I used to enter homebrew competitions far more regularly, then kids happened and brewing took a bit of a back seat for a few years. Eventually though, things eased up and brewing become a more regular part of life, getting a proper kegerator definitely helped, as did getting a chest freezer for cold fermentation and then lagering. For the last couple of years I have brewed, on average, once every three weeks - well, the kegerator won't feed itself after all, and getting beer on tap in my own kitchen is freaking awesome.
Admittedly I dipped a toe back into competition world last summer when I submitted a couple of brews to the Dominion Cup, but not knowing that feedback is now online rather than sent in the mail, I have no idea how they fared, other than not getting any gongs. To be honest, I didn't actually know that until Sunday morning when a friend told me that feedback was through the app for Virginia Beer Blitz, which was on Saturday.
I entered three beers in this year's competition, my tmavé, house best bitter, and a dark mild that I brewed back in January to use up some odds and ends of malt I had acquired. I didn't have any expectations of medals, my system is deliberately as basic as humanly possible, and given the advances in homebrew kit and processes in the years since I last regularly entered competitions it is almost like going head to head with near professional brewers. Seriously, some of the gear that you see folks brewing with on Instagram or on YouTube is insane, so really my goal in entering is simply to get decent feedback and for my beers to score at least 30 points from the available 50, which is defined as being "very good, generally within style parameters, some minor flaws".
So how did it go...let's start with the lowest scoring beer, which was my tmavé.
For reference, I
wrote about the brewing of this beer, which I call Černý Lev, at the end of last year, even though I didn't brew it until January. I am kind of sad that the keg is almost finished as it has been a thoroughly decent drop, garnering a 30/50 at Virginia Beer Blitz, with both judges noting some oxidation. I am pretty sure that the oxidation character came about because I thought I needed to transfer from its original lagering keg into a new one as I thought there was a CO2 leak in the keg - it turned out that the gas connector itself was the problem. Ah well, still, not a bad result.
Next up with a score of 31 out of 50 was my house best bitter, which doesn't really have a name, but is based on the beer I designed for Three Notch'd that was known as Session/Bitter 42, originally the former, then the latter.
I will be bluntly honest, I was expecting this one to get panned, simply because I do not use crystal malt in my bitters at all, as in never, ever. I just don't like the caramel sweetness that comes along with crystal malts, and so the only specialty malt in this is Biscuit malt. Unfortunately in the US there is not just a paucity of bitters, whether ordinary, best, or extra special, but of the ones that make it here they are invariably of the brown, caramelly type, and so folks can get confused by something without those flavour notes. I have also pretty much switched to using Endeavour hops, which are a modern English variety, but again expectation of "English" hops here means East Kent Goldings. One judge noted that the beers would benefit from "boosting the caramel", but without caramel malt in the grist, I am not sure what I would be boosting. Both judges did note a slight astringency, which I also picked up when I first tapped it, so I am going to start looking more closely at my well water profile and its mineral content, as well as maybe dropping the mash temperature a touch.
On then to the beer that scored the best, with 32 out of 50 it was a one off dark mild that would be impossible to recreate given the very odd weights of specialty malts, but which, I think, looked gorgeous poured from the kegerator...
There is a large amount of irony, given what I just said about crystal malt, in the fact that this used 5 types of crystal malt, 15, 40, 60, 120, and 260, as well as dose of chocolate wheat. Hence I named this Crystal Conjunction. It's kind if hilarious then that one judge commented that the "absence of balancing caramels and light roast/chocolate impact the overall character". Literally all the specialty malts were crystal or chocolate malts. Obviously mild is not something that is wildly common, heck it might as well as be an endangered species over here, but I have come across a concept many times in the US that a mild is basically an uber session stout - which is simply not true, the range of possibility within mild makes it a beer you can take in so many directions, as borne out by the BJCP guidelines themselves.
As I said, I didn't get any awards for my beer, but it's fun to get the feedback and think about how I could improve my processes, even though I am pretty much guaranteed not to go splurging money on the latest gizmo. My primary reason for making beer is to have something on tap in my kitchen that I enjoy, and that my friends enjoy when they come round, that I have pointers to improve that experience is a good thing then.
