2007 California State Homebrew Comp Results

[Otterbrew]

During the last "Session" Mike McDole mentioned that someone who listed "The Brewing Network" as his club had won an award at the California State Homebrew Comp, and I am very proud to say it was me.

Result of the competition are at the following site:

http://www.draughtboard.org/CAComp/2007Winners.htm

This was my first "First", and I owe it all to the information spewed on this network (and perhaps my lucky mo). Much thanks to the Brewing Network, and this forum.

-Greg Robles

[TastyMcD]

Greg, congratulations and sorry for not catching your name when it was announced. I'm sure Justin will be mentioning your success on the next show.

A first and a second (sweep) is pretty impressive and although I don't consider myself as "THE guy to beat", you certainly have every right to brag about your DIPA and IPA both beating out some heavy hitters in what was probably the category with the most entries. My Double IPA entry was the Longshot winner so I think you could make a pretty strong case that YOU ROCK! When you put your homebrew in front of friends and relatives you get a whole different response when you tell them it's an award winner. Hell, your beer probably tastes better to you now as well!

I could see the BN army being a force to be dealt with in future competitions and it's these initial victories that will be remembered. I strongly encourage all the BN'ers to get their beer in front of some judges. It defintely improves your beer and what's an army without heroes.

I don't want to speak for the BN but it's great that you feel some of your success was due to what you've learned from the shows. That's one of their main goals and your success is their success.

Brew strong brother!

PS: Send beer!

[hotrod38]

Nice job Greg!!

[bub]

Whooptie F-ing doo.
Hell even Justin can make good .... uhhh never mind.
GREAT JOB! And you beat Tasty McDole, I sense a swirly coming Mike.
BUB

[jcbrewing]

Congrats!

I'm just waiting to see my scores, thought I had some good beers entered. Oh well. Keep on brewing.

[jcbrewing]

Apparently my beer taste like crap. All 4 of them. Well, one they said was ok , but that was kinda out of style. Luckily I have a few left to compare to their sheets and go from there.

[BDawg]

First, it takes balls to let somebody else rip your beer to shreds.
So, don't let it get you down that they did. It happens to all of us.

Second, hopefully the judge gave you some good info on what was out of style or flawed. "Tastes like crap" is not a good score sheet. Use those remarks and reformulate your procedures and/or recipe to try to comply.
If they said "This beer would do better as an X", then break open the BJCP guidelines (www.bjcp.org) and read the differences between the 2 styles. This should hopefully trigger something in your head so that you can zero in on your target a little better next time.

I have taken the BJCP exam and am still waiting for my results. I can assure you that nobody is trying to humiliate anyone. All the beers are numbered, so everything is tasted and judged blind. Unless the judge is an absolute asshat, he will have given you his best account of the tastes and smells that he experienced sampling your beer as it was presented to him at that time.

In other words, don't give up. Brew on, brotha!

[jcbrewing]

Entered 4 beers..out of a high score of 20

American Amber Ale - scored 10 , 9.5 , 12
American Stout - scored 12 , 11
American IPA - scroed 8, 10.5 , 9
Southern English brown - scored 10 , 11

Each were all grain cept for the IPA with had extract added to the boil.

The Amber was a slight modified version of a blue ribbon winner I had earlier in the year and my "standard" brew.

The stout was a bit light for the category.. not sure why as after the mash it was fairly dark, but then after ferment it was lighter..

The IPA was a modified Mcdole recipe with lots of hops, lots of hops, like 13 oz's. 2 lbs of crystal, 12 of american 2 row, and 3 pounds of extract

The Southern English Brown was based on jamil's recipe and my first attempt at that style. I have brewed a couple of porters prior.

Luckily I had a few of each left to compare to the notes. Some decent comments for sure. Some others I really don't understand.

some comments...

on the Amber Ale

"Whoa, this one is dark, more like a Porter. "

"It's an ok beer, but its more like an overhopped bud/michelob dark in terms of body/character" (tho, he scored it a 12 out of 20.)

"bitter , bitter, bitter, little too intense."
--
now, this beer ended up being a bit bitter, tho, early it wasn't as bitter, too much chinook at the start I guess, but overhopped bud/michelob? this recipe comes out very nice and did win a blue ribbon for American Ale before. I dont think it is too dark for an Amber.


===
IPA comments...
"be sure to use a generous hop addition at end of boil"
ahhh my recipe calls for 2oz cascade at 1 minute, 2 oz cascade dry hop, 1 oz warrior dry hop.

"quite bitter"
well, yeah.

"some cheesyness."
????

"be sure it comes off the yeast"
was on the yeast for 45 days. I used to rack to secondary all the time till recently, now just do a single glass carboy.

====
Stout comments

"good malt aroma" "malty clean flavor w/mod hops"

"very good balanced example of style"

"This beer was not quite to style, needed to be darker"

"The hops simply overpower the maltiness."

====
Southern English Brown

"very little nose, malt and some phnolic aroma in the backgournd - the start of an infection"

"adrk brown/black good for style"

Dry, astringent, with some phenolic taste - watch cleaning, sanitation. Malt should be richer"

"beer is sstarting to show problems"
still taste ok to me..

"As a beer in general, its nice. It misses the mark however for the style."


=====

This was my 3rd competition and always the sheets are interesting. I long to taste a good beer. LOL. Or read a sheet from a winner. Even my blue ribbon winner earlier this year didnt get rave comments.

Good thing I like most of it and it still gets me drunk.

Brew on!