Beer Forum

Did anyone hit the social club after the awards dinner?
They were getting rid of left over 2nd round beer entries.

I know the award winners were likely not available but I have to say the majority of the beers were poor to down right nasty. There were several gushers and infected beers. And this was the 2nd round!!

Was it just my luck of the draw on the ones I tried? How these brewers advanced to the second round left me shaking my head. My first round beers all scored average and did not advance and I would say I agree. But after tasting some of these 2nd round beers I have to say what a crap shoot beer comps are.

Please tell me these "left-overs" are the worst of the lot normally.

The best beers went to mini-BOS, and the very best went to BOS, removing those bottles from that pool.
So, yes, the majority of the beers that are left over aren't very good.

I've judged 2nd round several times now and I too am surprised how many aren't all that good.

I chalk it up to these issues:

1) Guy rebrews and simply screws something up (this can happen to anyone).

2) New brewer brews an awesome beer first round but his process is too inconsistent and he can't duplicate it for 2nd round. (This is one of the reasons I like to judge lagers and light hybrids. The
guys who enter stuff like cat 2 are way past fucking around with their basic brewing process).

3) Guys don't rebrew and something took hold that wasn't perceivable in the prior competition, but time and transport makes it show up like mad in the 2nd

4) Guys don't rebrew and the hops fall, or the beer gets oxidized, or hot during transport, etc.

If anyone had an alt or a common cider, be kind in your reviews

I was looking for my scoresheets to see why i didn't place in the finals this year, but they didn't have them out. Oh well, better luck next year!

AHA will mail the sheets out. I don't know why they didn't just have a table for them as save postage.

Another big factor in how they were was the temp. All that I had were very warm when opened so I'm sure the ones that were on the higher end of Carb at 38 degrees were gushing at 65 degrees. I always try to find my own beers but when I can't I go for any of the specialties. Some very interesting stuff out there.

I have a question here, how much of getting through to the top flights is very much about strategy and gamesmanship? What I mean by that is, entering a style category that isn't a large field at that particular time.APA late in the fall as opposed to a stout.
Now, I have yet to compete, I am very picky about my beers, and will not enter one till I get that AHA this is it brew. Yet I have friends and aquaintances who have entered with beers every bit as high in quality and so to style that they match any commercial brew, yet they don't get through regionals because of "taste fads", only West Coast IPA"s are getting through, leaving others to wilt on the bine.
Is this just my ignorance of comps? It's this very way for me in pip music competitions, a certain type of music would never be played for competition the way it would, and should, be played in the "real world".

brewindruid wrote:I have a question here, how much of getting through to the top flights is very much about strategy and gamesmanship? What I mean by that is, entering a style category that isn't a large field at that particular time.APA late in the fall as opposed to a stout.

APA is always large, even in December. Then again, you get more noise from beginning brewers in those categories (see BDawg's comment about not usually seeing bad light lagers).

Yet I have friends and aquaintances who have entered with beers every bit as high in quality and so to style that they match any commercial brew, yet they don't get through regionals because of "taste fads", only West Coast IPA"s are getting through, leaving others to wilt on the bine.

IPA is a tough category at large competitions due to palate fatigue. If your less hoppy beer follows two quite hoppy interpretations, particularly later in a potentially large flight, you will rarely do as well as if you were the first 14B judged. Then, there is the mini BOS, where anything goes and palates are usually fatigued.

My first question is "so to style" according to whom? If you're winning medals at other 500+ entry comps but not NHC, that's one thing. What's more likely is that the beer sitting in front of the judges is not the exact same as what you are tasting at home. Packaging, shipping, handling, even pouring all have an impact on the beer. Optimizing this can be the difference between advancing and not; whether you call that "gamesmanship" is up to you. Gordon Strong's book has a section of advice on getting your beer to the judges in optimal condition.

Is this just my ignorance of comps?

Go help out at your next local competition. They'll love the help, and you'll learn a lot.

I had several that night. Some were great, and others not so much. I was mainly drinking amber lagers and IPA's (the IPA's were all very good). Hit or miss with the oktoberfest/viennas. Looked for the sour entries and all were "stolen" by the time I looked for the category box.