Competition Questions

[GuingesRock]

Mine was not cooked, though I did get in trouble for using blue beer bottles.

As for Ottawa, my tracking says it was delivered straight to whatshisnames house. And is imagine someone from the Valley has access to a cold basement/crawlspace

I think your culprit is the delayed transit. That sucks man! Need to pack ice packs next time?!

Chances are you are right and it was the transit, but anything could have happened. I'm going to try shipping in one of these next time.

I shipped in one of those Styrofoam boxes a month or two ago and it was expensive because of the size. I since realized (duh) that bubble wrap is one of the best insulators there is, and I now wrap each bottle individually in about 3 - 4 rounds of the bubble wrap with the small bubbles and pack inside a normal cardboard box. I think that will protect the beer from extreme temperature fluctuations en route.

[Jimmy]

I picked up a beergun last week so I can start bottling for competitions (and fill bottles for the advent calendar ).

[GuingesRock]

I picked up a beergun last week so I can start bottling for competitions.

Great! Next year Brewnosers will be at the top of the league ....hopefully. More and more of us sending to competitions. Give Keith a little nudge too when you see him. I think he's talked about entering lots of them as the year's gone by. Maybe he can borrow your gun.

[Keith]

BeerGun is on my list of things to get. Probably get one in the new year aswell.

[Jimmy]

I picked up a beergun last week so I can start bottling for competitions.

Great! Next year Brewnosers will be at the top of the league ....hopefully. More and more of us sending to competitions.

Yeah, I'd say that is wishful thinking

There's definitely a lot of great beer floating around here, but it takes a lot of entries to get to the top!

I definitely won't be brewing *for* competitions, but will submit a beer I think will do good.

[Keith]

Yea right now I only have 1 beer I'd proudly enter into a comp. Remainder still need a ton of work. APA should have the kinds worked out of it and be ready soon hopefully.

[GuingesRock]

At the weekend I set up an online account with FedEx. You print your own shipping labels online and they just come and pick it up. I signed up as a small company (using my small company) and they give you 30% off for 6 months and then discuss concessionary fees with you after that, you can also pick your shipping rate and quote, tell them what time to pick it up etc. etc. all done online. Worked out cheaper and faster than Canada Post from my location and I didn't have to take it to the post office and line up. There is no FedEx depot around here so I had to have it picked up.

[Tony L]

There's definitely a lot of great beer floating around here, but it takes a lot of entries to get to the top!

I definitely won't be brewing *for* competitions, but will submit a beer I think will do good.

It do take a lot of entries to get near the top, and like you I always entered a beer I had brewed for my consumption and one I thought would do good.

[GuingesRock]

There's definitely a lot of great beer floating around here, but it takes a lot of entries to get to the top!

I definitely won't be brewing *for* competitions, but will submit a beer I think will do good.

It do take a lot of entries to get near the top, and like you I always entered a beer I had brewed for my consumption and one I thought would do good.

I think I might have been brewing for competitions lately. Lots of us will be brewing for Garrison and Big Spruce. Last year, because of Garrison, I learnt all about making weizens and wheat beer. This year I'm learning about porters. I think it's a good thing, pushes you to go above and beyond. Even if you are brewing for yourself with the idea in the back of your mind that you might send it to a competition, your beer may end up being better as a result. Plus there's all the valuable feedback from sending in your beer. It's expensive though.

To use an analogy ...people who have horses, spend a fortune showing. They are off every weekend to a show, sodding great trucks and horse trailers, and all for a bit of coloured ribbon. They become better and better riders as a result.

There's one thing though ...in brewing competitions there's a lot of luck involved, so therefore it is like the Skinner box/fruit machine. Random conditioning is one of the most powerful forms of psychological conditioning. You could end up a miserable wreck wearing diapers so you don't lose time away from the brew kettle.

[jacinthebox]

I feel I've been brewing as if all of my beer are for comps lately...Even tho I only entered last years big spruce and Garrison.
I have been trying to improve with each brew. Focusing on mash temp, ferm temp, pitch rates, and recipe development. My next focus will be on mash PH & brew water (waiting for my water test to come back).
So I'd be ok with any of my beer being entered into a comp...I feel that I have improved greatly since last years comps

[Jimmy]

I guess I should clarify what I meant by that.

I'm brewing beers that I want, not beers that I think will do well in a competition. If I don't like a style, I'm not going to brew it just because that's what the competition calls for, or that's what I think has the best chance of getting a medal.

[jacinthebox]

I'm with you Jimmy...the robust porter is the only one I've never made before...the rest are brews that I enjoy. Altho I did brew 2 saisons this year (first time) and really enjoyed the process and the beer, but they were for me not a comp

[Keith]

...I feel that I have improved greatly since last years comps

Judging at Garrison will be much more difficult for the judges.

[GuingesRock]

I'm on a journey of learning about all the different styles, how to brew them, and I'm enjoying that.

[jacinthebox]

we (4 brewers) came up with an idea...called that idea 3 Scots & a Frenchman (Jason, Rod and I have Scottish/ Cape Breton roots/ Eric is the Ottawa Frenchman).

we brewed 2 10gal batches of the same scottish ale recipe (that we delveloped together).
1 of the 10gal batches was bittered a bit more than the other batch...same hop tho.
the 10gal batches were split into 4 5gal batches. we then used a saison yeast in one fermentor from each brew, and a Belg ale in the other 2.

so...ibu are not exact but meant to give you an idea of what we were doing
exp#1 ibu 46 (saison yeast)
exp#2 ibu 46 (Belg Ale Yeast)
exp#3 ibu 56 (Saison yeast)
exp#4 ibu 56 (Belg Ale Yeast)

We ended up with 4 completely different beer...1 was very interesting, while 1 was the clear standout

We had a blast brewing it, and more fun taste testing it...now we can focus on tweeking the 1 standout beer to make it our own.

[mcgster]

we (4 brewers) came up with an idea...called that idea 3 Scots & a Frenchman (Jason, Rod and I have Scottish/ Cape Breton roots/ Eric is the Ottawa Frenchman).

We ended up with 4 completely different beer...1 was very interesting, while 1 was the clear standout

We had a blast brewing it, and more fun taste testing it...now we can focus on tweeking the 1 standout beer to make it our own.

This is why i love homebrewing!

[jacinthebox]

I think I gave Jeffsmith of of these brews...

[jeffsmith]

I think I gave Jeffsmith of of these brews...

You did, still sitting in the fridge along with the Kolsch, I believe.

[jacinthebox]

I think you have Exp #2 lol

[GuingesRock]

Think Like a Judge - by Gordon Strong: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/a ... _Judge.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Other great downloads from the AHA: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/m ... downloads/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[GuingesRock]

I picked up a beergun last week so I can start bottling for competitions.

Great! Next year Brewnosers will be at the top of the league ....hopefully. More and more of us sending to competitions.

Yeah, I'd say that is wishful thinking

There's definitely a lot of great beer floating around here, but it takes a lot of entries to get to the top!

JImmy, I think it can be done. If everyone got Blichmann beer guns for Christmas. I know we have lots of good brewers on here. Also, it's the hottest beer site in Canada, and we work as a team. I'd never have got any ribbons, or at least it would have taken me years, if I didn't have this forum to bounce things off and learn from the collective intelligence of the group. The encouragement from the group is also a big deal.

It can be done! I think the advent beers will prove my point.

The thing is to start getting your feet wet competing, and it will take off from there.

We also have some seasoned competitors/award winners who haven't competed in a while.

Could we make next year, the year of the Brewnosers?

[Jimmy]

JImmy, I think it can be done. If everyone got Blichmann beer guns for Christmas. I know we have lots of good brewers on here. Also, it's the hottest beer site in Canada, and we work as a team. I'd never have got any ribbons, or at least it would have taken me years, if I didn't have this forum to bounce things off and learn from the collective intelligence of the group. The encouragement from the group is also a big deal.

It can be done! I think the advent beers will prove my point.

The thing is to start getting your feet wet competing, and it will take off from there.

We also have some seasoned competitors/award winners who haven't competed in a while.

Could we make next year, the year of the Brewnosers?

Not saying it can't happen, just that it would take a lot of people entering. Just taking a quick look at breweroftheyear.com, it shows the Yeast Wranglers in 1st with 285 points, and Brewnosers in 16th with 16 points - there's quite a gap there. I think if we participated in more group shipments, it would likely lead to more entries and more awards. I find it hard to spend money on shipping beer to a competition, when I don't really get any benefit from entering in the first place. If the benefit of entering in a competition is getting feedback on your beer, we have lots of qualified palates available locally..just need to bring some beer to a meeting for some quality feedback.

[jeffsmith]

[LiverDance]

Shipping is what prevents me from entering anything but local comps. I'm lazy and not motivated enough to organize entries but doing it as a group would probably get me entering some

[GuingesRock]

I was talking (by email), last couple of days, to one of the top three 2014 brewer of the year people. He reckons you need to send 10 beers to every qualifying competition to stand a chance. I thought I'd pass that along. Sounds like a pastime for retirement to me, bit like playing golf