IEB Competition June 22

kevinham · Post by **kevinham** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:45 pm

brahn wrote:I wish that beer had been tapped at the SCHF, then I would have gotten to drink more of it.

Me too!

Rezzin · Post by **Rezzin** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 3:19 pm

brahn wrote:You entered a Munich Helles too? Great, now you and Tyler are going to be mad at me when you get your scoresheets back!

hahah - as long as you filled out all the lines and didn't put something like "boring, not enough carbonation, learn to brew rookie" then I'm looking forward to the scoresheets.

I brought a bottle over to Lyn 2 weeks ago and yeah, it was definitely going down hill.

spkrtoy · Post by **spkrtoy** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:22 pm

I second Brad's comments. Mike's was the 2nd beer we judged and nothing even came close to it. We gave it an averaged 43 and all the other's but 1 were 18-24 with one a 8.

Congrats to Lars, Brent, Brad/Dustin too!

Post by **brahn** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:48 pm

We gave it an averaged 43 and all the other's but 1 were 18-24 with one a 8.

Hahah, you actually gave that beer an 8? I mean, it certainly deserved it but I thought you weren't supposed to go below 13.

bwarbiany · Post by **bwarbiany** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 5:11 pm

Nice... That IPA is the one I brought over to the beer flaw tasting session...

I guess they didn't like my milk stout as much as the AHA NHC judges did, though... Interested to see the score sheets on that one.

Post by **brahn** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 5:23 pm

Brad, after judging my first competition I will say that my biggest takeaway was this is anything but an exact science. Different judges have different preferences and interpretations of the style guidelines and that plays a lot into the final scores and rankings. There's also palate fatigue and it was around 105 outside that day. It may seem like that shouldn't matter, but all those things do come into play whether intentionally or not.

I would expect that your beer still scored well, maybe in the mid-30s. If it scored really low I'd be concerned that something was bad with the bottle. I did see a few gushers while we were there but I have no idea what category they were in.

Edit: oh, and I'm not surprised that the IPA did well. That was a tasty brew.

spkrtoy · Post by **spkrtoy** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:57 pm

I did ask Jim Delperdang the Head Judge about the lowest score and he said if we wanted to score lower than 13 to go ahead with it. I think Brad gave it a 6 and he was very pensive about tasting it after smelling it. Remember Butyuric? Man that one was serious NASTY but we filled out all the lines trying to list how to make it better in the future (as all beer judges should strive to do) so maybe that will be the 1st person to contact me via the email I put on my sheet to ask what to do better next time!

Rezzin · Post by **Rezzin** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:24 pm

Got my scoresheets back today along with my ribbon. My Munich Helles entered as a Helles scored a 28.6, entered as a German Pils scored a 31.5, and my Common scored a 43.

Brent, do you remember who judged with you? One of the judges gave me a better score than you did (:)) but his comments were terrible. Example:

Aroma: "hop aroma fresh lager sulfer"
Appearance: "clear and bright"
Flavor: "good recipe, good hop flavor & finish but a little under attenuated"
Mouthfeel: <blank>
Overall Impression: "very nice beer"

At least you took the time to fill out the sections so even though you ripped me a new one, you are forgiven

Thos who are BJCP judges (or are aspiring to become one) definitely take more time in filling out the scoresheets and giving good feedback.

No prizes this year it looks like - but at least the ribbon is fancier than the one I got for the NHC comp!

Post by **brahn** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:55 pm

I was going to say that you weren't going to be very happy with the scoresheets from the people I judged the light lagers with. Did you only get two scoresheets? We had three people judging that flight, and I did tend to be lower than them on most of the beers we judged. It was either Christy Elshof or Terry, whose last name I forget. I felt a little rushed sometimes filling out my sheet because they were both done long before I was. If it said "fresh lager sulfer" I'm guessing it was Terry. He did help me a lot with the judging, I think light lagers is a tough one to start out with especially since I don't brew lagers.

bwarbiany · Post by **bwarbiany** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:13 pm

My IPA scored a 38.5, the Milk Stout a 31, and the RyePA (entered as an APA) scored a 25.

Both judges of the IPA suggested that I should add finishing/aroma hops, despite the fact that I had a total of 13 ounces of hops in about 13.5 gallons of beer added at the 5 minute and dry-hop points.

Maybe this is why their web address is "hopheads.com"?

Post by **brahn** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:20 pm

My saison scored 39.5. I'm drinking one right now while I'm reading the scoresheets. Very tasty, but I am surprised at how much this has changed as it's aged. I think it was probably better fresh, but it's still really good ... just different. I did get good scoresheets from both judges. One of the judge's bjcp numbers is one higher than mine, so they must have taken the test with us at The Bruery.

Rezzin · Post by **Rezzin** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 6:25 am

brahn wrote:I was going to say that you weren't going to be very happy with the scoresheets from the people I judged the light lagers with. Did you only get two scoresheets? We had three people judging that flight, and I did tend to be lower than them on most of the beers we judged. It was either Christy Elshof or Terry, whose last name I forget. I felt a little rushed sometimes filling out my sheet because they were both done long before I was. If it said "fresh lager sulfer" I'm guessing it was Terry. He did help me a lot with the judging, I think light lagers is a tough one to start out with especially since I don't brew lagers.

3 judges for Cat 1 and 2 judges for Cat 2. It's funny, I totally thought my Munich would have scored higher but perhaps I'm suffering from "it tastes good to me since I brewed it" syndrome. Thanks for the suggestions Brent, I definitely plan on keeping those in mind the next time around. At least I didn't score an 8!

Wow, I just noticed the other 2 judges were certified... hmmm, they still suck at filling out scoresheets

backyard brewer · Post by **backyard brewer** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:51 am

I got my sheets back, respectable scores and mostly filled out OK. Bob Kluver the brewer there judged my Scotch Ale and gave it a 36 with a very well filled out score sheet. The Wee Heavy ended up with a 32.3 and my Schwartzbier a 35.3. All three judges must have been working closely on that one as one of the score sheets all but said, "Yeah, what he said." All mentioned the coffee note in that one which I had never noticed until Brent pointed it out at the brew day at my house.

I'm disappointed I didn't place but happy with my score sheets.

Post by **brahn** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:56 am

Thanks for the suggestions Brent, I definitely plan on keeping those in mind the next time around.

Hmm, considering I don't know which beer is yours I have no idea what I suggested. Er, I'm sure they were good suggestions though.

You said that you thought it was past it's prime, right? That's funny because based on the comment you posted from Terry he probably thought it was too green. He talked a lot about how lagers have this sulfur character (that he really likes) when they haven't been lagered long enough.

backyard brewer · Post by **backyard brewer** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:23 am

brahn wrote:. He talked a lot about how lagers have this sulfur character (that he really likes) when they haven't been lagered long enough.

OK, now... that right there should DQ him from being a judge. That sulfer character of a young lager is ass.