Drinking at 9am, not just for drunks anymore! Homebrew Competitions, Beer Judging & ProAms

As I mentioned in my last post, Tale of two quads tasting update, one is actually a tripel! I had aged, chilled, filtered, carbonated, bottled and sent these beers off (along with others) to some competitions.


So far I have put these beers into two competitions. The first one being the biggest homebrewing competition of them all The National Homebrewing Competition where many many people submit their labors of love to vie for ribbons, medals, glory and the coveted "Homebrewer of the Year' award which is bestowed upon the winner of Best in Show for the entire competition.
In the box destined for the NHC Southwest region drop-off point was The Pious Belgian Dark Strong, The Devout which was entered twice as a Tripel and as a Belgian Golden Strong, Hopinator Imperial IPA, The Rabbit Belgian Pale Ale as a Belgian Blonde Ale and The Wicked Kentucky Breakfast Stout as a Spice, Herb or Vegetable Beer.
Judging for the first round of NHC Southwest is complete, but results haven't been posted yet. I have read that the results will be posted fairly soon.

*Update* NHC SW Results were just posted and I took the first place ribbon in Cat18 with my Tripel. The excitement continues!

I also submitted it to a local competition that was put on by a local homebrewing club (which I am a member of) and a local brewer. It was aplty titled the First Annual THC/TCB GABF Pro-Am Competition of which I also participated as a judge.
A GABF Pro-Am competition is a lot like other BJCP & AHA sanctioned competitions, except the entrant who's beer wins Best in Show gets brewed commercially and the beer is sent on to compete at the GABF Pro-Am competition. I entered three beers personally, and one as a club brew. My personal beers were Hopinator Imperial IPA, The Pious Belgian Dark Strong and The Devout Belgian Tripel.

Before long the ProAm Competition judging date was upon me and I had done a bit of homework drinking beers in the style I was going to be judging.

I was excited to both see my beer judged and participate in the judging. One of the big goals I've had in my homebrewing competition efforts this year is to make it into the GABF Pro-Am Competition. I really thought that competing at the exclusive GABF competition would be a lot of fun and planned my competition calendar appropriately. As it so happened this one was the first one of the calendar year.

 I've done some judging before but am not yet BJCP certified, and I always learn new stuff about evaluating beer, brewing, and appreciating styles that don't tickle my fancy. Judging quickly put me into a place where I can safely say I don't "dislike" any style and can appreciate it for what it is, something I think a lot of average beer drinkers are not capable of doing. I'll be the first to admit I can be snobbish at times about my beer selections, but a well-made beer can be enjoyed for what it is.

I assisted in judging a table for this competition and did 3 category-collapsed flights as there were a low number of entries due to the brewery wishing to keep it locally focused. There was some average beers and a few really good ones.

The flights went like this:
Flight 1: Light Hybrids

Two 6b Blond Ales and two 6d American Wheats.

Flight 2: Amber & Amber Hybrids

One 7a Northern German Alt, one 7c Dusseldorf Alt, and one 10b American Amber.

Flight 3: Brown, Porter & Stout

One 10c American Brown, two 12b Robust Porters and one 13f Russian Imperial Stout.

With this many judgings I was pretty beered out (unheard of!), and didn't head over to the bar for my complimentary pint. Instead I relaxed and hung around while the Best of Show panel was selected and the tasting setup. The panel consisted of one of the homebrew judges who did not have any entries in the competition and some of the brewery staff including the head and assistant brewer for 5 total judges. 


The judging consisted of 6 entries, and the judges did not hurry their decision. After a long time of evaluating and jotting down notes of all the beers they started to discuss how they felt about the beers. After some deliberation they got down to the selection process, starting off with eliminating the beers they did not think merited Best in Show. 6 beers quickly whittled down to 4 before the final 3 were selected. A debate about many aspects of each beer was had and finally the decision was made and the top 3 announced. 


What proceeded to happen blew my mind. The judges announced unanimous decision on Best of Show, picking a Belgian Dark Strong over a Winter Spiced Belgian Specialty Ale and a Dusseldorf Alt. 
My heart raced, *I* had a Belgian Dark Strong I entered  in the competition, could it have been mine? The competition organizer pulled his notes and said there was only one Belgian Dark Strong in the competition and it was mine! I was floored!


After some congratulations and well wishes I talked with the head brewer and assistant brewer for a while about the beer, the ingredients, process etc. I told him I would send him a recipe and beer notes when I got home and we would start planning on a date to brew the beer together at their facility. I walked to my car on cloud nine.


In the next few days I will find out more about brewing my beer on their 15 barrel system, what kind of activities I will be participating in at the GABF. The excitement is already building and probably wont pass until after I get back from the GABF, so here is a toast to the start of something great!

Tale of two quads tasting update, one is actually a tripel!

My how time flies! I've been meaning to post an update to my Tale of Two Quads for some time now, and a lot has transpired. Both beers were conditioned, chilled, kegged, filtered, bottled and sent off to competitions. First up, reviewing the beers!

The Pious
Style: 18E Belgian Dark Strong
ABV ~10.8% IBUs ~34

Aroma: Initial hints of plum and raisin give way to some burnt banana and bittersweet chocolate. Notes of fig and date are present with some slight Belgian fruity esters.

Appearance: Brilliantly clear dark brown with ruby red hues when held up to the light, substantial offwhite head forms to sit atop for a good long while. As the head receedes it forms a nice thick crown around the glass. This is one area where it doesn't quite hold up to the traditional Belgian quads that have a really dense, moussey, rocky head that sticks around for ages. I think I will add a small amount of flaked barley and malted wheat to try and beef this area up.

Flavor: Initial flavors of plum, fig, bittersweet chocolate and burnt sugar lead the subtle but complex malt base with some toffee overtones. There is a character of burnt sugar that lends a slight note in the finish of something that reminds me of chocolate and vanilla creme brulee. The bitterness is firm but not obtrusive and keeps the beer from being too sweet.

Mouthfeel: A nice creamy medium-light bodied mouthfeel assisted by some lightly prickly carbonation of which there is a lot. Finishes slightly on the dry side with slight notes of soft alcohol warmth.The Belgians would definitely say this one is "very digestible", referring to a high alcohol strength beer with a light body that is easy drinking.

Overall: I feel this is a great representation of the style. Its big, bold yet very approachable, Belgian Dark Strong that I think can stand up with the best of Belgium.

The Devout

Style: 18C Belgian Tripel

ABV ~10% IBU ~34

Aroma: Soft fruity esters of strawberry and soft spicy, peppery notes reminiscent of lavender and peppercorn on top of a sweet slightly biscuity, toffee-ish malt base. Light and engaging.

Appearance: Brilliantly clear straw-gold with an effervescent white head. Much like The Pious at first it is dense with good head but fades over time to just a slight crown.

Flavor: Initial sweet malt that reminds me slightly of sugar-cookies followed by some of the yeast contributions consisting of strawberry, lavender and a touch of clove. High carbonation tingles the tongue slightly and refreshes the palate.

Mouthfeel: Medium to medium light body and finish. Not as dry or as light as The Pious due to the lower attenuation, but still refrains from being too sweet or cloying and very pleasant to drink. Despite some slightly pronounced alcohols it still stays very soft, creamy and very smooth. The lavendar character combined with the medium to medium light body give it a very silky smooth finish that is quite unlike anything else I've had.

Overall: A little big for a Tripel, but more or less within spec. The yeast character from this beer is phenomenal and I would call this aspect of the beer a complete success. The silky smoothness is quite tantalizing and really enjoyable. I think with some further tweaks to this recipe and I will have a world-class example of the style.

I started off intending this to be a Belgian Golden Strong, but the yeast thought otherwise. I shouldn't have tried to second guess the Allagash Tripel Reserve yeast as it really lends itself better to a Tripel than a Belgian Golden Strong. The lower attenuation combined with a maltier profile and some clovey yeast characters made me reclassify it.

I'm very happy with both of these beers but have a few more tweaks planned for them in an effort to reach true perfection. My thoughts for each beers are as follows.

• The Pious - Use a mix of D1 and D2.

I think a mix of the two dark syrups will yield an improved complexity of flavors, as the 100% D2 version is a little heavier in flavor than times past. When I was cleaning out the conical for The Pious I found some of the dark candi syrup in the trub.

• The Pious - Put all the syrup in the boil for maximum utilization.

When I was cleaning out the conical after kegging The Pious I found some D2 syrup in the trub that just went to waste. Shouldn't have that problem if its in the boil.

• Both The Pious and The Devout - Reduce the IBUs to about 28-30 to balance it out more.

I feel its a tad high and would benefit by being a little more subdued. Dropping the Haullertau Hersbrucker addition completely should do the trick.

• The Pious - Some more specialty grains in the mash for more malt character

I think adding a tiny bit of caramunich and special B would help bring the malt character out a little more and add some complexity. The addition of a small amount of flaked barley and malted wheat should get me the really rocky head I want.

• The Devout - Change to all pils base

The Belgian Pale Malt made this tripel on the maltier side, I think I want to change it up to Belgian Pils for the sole basemalt and maybe some specialty malts.

• Both The Pious and The Devout - Add some foam-positive malts for dense rocky head

Both beers don't quite stand up to the best of Belgium in the big, dense, rocky head that so many of them have. A homebrewing buddy of mine who has brewed nearly exclusively Belgian style beers for almost 40 years gave me his secret to this kind of head development & retention. He adds about 1.5->2% flaked barley and 2% malted wheat to every beer. I will definitely be trying that out on the next batch.