2013 Pacific Brewer's Cup

[dhempy]

Longpre .. you stud!

Additional congrats to John and Sam.

And Thanks!

Dan

[SamIam]

Thanks everyone and congrats to all the winners!

[bwarbiany]

Got my scores back...

Oktoberfest: 30/30/25/22. Interesting that the 22 told me "check sanitation" but had ZERO comments anywhere about sanitation issues. The 25 and the 22 both picked up DMS. I think the biggest dings I got were that it was not malty enough. Interesting as it was 47% Munich and 23.5% Vienna, mashed at 155. I wonder if this was just due to the Mangrove Jack's M84 yeast and the 4-day lag time. Or, perhaps water. Any thoughts?

Hoppy Rye Blonde (entered as Specialty): 39/34. Generally very compllimentary comments from both judges. Both made comments that my description of it being liberally hopped was not accurate, though. In a 1.050 beer I was only at a calculated 27.7 IBU and although I had a decent charge of late & whirlpool hops, they were Willamette and Cluster rather than more assertive "C" hops. No dry hopping. I think if I'd entered it simply as a Rye Blonde, and omitted the "Hoppy" from the title, it might have done better.

[brahn]

Got my scores back...

Oktoberfest: 30/30/25/22. Interesting that the 22 told me "check sanitation" but had ZERO comments anywhere about sanitation issues. The 25 and the 22 both picked up DMS. I think the biggest dings I got were that it was not malty enough. Interesting as it was 47% Munich and 23.5% Vienna, mashed at 155. I wonder if this was just due to the Mangrove Jack's M84 yeast and the 4-day lag time. Or, perhaps water. Any thoughts?

What were the ranks of the judges? It's pretty unusual to have 4 judges, especially when they were so shorthanded.

You could certainly go with more Munich/Vienna, but those ratios should give you a lot of malt character. The yeast or water could both be factors here as could carbonation. I haven't tried the beer, so I can't really comment on what I think might have been the issue. Want to bring a bottle and grab lunch?

Hoppy Rye Blonde (entered as Specialty): 39/34. Generally very compllimentary comments from both judges. Both made comments that my description of it being liberally hopped was not accurate, though. In a 1.050 beer I was only at a calculated 27.7 IBU and although I had a decent charge of late & whirlpool hops, they were Willamette and Cluster rather than more assertive "C" hops. No dry hopping. I think if I'd entered it simply as a Rye Blonde, and omitted the "Hoppy" from the title, it might have done better.

Be careful with how you describe the beer in specialty, because they're going to look for everything you describe. If it's called "Hoppy" it should be very hop forward. Willamette and rye both tend to come across as earthy/spicy so they may bit picking up the Willamette and just associating the flavor with the rye. Oddly enough, dropping the rye from the description and just calling it a Hoppy Blonde might also work since the rye flavor is easily mistaken for hops. It also might do well in plain old category 6B.

[bwarbiany]

With that much Munich/Vienna and that mash temp, that was my thought as well. I just don't think it was a recipe failure, so I'm trying to figure out which points during the brew process I could have screwed it up. Of the 4 judges, 2 were non-BJCP, one claimed provisional, and the one BJCP judge listed his number but not his rank. The judge who gave his number gave me the 25, picked up DMS and some astringency in the mouthfeel.

I might be able to meet up to drop off a bottle, but probably not for ~2 weeks or so.

For the hoppy rye blonde, I think it was too out of style for 6B, but I do think it would have done better if I didn't call it hoppy (or as you point out, didn't call it rye). It'll be interesting how the comments come back from the OC Fest of Ales.

[BrewMasterBrad]

With that much Munich malt, I am sure that the grain bill should have produced a very malty beer. I am with Brent, they may have been inexperienced judges that may not know what they should have been looking for in that style.

[maltbarley]

I haven't gotten mine, yet, but if yours wasn't malty enough, mine must be dry white wine.

[bwarbiany]

I haven't gotten mine, yet, but if yours wasn't malty enough, mine must be dry white wine.

I think you and I both submitted ours too young. Mine was 6 weeks grain to bottle, and I can't be sure whether it was stored cold to continue maturation in the 2 weeks between submission and judging.

I wonder if that affects the perception of maltiness?

When I had my O-fest party, that was a full 4 addtional weeks, which is just about the time it should have been hitting its prime. So it's possible the beer I served that night tasted significantly different than the beer that was judged.

[lexuschris]

Just got my scoresheets. I feel pretty good about the feedback, although there is always going to be one judge who thinks it needs more X and the other says there is too much X. It is not an exact science, the perception of taste. I liked the scores & comments, and have some thoughts for how to make them better on the next round!

39/41/40/42 = O3 Mead (hibiscus, rosehips, allspice) = BOS runnerup
35/30/37/30 = Mowachaht Metheglin (cinnamon, allspice,marsh rosemary) = Honorable mention
35/30 = Giggling Fee Gruit (belgian pale w/marsh rosemary, yarrow, sweet gale, meadowsweet, coriander)
35/32 = Le Cheavlier de Orages - Weizenbock

Honestly, I will get around to submitting more unspiced stuff in the future.. but this is what I had available to compete with this year.
--LexusChris

[maltbarley]

Bummer. I don't care about the $7. It's going through the trouble to bottle it up that bothers me.

[bwarbiany]

Bummer. I don't care about the $7. It's going through the trouble to bottle it up that bothers me.

Yep... I got one of those as well. First time I've been accused of being part of the 1% rather than the 99%.

#occupypacbrewerscup!

[jward]

Congrats on being a 1%er. When the IEB screwed up my results for their competition they might as well have said fuck off. At least the PAC cup organizers own their mistakes.

[bwarbiany]

Congrats on being a 1%er. When the IEB screwed up my results for their competition they might as well have said fuck off. At least the PAC cup organizers own their mistakes.

I know the feeling. In last year's IEB competition they lost my entries. I wasn't sure whether IEB or O'Shea was to blame... Until IEB cashed my check (which was in an envelope with my entries). About 2 months after the competition I was finally able to get a refund, after numerous emails back and forth.

So much credit to the Long Beach Homebrewers on this. Them getting this out proactively makes me much less annoyed at the fact my entry wasn't scored.