Got a medal in my first brew-off

[Lawfish]

I decided to enter a homebrewing competition this year. I entered 2 beers - my go-to hefeweizen, which I always keg, and an American blonde ale. I racked the ale to secondary for 10 days and it cleared decently, but not perfectly. I bottled about 10 days before the competition and the beer cleared a little more, but was still cloudy. The hefe didn't win anything because it was underfilled and undercarbonated. I keep my keg at around 10 PSI and tried to just put the beer straight into the bottles from the keg. No good. Lesson learned for next year.

The blonde ale got a bronze medal, but could have been a winner. The judges said it was undercarbonated as well, which I have to agree with. I put 5 ounces of priming sugar in 5.5 gallons of beer, which was obviously not enough. Next time, I'm bottling a month before the competition with probably 7 ounces of priming sugar in both beers, so the beer can fully carbonate and then get lagered in the fridge for 2 or 3 weeks before the competition.

Anyway, nice to have a medal to hang on my beer fridge in the man cave. Now I can serve people "award-winning beer."

[cuginosgrizzo]

[still_stirrin]

...Anyway, nice to have a medal to hang on my beer fridge in the man cave.

Keep it up and you'll have to add a new wing to your man cave.

Don't you just love paying someone to drink your beer and telling you what is wrong with it? The AHA Nationals lie ahead...
ss

p.s. - I am one of those AHA certified judges...

[Lawfish]

Don't you just love paying someone to drink your beer and telling you what is wrong with it? The AHA Nationals lie ahead...
ss:

Yeah, that is quite a privilege, isn't it? This competition used BJCP certified judges. But the comments were spot-on. I knew what the weaknesses were in those beers and they're exactly what the judges picked up on.

[TxBrewing]

Bottle conditioning is random, and so much can influence the outcome.
For American Ale about 2.5 vol is what you should shoot for so that would be about 5oz of table sugar for 5.5 gallons if fermented at 70 so hysterectomy right on there. Where you went wrong was not giving enough time for it to work. Need at least 3 weeks and I try to keep it in the mid 70s to help the yeast out.

But, Bronze is awesome!!!!

I have been brewing for 10 years and never entered a contest. Congratulations and keep at it

TXB


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[WooTeck]

congrats man
ive not entered a contest yet. what i would say is that tasty from the brewing network pours from keg to bottle and won a few golds. one of the tips they regularly put out on the show is to slightly over carb your competition beers. you never know how long the bottle may be sitting open for, they also say most judges give it a swirl and knock out some co2 to get the aroma at the start of the tasting. the other tip ive picked up is to have the hops/what your trying to showcase at the high end of the style.

[Lawfish]

Thanks, WooTeck. I've got 2 competition beers in the carboy now. American pale ale in secondary, getting clear as vodka. Leffe blonde ale in primary just started fermenting this morning.

I will overcarb just a bit. Also, I started these beers much earlier than my blonde ale that won a bronze. After sitting in the fridge for 3 weeks, it got clear and more carbed, so I'm planning to have lots of time for these beers to clear and carbonate, then they'll be cold conditioned until I send them off for the competition (late April or early May, I think).