The Schwartz Brewery All Grain Home Brewing Competition

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Just to keep things interesting, here's Scotty giving Barry's nipple a tweak at the IBU's last Real Ale Fest

At least I am not giving the old fella a tweak ... ey Gideon?

 

[Doc]

A team effort all round.
Great organisation, great people, awesome vibe.
First time I've ever seen a beer comp also be a spectator sport. Although I wouldn't have picked poker being a spectator sport 5 yrs ago.
Love the format of not judging to style, but on the beers individual merits, plus having a Beer Name and 25 word description. Some funny stuff from the entries too

And of course I'm absolutely stoked.

Beers,
Doc

PS: Pete W. I hope you got home and are still in one piece

 

[petesbrew]

I'm now waiting to see how low on the list my Village Idiot came in!

 

[Ross]

Congrats Doc :icon_chickcheers:

What was the beer & descriptor...you care to share?


cheers Ross

 

[Doc]

Congrats Doc :icon_chickcheers:

What was the beer & descriptor...you care to share?

Thanks guys.

Hazelnut Chocolate Porter 5.6%
"Secret Squirrel"
The "Secret Squirrel" inadvertently hid his nuts in the brewery benefiting us with a harmonious hibernation worthy more-ish rich nutty winter warmer.

Doc

 

[AndrewQLD]

Congratulations Doc, sounds like a great beer, should generate some real interest from the customers.

Andrew

 

[Pumpy]

Great venue above the Maquarie Hotel

Thanks for the stewards who done all the hard work Doc, Pomo, Stu and Scotty and anyone I missed out .

Thanks to the four esteemed judges who must have been going about 5-6 hours ,they looked tired out at the end of the day .

It was my first entry ever to any comp and had to work out how to get the beer into the bottle and work the capping machine , it was a great experience ,as I was able to watch the judges fall about in fits of laughter ,then reach for the slops jug, to spew into when they tasted mine .

It is always good to meet up with old friends and make new ones .

Excellent work Doc for a great achievement and a creative description .

Pumpy

 

[kabooby]

Thanks to the judges, stewards, organizers and everyone involved in the day.

Had a great time.

Congrats to Doc on the winning beer. Look forward to trying it in the future.

Kabooby :icon_cheers:

 

[PostModern]

That was a good day and some excellent beers were entered. I spoke to the judges after the event, and they were all very impressed with the standard of entries. Hats off to Doc and Stuster for their stewarding work. As Scotty said, they handled the stewarding table like absolute pros. Most efficient stewarding I've ever seen. Scotty and I could do nothing but stay out of their way and try to keep their thirsts quenched.

Anyway, to make it official, here are the top three beers:

First place: Darren Robinson (Hills Brewers, NSW), "Secret Squirrel" Chocolate/Hazelnut porter. 43.5 points.

First and second runners up:

Peter Wadey (ESB, NSW) for his Brown Porter
and
Greg Lee (AMB, SA) for his "All India" IPA.

Both runners up scored an average of 39.2 points.

Congratulations to all the place getters. They were all excellent beers to stand out in such a strong field of 46 entries.

Somehow, all of the score sheets safely found their way home with me and I'll be posting them out over the next week or so.

I'd like to thank the Schwartz Brewery and the Macquarie Hotel for sponsoring and hosting this event. The facilities were top notch, the professionalism, co-operation and enthusiasm of the Macquarie Hotel staff was brilliant.

It's great to see the craft brewing and home brewing communities forging bonds. It can only do good things for both communities. Thanks Andrew for taking the reins on this event. I'm sure you'll enjoy brewing Doc's beer, which I'll look forward to trying when it goes on tap.

Photos from the judging following soon.

 

[petesbrew]

Congrats Doc, Pete & Greg, and good onya Pomo & Andrew and all those involved in the comp

 

[Barry]

It was just a great day. Maybe next year it could be called Master Brewer and people have to bring their beer to the judges and be told the evaluations .
Congrats to Doc, a wonderful ale and to Peter (better bring the brown porter to the next meeting).
A big thanks to the organisers and judges for their time and effort.

 

[Pumpy]

I wonder if it was real hazelnuts or hazelnut essence Doc used in his Chocolate/Hazelnut porter recipe .

what a great combination .

Pumpy

 

[Doc]

I wonder if it was real hazelnuts or hazelnut essence Doc used in his Chocolate/Hazelnut porter recipe .

what a great combination .

Pumpy

It was real 100% cocoa (and quite a lot) and hazelnut extract.
I can still taste it

Sorry I didn't get to say gidday. Only break was a quick one to throw down some lunch then back into it. Tried to keep things slick on the backend so that we weren't their until midnight. Great teamwork with the organisers (Andrew, Rob, Scotty), Stu, Josh and Barry on the entries and of course Mick, Damon, Richard and Drew on the judging.
I know I was completely shattered at the end of the day even after the euphoria of winning. Still hasn't sunk in yet.

Doc

 

[PostModern]

The entries. All 46 of them, as the stewards sorted them into flights.



The judging panel, on the first entry.
Left to right we have Michael Oberdieck (Lion Nathan), Richard Adamson (Barons Brewery), Damon Nott (The Lord Nelson), Andrew Moore (Schwartz Brewery).



Richard getting some aroma.

 

[PostModern]

I think I'd better sort out the image resizing before I upload too many more. These weigh in quite light at 500k or so, but they're still huge. Just a couple more, will set up a workflow and get as many as I can online tomorrow.



Here's some friendly faces in the crowd.



An entry waiting at the stewards' station.

 

[PostModern]

One more:



Our Winner, Doc, celebrating with judges Damon and Andrew.

 

[Pumpy]

It was real 100% cocoa (and quite a lot) and hazelnut extract.
I can still taste it

Sorry I didn't get to say gidday. Only break was a quick one to throw down some lunch then back into it. Tried to keep things slick on the backend so that we weren't their until midnight. Great teamwork with the organisers (Andrew, Rob, Scotty), Stu, Josh and Barry on the entries and of course Mick, Damon, Richard and Drew on the judging.
I know I was completely shattered at the end of the day even after the euphoria of winning. Still hasn't sunk in yet.

Doc

No worries we could see you had your hands full, it seemed strange watching the judges tasting most of them were 'poker faced' but I think it was the one judge Richard ,who was very animated with his facial expressions and gave away a bit of an indication how he felt about the beer .

I seem to remember the judges tasting the Secret Squirrel and Petes Brown porter they all nodded in appreciation of special brews .

Pumpy

 

[Josh]

Thanks to everyone involved. It was great to see the instant feedback with the judges facial expressions and dumping of unwanted beers or finishing off the tasting glasses on the good ones.

It was a great day out, the girlfriend had a good time too.

 

[kevin_smevin]

Any idea when we can see the full list of results and scores??

 

[PostModern]

Any idea when we can see the full list of results and scores??

We will not be publishing the full list. Score sheets will be returned to entrants, who can feel free to publish their scores if they like.