Fri Mar 30, 2012 4:33 am
Pretty well actually. As an aside, an American Pale Ale that I brewed just previous to starting this thread was the first beer that I started playing around with the water chemistry. I over complicated it, added 5 different salts to the mash tun to try to match a City's water profile, etc. That beer has turned out almost undrinkable. It is disgusting.
So, from this post forward, I've followed A.J.'s advice and simplified things focusing mainly on mash pH and calcium chloride and gypsum additions. Doing this earned me a Silver Medal for the Kolsch (scored 38.6) and a Silver Medal for the IIPA (scored 35.5) at the Peach State Brew Off (420 entries). I also took home a Bronze for an RIS (scored 37.5) that I brewed three years ago without any water adjustments.
I'm dissapointed that the Hefewiezen (scored 30) didn't do better, but that beer was judged first in it's flight, so that may be the explaination. It's a good beer.
The Janet's Brown Ale that I brewed also didn't fair well, but I'm chalking that up to not falling into any category. It is a beer without a home. I entered it into both the American Brown Ale and the Specialty categories. As a specialty, it scored a 33.5. As an American Brown it scored a 28. It's a damn good beer and I'd like to see a new category for Imperial Browns or California Browns or Texas Browns, whatever you want to call it.
On a related note, the very next day there was another beer competition and the same RIS took first in its category with a score of 47 and also took best of show. It was a much smaller competition and I think a score of 47 is rediculous, but it is a damn good beer in my opinion. I'm going to get to brew a pro-am beer with Wild Heaven for the BOS!
