National homebrew competition

[TheRedDarren]

Good luck to those that have entered.
First round of judging is today and the winners will be announced tomorrow.

I've entered three beers, apa, aipa and Belgian blonde.
I have high hopes for my pale ale (touch wood) but just getting some feedback will be great.

 

[Toffee]

not entered this one. feedback I got from the welsh comp was (mostly) useful. good luck mate!

 

[TheRedDarren]

Cool, what did they say?
I missed the registration by a few days :-(

 

[Toffee]

well I put in three beers. they all were marked well, top end of good or very good, so I was pleased there.

in terms of helpful comments, two of the beers got marked down on "hot alcohol" which I think is down to stressed yeast. I have since made the following changes in using dry yeast:

aerating wort more
rehydrating dry yeast
pitching slightly cooler

only done one brew since then, but hopefully these (what are often best practices anyhow) will help. I helped out as a steward and tasted a lot of beers. There is a very wide spectrum. Some homebrewed beers are amazing these days. but a lot were quite average or worse, with obvious faults.

if you wanted to win, rather than get feedback on the beers you like to make, then adherence to the style is CRITICAL. Read the BJCP style guide for that category and analyze your beer against all of those criteria.

 

[DoctorMick]

Don't forget to enter the forum competition.

 

[TheRedDarren]

That's interesting, I didn't consider the difference between winning and entering.
I think my beers pretty much follow the style guidelines. I usually use 'Designing great beers' by Ray Daniels to formulate new recipes, and I can't detect any obvious faults in my beers (well not these ones anyway!) although that's not to say a professional judge wouldn't, so hopefully I'll be in with a shout.

 

[TheRedDarren]

Don't forget to enter the forum competition.

Will do ;-)