Garrison Ultimate Brew Off 2013

[TimG]

I think is has a very long shelf life. Maybe more than me.

I don't know about that.. you're likely sufficiently pickled!

[Graham.C]

Alpha amalyze would have helped fix that.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2

X, where did you pick your Alpha amalyze up?

[mr x]

Nash.

[chalmers]

I sent my samples down last week. I'm not expecting too much as it was my first Belgian brew. Having said that, I think it tastes really nice. A family member that is well versed in Belgian beers thought it was very good as well. How are you informed if you do/don't make it to the second round? Email?

Sorry for the slow response. I believe you will get a call that your beer is in the final 4, with a request to bring some more to the announcement. You won't know you advanced to the second round (and didn't get top 4) until the night of, when you get your tasting sheets back.

[Jamie D]

Last year I was notified by e-mail about 10 days before the event. They wanted me to confirm I could attend and let them know what packaging format I was going to bring beer in.

I sent my samples down last week. I'm not expecting too much as it was my first Belgian brew. Having said that, I think it tastes really nice. A family member that is well versed in Belgian beers thought it was very good as well. How are you informed if you do/don't make it to the second round? Email?

Sorry for the slow response. I believe you will get a call that your beer is in the final 4, with a request to bring some more to the announcement. You won't know you advanced to the second round (and didn't get top 4) until the night of, when you get your tasting sheets back.

[LeafMan66_67]

Rules don't say how to identify bottles - do you have to provide any label or will they tape 'em up when you hand them over?

[LiverDance]

Rules don't say how to identify bottles - do you have to provide any label or will they tape 'em up when you hand them over?

Nope, they mark them after they take them with a number.

[LeafMan66_67]

Great. Guess mine are ready to go then. Hit 1.010 and 7.4%ABV.

[chalmers]

Reminder guys, beers are due Monday! Bottling mine tonight...

[akr71]

Reminder guys, beers are due Monday! Bottling mine tonight...

Please don't forget my entries

[chalmers]

Huh? I thought you were giving me $30 to taste your beer.

[BrooklandBrewer]

Soooo....This was my first Belgian I've brewed. I had a ton of trouble trying to bottle my entry for this competition. Major foam issues. I know others have had the same problem. I've bottled other brews without incident with the exact same equipment. Is there something that makes the Belgian beers over-foam making them hard to pour or bottle? Thanks

[mr x]

It's cold outside. Can you get your set-up out into a snowbank? Might help, along with turning the gas down. i have siphon filled bottles with success. Other possibility is just overcarb, and at a certain point, the foam issues will be hard to overcome.

[jeffsmith]

I brewed a Saison back in the summer that was incredibly hard to bottle because of carb as well. As X said, make sure everything is super cold, and dial your pressure back as far as possible. If you're able to pull a pint without a ridiculous amount of foam, it should be possible to get a few bottles filled.

[BrooklandBrewer]

Ok thanks! I got the four bottled for the competition but wasted a significant amount of beer due to foaming. Next time I'll take it outside to get everything super cold.

[BrooklandBrewer]

I was also using the Blichmann Beer Gun....I don't know if that would of affected anything. Should be better but for this beer it wasn't.

[sleepyjamie]

I tried to bottle mine last night with my new blichman ultimate beer gun and it was tricky. The blonde is quite carbonated and had some issues with foam.

I noticed i dont have much beer left in the keg for my blonde. I doubt ill come in the top 4th, but if i do, how long do they announce the winners before the awards show? Just asking as it would be nice to bring a full keg and not just a few bottles.

[LiverDance]

I tried to bottle mine last night with my new blichman ultimate beer gun and it was tricky. The blonde is quite carbonated and had some issues with foam.

I noticed i dont have much beer left in the keg for my blonde. I doubt ill come in the top 4th, but if i do, how long do they announce the winners before the awards show? Just asking as it would be nice to bring a full keg and not just a few bottles.

They don't announce the winners until the awards. If you make it to the top 4 you'll be notified about 1 week prior to that.

[sleepyjamie]

ok cool. better make another batch just in case.

[GillettBreweryCnslt]

Soooo....This was my first Belgian I've brewed. I had a ton of trouble trying to bottle my entry for this competition. Major foam issues. I know others have had the same problem. I've bottled other brews without incident with the exact same equipment. Is there something that makes the Belgian beers over-foam making them hard to pour or bottle? Thanks

For competitions I usually over carb the keg by 0.2-0.3 volumes and take my temperature down to 2C for 5-7 days before I bottle. When I'm ready to bottle I turn off the CO2, release all of the pressure in the kegs and re-pressurize to 4ish PSI (just enough to get a steady stream of beer from the tap). I rinse out my bottles with cold water immediately prior to bottling and then just fill from the tap. I got both of my beers bottled with very little foam this way. Both beers were carbed to 2.6 vol of CO2. I'm hoping to have them at 2.3 for tasting (accounting for bottling loss).

I dropped them off on Saturday night. The dude working had no clue why I was giving him beer (must've been new!). I had to explain it to him and give him money (I'm way too honest and he wasn't going to charge me).

Here's hoping for that call!

[mr x]

I'm a big fan of PET bottles and the carb caps.

[CorneliusAlphonse]

I'm a big fan of PET bottles and the carb caps.

Still going to be some carb loss when you remove the carbonation cap and replace with regular cap.

[mr x]

.00001%

[TimG]

He measured..

[chalmers]

I dropped them off on Saturday night. The dude working had no clue why I was giving him beer (must've been new!). I had to explain it to him and give him money (I'm way too honest and he wasn't going to charge me).

Exact same scene when LD and I dropped off our beer (and akr's, don't worry!) Sunday morning. The girl laughed as we brought beer INTO a brewery, and didn't quite get that it wasn't a joke. And then I had to say "Shut up and take my money!", though she didn't get my Futurama reference, so she just thought I was being rude. So.... there goes my chances, she probably threw the bottles away.