Well, I got my scores from the world cup. not to disapointed. got a 35+ on the scottish 60/- in prelim, although only a 27 in second round. (sad face). The comment that stuck out was from the second
round where the 1 national rank judge suggested more malt and more hops.
I don't want to dig to hard on a hard working BJCP judge but I gotta say, if I had used more malt and more hops it would have been a 70/- or 80/-.
Still 32 on the rye IPA and a respectable 28 on the barley wine. It really wasn't ready for prime time anyway. still got 7 bottles so maybe I'll enter it again later in the year.
So this was my first comp and I feel alright about it. actually makes me want to enter more. I am going to try 'brewing to the comp' on a couple of beers, any general suggestions?
I'm thinking I will follow the AHA club only comp schedule and try to brew something for each comp. Next up, scottish and irish, if I can get it done in time! brewed on friday, split 8 gallons into 2 fermentors one 5.5 and the other 2.5 (no difference between the two, just worked out that way).
Recipe was
97% crisp pale ale
3% roasted barley
17 IBU goldings at 60
After that porter so here's what I have so far.
Robust Porter 30 liters
13 lbs pale malt (US this time as I don't see the point in spending the extra money and fuel to get British, open to argument)
3 lbs Munich 10L, (love this stuff for malty delicious maltiness)
1 lbs chocolate malt
1 lbs crystal 60
haven't pinned down hops, yeast at all yet. I am open to using a lager yeast or a super cold tolerant ale yeast. and wide open on hops. folks with more comp experience can perhaps enlighten me as to what judges tend to look for in this style. The BJCP guidelines are pretty open with both british and american hops acceptable. I am aiming for the higher end of the OG scale and the IBU scale , given that it seems
like that's what the judges want.
I don't mean to sound cynical, I am really not! but if your goal is to win comps, you gotta think about this stuff. I will still brew things just because I want to drink them but if I am gonna enter, I want to win!