what the judges have said it sounds like there was a lot of really good quality beer in the comp and I assume they've needed to differentiate more on minor differences. I've gone in comps a few times including winning BOS 2 years ago at this comp. I've never had scores this low before. I knew that I didn't have a BOS beer this time but I had some fairly decent examples of different styles with my 5 entries. None of them were anywhere near the tops and I had a mild place last in the low alcohol section (a just under 3% beer that is perfectly balanced on a handpump but after getting the results I opened a bottle of it and basically agreed, too thin and too hoppy when served from the bottle which I assume will be the feedback)

I'm really looking forward to the feedback, the more constructive criticism the better.

 

[Weizguy]

True, black_labb. Most of the beers were at least good beers, and to style.

This year, I found that I had to mark beers down for freshness of ingredients, or oxidation (where either was appropriate or otherwise).
Some bottled beer had characters that had faded, and needed to be more forward, or needed a more up-front malt character.

Some beers, to me, had age and/or oxidation written all over them, and a few had stale hop character.
Others, not enough body for the style. Hardly any that were too thick, creamy or heavy.

Minor flaws in the past, but separated the field at this event. A good representation of quality, in the styles I was looking at.

Happy to discuss, if required.

 

[Dan Pratt]

Hi Les/Stu,

What % of the bottles that you opened and judged were bottle fermented either from Bulk priming or using single sugar additions? I would imagine its quite high.

Im curious to know how many people bottle from the draught kegs/tap and enter them, that is allowed right?