A challenge to the BN Army

[Brew Engineer]

I received my score sheets, and for the most part I'm pretty happy!

My bitter got a 35, my Russian Imperial Stout got a 31 (and would have done much better if the yeast didn't crap out, I couldn't get it to finish after I hit 11% ABV).
My hefe also scored a 31.

My oaked IPA got a 32, and the base IPA got good praise. My only disappointment is my IPA entry, which was the same beer without the oak, only got a 23. It might have had an infection though, they said it was a gusher and finished way too dry, not my experience with the rest of the batch.

Oh well, not bad, 4 very good beers!!! That's only a $5 donation per my results, but I already donated more than that, with a scathing letter to Justin, that apparently wasn't funny enough to be read on the air...

Keep up the challenge!!!

[Fritz Eye]

Great job Brew Eng.
Scores in th 30s are awesome! A point here a point there and you are up for placement for ribbons.
As I have said before " keep brewin"
Fritz

[Brew Engineer]

Thanks for the encouragement Fritz! Out of curiosity, what kind of scores did you get back on your entries? What did it take to win Best of Show?

Congrats again!

[Brew Engineer]

Once I get the scoresheets back on the other five, I may have more to ante up.

The competition results have been posted and I actually got two 2nd place ribbons too for my Oatmeal Pale Ale and my Double IPA. Guess I'm on the hook for another donation.

David

I'm intrigued by this Oatmeal Pale Ale of which you speak... Please share some details, description, etc! What category did you enter it in?

[macgruffus]

I'm intrigued by this Oatmeal Pale Ale of which you speak... Please share some details, description, etc! What category did you enter it in?

It sits somewhere between an American Pale Ale and an American IPA starting at about 11 Plato (1.044) and around 50 IBUs. I'm still working on the balance and had started moving it more toward the IPA side (hence the IBUs) but with the current cost and availability of hops and malt I may back off the IBUs and go back toward the APA side.

The current recipe is Cascade, Simcoe and Amarillo so I may be retooling the hop bill too! Luckily I bought my LHBS's last five ounces of Amarillo so I've got about another five batches of that hop at least.

Here's my base recipe ... http://www.macgruffusbrewery.com/recipe ... PA_AG.html

My last batch I took a page from Bugeaters playbook and replaced the flaked oats with oat malt. I really liked the effect of the oat malt but I overshot the bitterness. Not quite as drinkable as my standard brew. The BU/GU ratio is definitely more IPA than APA. I think the next time around I'll drop the IBUs down to around 40 and see what other hops I can use for bittering and flavor.

David

[Brew Engineer]

Awesome MacG!!! That is unique, and I'm going to try a version of that in the spring!!!

[Happy Smurf]

I'm off to Anchorage this weekend for my first competition. I didn't think I was going to get my beer there in time, but I managed to rearrange my schedule, so I could fly them down there myself. The comp, 13th Annual Humpy's Big Fish Homebrew Competiton, is on Saturday, December 1. This is only my second batch ever. It's a SN Celebration Ale clone. I tasted it the other night and it was really good, but under carbonated. I don't expect any ribbons, I'm really just after some feedback.

[Brew Engineer]

I'm off to Anchorage this weekend for my first competition. I didn't think I was going to get my beer there in time, but I managed to rearrange my schedule, so I could fly them down there myself. The comp, 13th Annual Humpy's Big Fish Homebrew Competiton, is on Saturday, December 1. This is only my second batch ever. It's a SN Celebration Ale clone. I tasted it the other night and it was really good, but under carbonated. I don't expect any ribbons, I'm really just after some feedback.

Humpy's Big Fish Competition??!?!? Are you sure this isn't a Bub sponsered event???

Good luck! The feedback is really great. I can't think of another type of competition where you get useful feedback on what you can do to improve.