Fisrt Cometition Entry Advice

[Spartan 117]

Hey Guys,

I've decided to enter a brew into the Beerfest comp for 2010 (my first entry into a brew comp) and just after a few pointers from some veterans. Thinking of submitting an English pale ale, I've read the style citeria and think I've got a good idea of how to make the beer and ingridients to use but am unsure on what judges watch out for and what gets you the points.

Also will be heading to the Grand Ridge Brewery for the 2 days which will be a laugh hope to see and talk to some of you guys.

Cheers

Aaron

 

[newguy]

1) Most important: your beer isn't infected in some way (bacteria: sour or wild yeast: phenolic). I'm sure you know what sour is but phenolic can be many things: cloves, band aid, electrical fire, smokey, just to name a few.

2) Next most important: your beer hits the style guidelines. Hitting them consistently comes with practice. Read through the judges' notes with a bottle of your beer in hand and try to taste/smell what they wrote. This will help tune your palate so that you can start to confidently identify common tastes and aromas on your own. Once you get proficient in this, you can truly examine your own beers.

3) Brew, brew, brew. Try using different ingredients (malt, yeast, hops) to see for yourself how they influence the end result. Taste your malts before you mash them. Really get a good long hard sniff of your hops before throwing them in the kettle. Use fresh hops whenever possible. Vary your yeasts and if you haven't already, try liquid cultures.

Honestly, the most important thing you can do is to watch your sanitation. If you don't have an infection problem you can concentrate on learning your ingredients and tweaking your recipes.

Good luck in the comp.

 

[crozdog]

Judges compare the beer in front of them against the specified guidelines, not wether they like that beer or not. So familiarise yourself with the guidelines. Try commercial examples to see what they are like - judge them for yourself (using a scoresheet) to get an idea of what works and doesn't.

make several beers trying varions combinations of ingredients &/or process eg there can be a huge difference in the finished product depending on how the "cold" side is managed. Most brewers focus on recipe formulation, but I reckon that 60+% of the beer comes from the cold side. What's that mean? Control ferment temperature. Choose your yeast - make sure it's both appropriate for style, healthy & pitch enough. Don't rush it, time is generally your friend. Allow to fermernt out. rack to secondary. cold condition.

Don't submit an infected beer - it plays havoc with judges pallates - sure bottle infections do happen in a batch, but like newguy says pay attention to sanitation.

Basically follow the usual good practices & know what it is you're trying to achieve & how to get it. That said, comps are a great way to get independant feedback about how you can improve.

FWIW, do the BJCP course if you get the chance. You may not be interested in becoming a judge, but your knowledge and consequently your brewing will improve dramatically.

 

[Spartan 117]

Cool, cheers for that guys, got a book by Laurie Strachan, it's got some of the guidlines there as well as the beerfest web page. The judge stuff sounds good.

Thanks for the pointers

Aaron

 

[katzke]

I do not know anything about the competition you are entering so my advice is very generic.

Brew what you like. After all when it is all done you will have to drink what is left over from the few bottles you submit.

Find the category that best suits that brew what you like brew is.

I know of one person that won best show with their first brew and has never been able to place after that. My wife got a third place in a club sponsored AHA (American Homebrewers Association) event in one of the bigger categories and we asked one of the judges what he thought of the beer and he had nothing good to say about it.

If you are trying to make a brew that fits look at the guidelines and give it your best shot.

When it comes to tasting it is all subjective. Not all commercial beers fit the guidelines. You may brew a great beer that does not fit what the judges are looking for. You may brew a poor beer that does fit what the judges are looking for.

In the end it only matters what sells or what you would serve to you family and friends.

Yes it is nice to say I won an award. But brew the same beer next time and see how it places?

If the judging sheets are constant they can help. The problem I have seen is they are not totally informative. But that may be because I have been at the lower end of the beer completions and have not gotten any real good score sheets.

That brings me back to where I started. I do not know anything about the competition you are entering. I would follow what limited advice I have given. I think that is brew what you like and find a category that best suits what you brewed.

 

[Muggus]

I find its a good idea to actually sit down with the BJCP guidelines with you and not just drink you beer, but analyse it.

You may have a preconcieved idea of what style your beer is, but it's important to test it against the criteria of the style according to the BJCP. You may find that you beer fits better in a different catagory to what you originally thought.
Like if your English bitter is bit on the malty and dark side, it could be considered an English brown ale.

I generally don't brew beers according to recipes or specific styles, so if I want to submit a beer to a competition it's a matter of selecting the catagory that suits the beer the most...and often it ends up with stouts becoming porters, Belgian strongs becoming dubbels, APA's become AAA's...you'd be suprised how similiar some of the styles are yet they could make or break your final score.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

If you have a beer that you are a bit unsure about... is it a Trippel or a Golden strong Ale? - is it a Marzen or a Vienna Lager? etc etc. You can enter it in both categories (read the comp rules to make sure you are allowed to do that though) and let the experienced palates of the judges tell you what sort of beer it really is. That will give you two levels of feedback about the beer and help you fine tune your sense of the subtleties that differentiate some of the styles.

But remember a good, well made beer will still score reasonably well, even if it is quite out of style; and the styles are quite wide, you don't (or shouldn't) get a lower score for hitting the very edge of the style that you do for smacking the numbers right in the middle. So thats what you need to do most of all.. brew a well made beer. Sanitation, Temperature control, Yeast handling, Care with your packaging - it doesn't matter how great a recipe is, or how accurately it hits the style targets, it will not score well if it isn't well made.

 

[Bribie G]

I don't know what guidelines are being used by the Beerfest (where is it?) but a mine of useful info is the BJCP site itself. linky.

 

[razz]

http://www.beerfest.org.au/

 

[Bribie G]

http://www.beerfest.org.au/

Using the AABC guidelines. Nice one :icon_cheers: :icon_cheers:

 

[haysie]

I find its a good idea to actually sit down with the BJCP guidelines with you and not just drink you beer, but analyse it.

You may have a preconcieved idea of what style your beer is, but it's important to test it against the criteria of the style according to the BJCP. You may find that you beer fits better in a different catagory to what you originally thought.
Like if your English bitter is bit on the malty and dark side, it could be considered an English brown ale.

I generally don't brew beers according to recipes or specific styles, so if I want to submit a beer to a competition it's a matter of selecting the catagory that suits the beer the most...and often it ends up with stouts becoming porters, Belgian strongs becoming dubbels, APA's become AAA's...you'd be suprised how similiar some of the styles are yet they could make or break your final score.

Forget about the opening sentence, out of date, shippage, storage etc always spoils things good! everything else is too a T.
Too many styles too many examples that are borderline.
Aaron, go for it . Just do it your way then work if need be from there, its always good to meet a few people, listen learn then you can get your own views on the beer the judge and the competition.
Hope you do good.
Haysie

 

[simon.sillitoe]

Fisrt Cometition ?

Had a few of the winner already have we?

 

[Spartan 117]

Cheers for that guys, muchly appreciated, good thing i have by fermenting fridge up and running and will deffinetly nbe extra carefull with sanitation. Will also take on board what thirsty boy said about entering in more than one catogery, I think for the pale ale it's only 1 entry per person but I'll double check.

SimonSS not sure what you mean mate, have you had a few?

Cheers

Aaron

 

[O'Henry]

...make several beers trying varions combinations of ingredients &/or process eg there can be a huge difference in the finished product depending on how the "cold" side is managed. Most brewers focus on recipe formulation, but I reckon that 60+% of the beer comes from the cold side. What's that mean? Control ferment temperature. Choose your yeast - make sure it's both appropriate for style, healthy & pitch enough. Don't rush it, time is generally your friend. Allow to fermernt out. rack to secondary. cold condition...

I would say just get in there and have a go. I agree with a lot of the end product's character coming from the cold side. I recently entered a Best Bitter in a comp that was brewed with amercian hops and out of place malts. It was fermented with an English yeast though. None of the comments picked up on the ingredients.

 

[floppinab]

SimonSS not sure what you mean mate, have you had a few?

The speling of ur pst tittle!!!!!

I'm going to go out on a limb here, be interesting to see the response. All above advice is on the money but one thing I've noticed on the beers I've entered that have done well, firstly and foremostly they followed the above advice but they've also had a little something that made the beer standout. Maybe a slightly unconventional yeast selection, an unusual hop in the mix, just something that made it stand out from the crowd while still fitting the style guidelines.

I'm guessing when the judges come to my beer (depending on where it landed in the order of judging), firstly as I said at the start the fundamentals are right, but secondly they'll pick up something different on my beer compared to the rest and as long it "works" 1. within the style guidelines 2. with the overall profile of the beer. it lifts yours out of the standard profile of the beer and may stand it out (positively) from a flight of very similar tasting beers.

You could compare it to some of the things coming out of the micros. Murrays Pils using NZ hops as a more extreme e.g.

Some food for thought.