Two Lugwrench Beers Medalled at OSHC

The results of the 2013 Ocean State Homebrew Competition were announced last night and Lug Wrench was elated to see two of our "beers" on the list of winners.  It has been a real pleasure watching the OSHC grow from small beginings into a sizable competition, with 359 entries this year.

Our Frosty Fool Eisbock was awarded a silver medal in the Bock category (out of 12 entries).  I struggled with whether to enter it as a doppelbock or a true eisbock, but ended up putting it in the doppelbock category as I didn't think it was "over-the-top" enough to do well as a eisbock.  Competitions tend to award those beers that stand out in their categories, so strong doppelbock would likely do better than a middle-of-the-road eisbock.  The true test will be when I get to read the judges comments to see how the pegged the beer, but given its place on the awards table, it obviously did well as a dopplebock.

Our Mason Dixon Line Mead won a gold medal in the Traditional Mead category.  However, given there were only two entries in the category, we'll take this win with a grain of salt.  This was actually the first time I've entered a mead (Tom has won a few medals before for his meads), but this mead was special as it was a combination of Virginia and Rhode Island honey (thanks yet again to Bil for the RI honey!).  What impressed me most about the mead is how it has evolved over the years.  Tom originally described it having a very medicinal quality in its early life and we both shelved it and forgot about it.  But recent tastings showed it to have transformed considerably - enough so to give it a try in competition.  It goes to show that unless a beer or mead is critically flawed, there is always value in letting it age out and watching the flavors change over time - many times for the better.  The scoresheet and score on this mead will be the real tell for how well the taste has evolved.

Our thanks go out to all the organizers, judges, and volunteers who took part in the 2013 OSHC - we look forward to another good comp next year.

Slainte!

-JW


"Drink is the feast of reason and the flow of soul."
-Alexander Pope

Local 2012 Great American Beer Festival Winners

The Brewers Association announced the results of the 2012 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition this past weekend.  From the press release, the competition awarded 254 medals to breweries across the United States.  The competition presented gold, silver, and bronze medals in 84 beer categories that covered 134 different beer styles.  It had 4,338 entries from 666 breweries, coming from 48 states, Washington D.C. and Guam.  This entry level makes the 2012 competition the largest to date, which comes as no surprise given the number of new breweries coming into the marketplace in the past few years.  Note that the GABF competition uses different style guidelines than authored by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), which have been previously discussed here as part of homebrewing competitions.  In particular, the GABF guidelines have more substyles than those of the BJCP, which also means it must draw a larger pool of judges to evaluate them.

Locally speaking, in Virginia, Devils Backbone Brewing Company is again cleaning up at commercial beer competitions. They won two golds, two silvers, and four bronzes. In fact, of the medals given to Virginia Breweries, they held 66% of the medals awarded. They include:

Gold - Vienna Lager - Vienna-Style Lager
Gold - Berliner Metro Weiss - German-Style Sour Ale
Silver - Old Virginia Dark - American-Style Dark Lager
Silver - Danzig - Baltic-Style Porter
Bronze - Gold Leaf Lager - American-Style Pilsner
Bronze - Turbo Cougar - Bock
Bronze - Ramsey's Draft Stout - Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout
Bronze - Ramsey's Export Stout - Foreign-Style Stout

This impressive win record resulted in them being named the "Small Brewpub and Small Brewpub Brewer of the Year."  Devils Backbone had been named "Champion Brewery and Brewmaster Small Brewpub" at the 2010 World Beer Cup.  It is safe to say they are doing very well.

Locally speaking, up near Jeff, there were no medals given to a Rhode Island brewery. However, in Massachusetts, the following awards were given:

Gold - Cisco Brewers - Lady of the Woods - Barrel-Aged Sour Beer
Silver - Cambridge Brewing Company - CBC Heather Ale - Herb and Spice Beer
Bronze - Jack's Abby Brewing - Smoke & Dagger - Smoke Beer

For a full listing of the competition winners, look at the GABF site, which now has a searchable database of current and prior winners (a very nice improvement).

It is a great time to be a craft beer drinker in this country.

Cheers,

TW

2012 Dominion Cup

The Dominion Cup is one of the largest homebrewing competitions in Virginia, and also happens to be the closest one to where I live.  I volunteered with the competition as a cellarman three years and had a great time.  Additionally, I have entered the competition every year since starting our local homebrewing club, the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale (CAMRA), and even medaled with one of our Lug Wrench Collaborative beers - Flemish Fisherman.  So, I was excited to finally be able to clear my calendar for August 11 this year and volunteer for the Dominion Cup again.

2012 was a big year for the Dominion Cup and the James River Homebrewers club that runs the competition.  There were a total of 518 entries into the competition this year, which shattered all previous year records.  The event was also hosted at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, one of Richmond's newest and more interesting craft breweries.  More locally, CAMRA organized and was able to submit more than 80 entries to the Cup, a feat that astounded all of us, given the size of our club.

The actual day of the competition was a great deal of fun.  Given the number of entries, the organizers pressed some of us who volunteered to be stewards into service as judges.  I judged saisons in the morning, and our mini-team of 3 judges worked our way through 14 entries.  In the afternoon, I judged lower gravity stouts (dry stout, sweet stout, and oatmeal stout).  In both cases, I judged with some familiar faces and some new ones.  I enjoyed the process a great deal, and learned a lot as we discussed the merits of the beers, what we each perceived, and how it related to style.  The saison session was the harder of the two, as we had to move through more entries and they were higher in alcohol and more wearing on the palate.  By the end of the day, my hand was regularly cramping from writing out all of the judging forms (five sections with lines for perception descriptions on each one) and it reminded me of high school and college essay exams.  It was a very enjoyable day.

CAMRA as a whole ended up with 13 medals, including 5 golds, 4 silver, and 4 bronze.  We spanned a good number of categories too, including: cider, mead, German lager, Scottish ale, porter, stout, and Belgian ales.  I was shut out of medaling this year, but enjoyed the process none-the-less.  

I encourage any of you to have the opportunity to volunteer at a homebrewing competition to do so, it is a very rewarding way to spend a day.

Cheers,

TW

 Judges and stewards getting organized in the morning over breakfast

Judging between rows of fermenters and a rack of barrels

 Announcing the winners at the end of the day

Most Popular Beer Styles: 2012 NHC Entry Results

Two weeks ago saw thousands of homebrewers descend on Seattle, WA for the 2012 National Homebrewers Conference.  The conference, among many things, offers seminars, demonstrations, and camaraderie with amateur brewers from all over the country and beyond.  But one of the center points of the event is the culmination of the National Homebrew Competition.  The final round of the comp is held during the Conference with the venerated awards given at the banquet on the last night. 

We've explored the popularity of the different style entries in prior years (2011, 2010).  With the 2012 HNC awards in the books, it was worthwhile to revisit the results and see if the preferred beer style trends continue to be the same or if there is a shift in brewers' preferences. 

For this analysis, I’m only looking at the beer categories themselves (my apologies to the cider and mead makers out there). To normalize the data, all categories are given as the percentage of the total entry pool that they represent. From this year's NHC competition, the most popular and the least popular styles are as follows (with the full dataset given below).

2012 MOST POPULAR BEER STYLE CATEGORIES

 1. Stouts (cat. 13) - 630 entries or 8.7% of total

 2. American Ales (cat. 10) - 603 entries or 8.3% of total

 3. India Pale Ales (cat. 14) - 553 entries or 7.6% of total

 4. Belgian and French Ales (cat. 16) - 491 entries or 6.8% of total

 5. Belgian Strong Ales (cat. 18) - 454 entries or 6.2% of total

2012 LEAST POPULAR BEER STYLE CATEGORIES

 23. Euro Amber Lagers (cat. 3) - 158 entries or 2.2% of total

 22. Dark Lagers (cat. 4) - 162 entries or 2.2% of total

 21. Fruit Beers (cat. 20) - 169 entries or 2.3% of total

 20. Amber Hybrid Beers (cat. 7) - 174 entries or 2.4% of total

 19. Bock (cat. 5) - 195 entries or 2.7% of total

The top five beer categories have been the same five styles for the past 5 years with the only change being in the ordering.  Belgian & French Ales flip-flopped with Belgian Strong Ales, otherwise the top 5 style rankings remained the same.  As an overall percentage, the number of entries in the top 5 categories increased slightly from 2012 (37.5% vs. 35.7%) representing a slight strengthening in their overall popularity. 

On the other side of the spectrum, lagers still continue to take a beating.  Of the five lager beer style categories, three of them are in the bottom five.  Light Lagers and Pilsners experienced a surge this year, both jumping up two slots (to #15 and #17 respectively), while Bock beers tumbled hard by 5 slots down to #19.  As has been in the past, there are more than three times as many beers entered in the top five categories as compared to the bottom five categories.  

Looking at trends across the past five years (2008 – 2012), popularity has been surging or failing for some categories as the style gain favor or loses it.  Below are the top movers in the positive and negative direction across thefive year span. 

MOST POSITIVE MOVERS (Ranks: '12 / '11 / '10 / '09 / '08)

 1. Smoke / Wood-Aged Beer - cat. 22 (Ranks: 8, 8, 11, 13, 16)

 2. Sour Ales - cat. 17 (Ranks: 14, 18, 19, 18, 21)

 3. Herb / Spice / Vegetable Beers - cat. 21 (Ranks: 7, 9, 10, 9, 12)

 3. Specialty Beers - cat. 23 (Ranks: 6, 6, 7, 10, 11)

MOST NEGATIVE MOVERS (Ranks: '11 / '10 / '09 / '08)

 1. Bock - cat. 5 (Ranks: 19, 14, 15, 16, 14)

 2. Light Hybrid Beers - cat. 6 (Ranks: 11, 10, 9, 8, 7)

 2. Dark Lagers - cat. 4 (Ranks: 22, 20, 22, 20, 18)

 3. Strong Ales - cat. 19 (Ranks: 12, 13, 12, 12, 9)

 3. German Wheat Beers - cat. 15 (Ranks: 16, 16, 13, 15, 13)

The growing popularity of barrel-aged beers and sour beers have definitely played a factor in the rise in popularity of Categories 22 and 17 respectively. For our 2011 analysis, barrel-aged beers were the most positive mover as well.  However, this years tragic drop for Bock beer caused it to shoot up the leaderboard for most negative mover.  A good Maibock or Doppelbock are stable beers, but the style seems to be getting the cold shoulder from competition participants in the last half decade.  

The complete data set for how each beer style category performed is presented below.  

2012 NHC Entry Rankings by Beer Style Categories

2012 Rank	Cat. #	Name	# of Entries (2010)	% of Entries (2010)	2011 Rank	2010 Rank
1	13	Stout	630	8.7%	1	2
2	10	American Ale	603	8.3%	2	1
3	14	IPA	553	7.6%	3	4
4	16	Belg & French	491	6.8%	5	3
5	18	Belgian Strong	454	6.2%	4	5
6	23	Specialty Beers	383	5.3%	6	7
7	21	Spiced / Herb	362	5.0%	9	10
8	22	Smoke / Wood	335	4.6%	8	11
9	12	Porter	326	4.5%	7	6
10	9	Scottish & Irish	308	4.2%	11	8
11	6	Light Hybrids	303	4.2%	10	9
12	19	Strong Ale	279	3.8%	13	12
13	8	English Pale Ale	265	3.6%	12	16
14	17	Sour Ale	255	3.5%	18	19
15	2	Pilsner	237	3.3%	17	17
15	15	German Wheat Beer	237	3.3%	16	13
17	1	Light Lager	200	2.7%	19	18
18	11	English Brown	198	2.7%	15	14
19	5	Bock	195	2.7%	14	15
20	7	Amber Hybrid Beer	174	2.4%	21	20
21	20	Fruit Beer	159	2.3%	22	21
22	4	Dark Lager	162	2.2%	20	22
23	3	Euro Amber Lager	158	2.2%	23	21

Everyone has a list of favorite beer styles – let us know which are your favorites and how they are represented in the competition scene.

Slainte!

-JW


"In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer"
-A. J. P. Taylor

Poll: How Many Entries Did You Have for NHC '12?

Like all our prior poll posts, this post takes a moment to memorialize the results we recieved on the most recent blog poll.  The readers' responses to the question " How many entries did you place in the 2012 National Homebrewing Competition?" are presented below.

Total Votes: 11

As much as I am a supporter of the National Homebrewing Competition, I am certainly not much of a participant.  In the last 3-4 years, I believe I have sent in only one entry to be included in the first round judging.   My interest always seems to be after the fact: prior to the deadline, I find myself too distracted to get together the registration and entry.  After the first round results have been released, my interest level skyrockets, but at that point, all I can do is kick myself and mumble "next year....next year". 

What I found compelling about this month's poll is that it looks like I am not alone.  Taking aside those that made the choice not to participate, nearly twice as many folks have an interest in the competition but just can't seem to get their regstration/entries in on time.  Why is that?  Is it just the procrastinator in all of us, or something else?

With regards to the large population that do not participate in NHC, I'm sure there is a multitude of reasons behind their motivations.  Many people are not into "style-based" competitions and would rather brew unabashed by the constraints of styles.  Kudos to you folks.  Others, I am sure, believe the NHC is too large of a venue and wonder why bother.  With ~750 entries in each region, its too easy to get lossed in the crowd.

Let us know what you think, or if you did particpate in NHC, how were your first round results?  And if you are reading this, our next blog poll is up and awaiting your participation.

Slainte!

-JW


"Everybody has to believe in something.....I believe I'll have another drink."
-W.C. Fields

Iron Brewer - Batch 3

This year's Iron Brewer competition, labeled Batch 3, began last night.  The Iron Brewer competition has been discussed here in the past and is one of my favorite events that has spun out of the recent spike of interest in homebrewing.  The competition organizer,  Peter Kennedy, selects three, somewhat atypical, ingredients to challenge the brewers for a given round (the ingredients for the first round are: rosemary, strisselspalt hops, and medium toast American oak chips).  Upon announcing the ingredients, the selected brewers have 8 weeks to produce a beer that highlights the ingredients while being drinkable and well-received.

Several months ago, Peter sent a survey around to those of us who had participated in Iron Brewer in the past to gauge responses for potential changes to the system.  Based on the questions he asked, I surmised that there were three main areas for potential improvement with the system:

• Expand participation - Iron Brewer has grown in popularity since its inception.  Consequently, under the current format, rounds fill up in a matter of minutes and leave many brewers out of the competition.  However, if the current system remains the same, increasing the number of people per round also increases each participant's costs (see below).  The other option would be to increase the number of rounds, which has logistical concerns.
• Cost of shipping - Under the current system, Iron Brewer participants ship two bottles of beer to each of the round's other participants and to the judges.  In the round I participated in last year, that meant shipping eight packages of beer, which resulted in shipping costs around $100.  These costs could be decreased by lowering the number of round participants, which is in contrast to Iron Brewer's increasing popularity, or to change how the program is structured.  Potential changes could include sending samples into one location like a normal homebrewing competition or eliminating the group tasting activity.
• Increased prize distribution - Iron Brewer has some generous sponsors that provide prizes to be given out to the competition winners.  Under the current system, those prizes are provided to the winner of the championship round only.  Providing prizes to the winners of the normal rounds, while still keeping a substantial grand prize, would be more difficult, given the number of rounds.

The email to participate in the first round of Batch 3 went out last night and closed within minutes, based on the Iron Brewer Twitter feed.  It looks like there will be six normal rounds in Batch 3 and there were seven selected participants in the first round.  When combined with the rules listed on the Iron Brewer website, it looks like the competition remains the same as last year.  Personally, I feel this is for the best, as it leaves in place the group tasting event and keeps the rounds small.  I loved the tasting event last year and felt that it brought a lot to experience to taste my competitors' beers and hear what other people thought about them.  While this means fewer can participate and the costs are higher, I think the experience is worth it.

If you want to participate in Iron Brewer, make sure that you register with the email list.  Also, be prepared to reply almost instantly to the email invitation for a round, as it fills up very quickly.

Cheers,

TW

Local 2012 World Beer Cup Winners

Jay Brooks, of the Brookston Beer Bulletin, recently posted information on 2012 World Beer Cup.  The World Beer Cup, run by the Brewers Association, is an international beer competition that occurs every two years.  The purpose of the competition is to promote the international beer culture and draw attention to the growing craft beer market.  It differs from the Great American Beer Festival competition primarily in that it works hard to pull brewers in from across the globe.  Admittedly, though, the great majority of entering breweries come from the United States.  The World Beer Cup features a panel of internationally renowned beer judges, who evaluate over 90 different categories of beer and award a gold, silver, and bronze medal for each category.

In 2010, the World Beer Cup featured 642 breweries from 44 countries and 47 U.S states.  These breweries entered 3,330 beers in 90 categories.  It also saw Devils Backbone Brewing Company named Champion Brewery and Brewmaster Small Brewpub, which is of particular importance to me because they are one of my local breweries.  It seemed very improbable that a small brewery from rural Virginia would place so highly on the international stage, but they did it and have continued to earn accolades.

This year, as announced by the Brookston Beer Bulletin, the World Beer Cup continued to grow.  The 2012 competition evaluated 3,921 beers in 95 categories from 54 nations.  The 218 judges handed out 284 awards to breweries from 21 countries, representing a 18 percent increase over the 2010 competition.  As in the previous World Beer Cups, the grand majority of the awards were garnered by the United States, with California earning 55 medals and Colorado with 27 medals.  The next closest country was Germany, with 23 medals and then Belgium with 8 medals.  India Pale Ale was the beer style with the most entries, 150, which is hardly surprising.

Local breweries (to Jeff and I) that won medals include:

• Devils Backbone Brewing Company, Roseland, VA - Gold in Vienna Lager
• Blue Mountain Brewery, Afton, VA - Silver in American-Belgo-Style Ale
• Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, Richmond, VA - Bronze in Herb and Spice Beer
• Rock Bottom, Arlington, VA - Bronze in Coffee Beer
• Great American Restaurants, Centerville, VA - Silver in Extra Special Bitter
• Cambridge Brewing Company, Cambridge, MA - Gold in Herb and Spice Beer
• Boston Beer Company, Boston, MA - Gold in Wood and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer
• Cisco Brewers, Nantucket, MA - Silver in Belgian-Style Flanders Oud Brewin or Oud Red Ale
• Wormtown Brewery, Worchester, MA - Silver in Robust Porter

It is a treat to see breweries that we have visited place highly in the World Beer Cup, in some cases with beer we have even tried.  I hope our local breweries do as well in 2014.

Cheers,

TW

Lug Wrench and the 2012 Boston Homebrewing Competition

For those homebrewers in the New England area, the 2012 Boston Homebrewing Competition took place this past weekend and appeared, at least from the outside, to be a much more organized competition than prior years. I’ve been a fan of the competition for several years and it has been nice to see the comp’s efficiency come back and it's registration levels return to the 400+ level.

After all the score sheets were tallied and refreshing my browser countless times, the results of the competition were posted.  For me, my goal in any comp is simply just not to get skunked, so it was very humbling to be awarded several medals.  Two of my beers that placed, in fact, have been described in one or more posts here on Lug Wrenchand I though it would be fun to point out where they have been referenced.

• The Belgian Golden Strong (“Eagles Nest Revisited”) was original recipe I tried to shrink down when I posted about my attempts to create a sessionable Belgian Pale Ale with the same flavor profile.  The Golden Strong recieved a bronze medal, while the Belgian Pale Ale, which was entered, did not place in its category.  
• The German Pilsner ("Congdon Hill Pils") was recently posted about when a local brewpub brewer saved my brewday by donating a growler full of lager yeast after my yeast starter failed.  The Pils ended up winning the Pilsner category and then went on to recieve an honorable mention in the Best of Show round - a feat that is a personal best for me.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that my local homebrew club (RIFT) made me incredibly proud when the brought it strong in the competition.  The club scored 13 medals across all categories, which was only topped by the hosting club, the Boston Wort Processors.  An special congratulations to Tom Auer for winning Best of Show: Cider honors - 'atta boy Tom!

The scoresheets are scheduled to be shipped out sometime next weekend, which to me, is the real prize of any competition.

Slainte!
 
-JW
 
 
"I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."
-Winston Churchill

CAMRA Iron Brewer Competition

My local homebrewing club, the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale, decided to host a club-only Iron Brewer, based on club member experience with the real Iron Brewer competition and general interest in the idea.  We decided to adopt as many of the Iron Brewer rules as practical to make implementation of the contest easier.  The brewing timeline was extended slightly to fit with our meeting schedule.  The club reached out to Peter Kennedy, who runs Iron Brewer, to have him pick the three theme ingredients.  He selected:

• Chocolate Malt
• Palisade Hops
• Raw Blue Agave Nectar

In a similar manner to Round 6 of Iron Brewer, I was well-acquainted and comfortable with two of the theme ingredients, and completely unfamiliar with the other one.  The chocolate malt again guided me in the brown ale direction because to use it in any paler beer would not highlight the malt character enough to allow it to stand out.  But, I did not want to repeat another American brown ale, and the Palisade hops provide a fruity, but not aggressive citrus character, that does not match American styles on its own.  So, I thought I would go the Belgian Brown route, but not in the vein of an Oud Bruin.  I decided to use a standard brown ale recipe, but selected Abbey Ale yeast that I hoped would provide some complementary fruit character and some light phenolics to enhance the Palisade hops.  The agave nectar was an unknown factor and I decided to use it instead of simple sugar that is often found in Belgian beer recipes.

The beer is brewed and carbonated and the competition will occur at the CAMRA meeting next week.  I am happy with how the flavors have melded together, though they took a while.  Several flavors are in the background of the beer that I attribute to the agave syrup, which can be primarily described as melon with hints of citrus.  The Belgian yeast phenolics and fruitiness are also there, and in balance with the other flavors.  We will see how it does.  

Have any other clubs out there tried to do an internal Iron Brewer competition?  If so, leave us a comment with the details and how the event was received by your club.

Cheers,

TW

-------------------------


Boosted Belgian Brown
Brewer: Tom Wallace

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 8.0 gal
O.G.: 1.051
F.G.: 1.013
SRM: 22
IBU: 26
ABV: 5.0%
Mash: 151 F for 60 Minutes
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name      
7 lbs                 Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM)      
1 lbs 8.0 oz          Vienna Malt (Briess) (3.5 SRM)  
12.0 oz               Chocolate (Briess) (350.0 SRM)    
8.0 oz                Caramunich I (Weyermann) (51.0 SRM)        
8.0 oz                Victory Malt (biscuit) (Briess) (28.0 SRM)
1 lbs                 Raw Blue Agave Syrup      
28.00 g               Palisade [6.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min  
1.00 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)    
14.00 g               Palisade [6.70 %] - Boil 5.0 min    
1.0 pkg               Abbey Ale (White Labs #WLP530)          

Notes:
------
Brewed for CAMRA internal Iron Brewer competition

11/13/2011 - Dropped to lager temps.

11/14/2011 - Added 3 tsp gelatin in 1 cup 140 F water to help clarify.

11/16/2011 - Kegged.  SRM ~ 22.  Beer is very dark brown with no head.  Aroma is faintly yeasty, with some hints of black pepper.  Initial perception of flavor is watery, with mid-palate spice and fruit, followed by a dry finish.

12/04/2011 - Flavors have melded much better together.  Hints of Belgian phenolics and a strange citrus/melon character I attribute to the agave syrup.

Iron Brewer, Round 6, Results and Wrap-Up

As I mentioned in previous posts, I was fortunate to participate in the Iron Brewer competition this year.  When signing up for Iron Brewer, a contestant agrees to brew a beer that features the three special ingredients and to send two bottles of the beer to the judge and to each of the other seven contestants in the round.  This is the actual cost of Iron Brewer because, while it is free to sign up, the shipping costs for all of those packages can be staggering (approaching $100).  Additionally, the contestants each agree to provide a brief brewing biography and a full recipe.  My biography and recipe can be found on the Iron Brewer website, along with the others from the round.  Finally, the contestants agree to participant in a live conference-call judging session to wrap-up the round and announce the winner.

The judging session was something I was looking forward to for quite a while.  Besides symbolizing the final part of the round, it allows each of the brewers to present the fruit of their labor to a receptive audience.  My homebrewing club, CAMRA, does something similar at the end of our meetings, though not as formal, and it is the part of the meeting I most enjoy.  As a whole, homebrewers are an interested an gracious audience; one that will hopefully provide constructive criticism, but one that is also appreciative of a brewers efforts.  The Iron Brewer judging session was an hour and a half of trying other people's beer and hearing their stories.  It was very cool to see how each of the brewers could take the same three base ingredients and come up with a wide variety of styles and flavor profiles, ranging from an IPA to a beer designed to taste like Turkish delight candy.  My personal experience was further enriched by having both my wife and the owner of our local homebrewing store, The Fermentation Trap, on hand to try the contestant beers and compare perceptions with me.

Each beer's score is a composite of the Iron Brewer judges selections for first and second place, which is weighed 75 percent of the total, and the scoring from the contestants on the conference call, which is weighed the remaining 25 percent.  In the end, I did not win.  I received some nice scores from the other contestants (one first place and one second place, if I remember correctly).  The winning beer was It Must Have Been the Roses, by Amy Gentry.  It was a fantastic beer, with a wonderfully refreshing hop and rose hip combination that was augmented by ginger (the second bottle was secreted away by my wife, so she could enjoy more of it later).  Amy now moves on to the championship round to take on the other winners from the previous 2011 rounds.  I wish her the best of luck.

Iron Brewer was a lot of fun and I intend to participate again next year.  I would encourage any of our readers to consider doing the same.  If there was only a way to reduce the shipping costs somehow.  However, the judging conference call and tasting was the most fun part of the whole process, and that is only possible if all of the contestants have each other's beer.

Cheers,

TW

Flemish Fisherman Collaboration Beer Gets A Silver

Back in July, I posted about whether to send some of my few remaining bottles of Flemish Fisherman into the Dominion Cup.  I elected to send two bottles into the competition and the results are in and the Flemish Fisherman took a silver medal in the Belgian Strong category (BJCP Category 18).  The Dominion Cup had 22 entries in this category.  I am glad that I sent the beer into the competition and I am looking forward to reading the judges feedback.

Flemish Fisherman was brewed in the beginning of July 2010 as part of our Lug Wrench collaborative beer series.  The recipe was supposed to be a clone of De Struise's Pannepot, a world class complex dark ale.

Pilsner Urquell Master Homebrewer Competition

 Pilsner Urquell has organized three homebrewing competitions here in the United States this summer.  The purpose of the competitions is to test the ability of homebrewers to recreate their historic pilsner.  Events were held in New York City, Chicago, and Washington DC.  I was fortunate enough to attend the event in Washington DC, along with Jamey Barlow, who was one of the 50 competitors.

Pilsner Urquell, which translates roughly as the original source of pilsner, is hailed as the original pilsner style beer.  Traditional Bohemian beers were dark and thick ales and were losing market space to golden beer imported from neighboring Bavaria in the mid-1800s.  In 1842, Josef Groll was brought in from Bavaria to create and run a new modern-style brewery in the town of Pilsen.  He brought with him a lager yeast from his homeland, along with Bavarian malting and brewing techniques.  When these were combined with the soft water of Pilsen, the golden lager beer style of Bohemian Pilsner was born.

The Pilsner Urquell homebrewing competition asked homebrewers to attempt to clone the original Bohemian Pilsner.  The brewer who made the beer closest to the original would win the grand prize, a trip for two to Pilsen to tour the Pilsner Urquell brewery.  Heading up the judging panel was Vaclav Berka, the Pilsner Urquell Brewmaster and only the sixth person to hold that title since 1842.  "Home brewing is becoming more and more popular, and these brewers keep getting more talented, so we're excited to offer this challenging opportunity," said Berka. "The competitors will need to brew carefully, but the potential prize, including their wonderful batch of beer, should be a strong incentive."  In addition to Berka, the judging panel included import and brand personnel and some beer personalities from each competition city.

While the competition is definitely part of a larger public relations campaign, the company certainly did it right.  The Washington DC event was held at a popular bar, Smith Commons, that had adequate space for judging and chatting, along with a nice draft selection.  They assembled a good panel of judges and clearly stated the judging criteria - the beer that best matches Pilsner Urquell wins.  Pilsner Urquell invited 50 homebrewers and their "+1's" to the event and provided food and tickets for draft Pilsner Urquell.  As a side note, I must say that I found the draft version of the pilsner to be a bit lacking, as it was relatively high in diacetyl and tasted flat.  I have tasted better versions in bottles.

I enjoyed the evening and even got to meet some Washington DC homebrewing celebrities, like Michael Tonsmeire, author of The Mad Fermentationist.  If Pilsner Urquell elects to repeat the event next year, I will definitely enter and if they come to a town near you, I would encourage you to do the same.

Cheers,

TW

Most Popular Beer Styles: 2011 NHC Entry Results

Its no surprise to anyone who has entered a beer competition that some categories are incredible competitive and others barely have a pulse.  Dozens of bottles are entered in the popular styles and other less popular styles get grouped together and relegated to the 'no-one-loves-me' table in the back.

We've explored this phenomenon last year when the 2010 National Homebrewing Comp was in progress.  With the 2011 NHC complete and awarded, it was worthwhile to revisit the results and see if the preferred beer style trends continue to be the same or if there is a shift brewers preferences. 

For this analysis, I’m only looking at the beer categories themselves (my apologies to the cider and mead makers out there). To normalized the data, all categories are given as the percentage of the total entry pool that they represent. From this year's NHC competition, the most popular and the least popular styles are as follows (with the full dataset given below).

2011 MOST POPULAR BEER STYLE CATEGORIES

 1. Stouts (cat. 13) - 566 entries or 8.7% of total

 2. American Ales (cat. 10) - 493 entries or 7.6% of total

 3. India Pale Ales (cat. 14) - 462 entries or 7.1% of total

 4. Belgian Strong Ales (cat. 18) - 404 entries or 6.2% of total

 5. Belgian and French Ales (cat. 16) - 394 entries or 6.1% of total

2011 LEAST POPULAR BEER STYLE CATEGORIES

 23. Euro Amber Lagers (cat. 3) - 140 entries or 2.2% of total

 22. Fruit Beers (cat. 20) - 143 entries or 2.2% of total

 21. Amber Hybrid Beers (cat. 7) - 157 entries or 2.4% of total

 20. Dark Lagers (cat. 4) - 171 entries or 2.6% of total

 19. Light Lagers (cat. 1) - 191 entries or 2.9% of total

The top five beer categories have been the same five styles for the past 4 years with the only change being in the ordering.  Stouts and American Ales have flip-flopped for the number one seat each year, while IPAs and the Belgians fight for seats 3 through 5. 

One the other side of the spectrum, lagers in general are taking a beating.  Of the five lager beer styles, three of them are in the bottom five while Pilsners (#17) and Bocks (#14) aren't that much further up.  As has been in the past, there are nearly three times as many beers entered in the top five categories as compared to the bottom five categories.  

Over the past four years (2008 – 2011), there has been some have been changes in the popularity rankings as some style gain favor and others lose it.  As mentioned, the Top Five slots have really changed.  However, there have been other styles have been consistantly climbing or falling. 

MOST POSITIVE MOVERS (Ranks: '11 / '10 / '09 / '08)

 1. Smoke / Wood-Aged Beer - cat. 22 (Ranks: 8, 11, 13, 16)

 2. Specialty Beers - cat. 23 (Ranks: 6, 7, 10, 11)

 3. Herb / Spice / Vegtable Beers - cat. 21 (Ranks: 9, 10, 9, 12)

 3. Sour Ales - cat. 17 (Ranks: 18, 19, 18, 21)

MOST NEGATIVE MOVERS (Ranks: '11 / '10 / '09 / '08)

 1. Light Lagers - cat. 1 (Ranks: 19, 18, 17, 15)

 1. Strong Ales - cat. 19 (Ranks: 13, 12, 12, 9)

 3. German Wheat Beers - cat. 15 (Ranks: 16, 13, 15, 13)

 3. Scottish & Irish Ales - cat. 9 (Ranks: 11, 8, 7, 8)

 3. Light Hybrid Beers - cat. 6 (Ranks: 10, 9, 8, 7)

The growing popularity of barrel-ages beers and extreme beers has definitely played a factor in the rise in popularity of Categories 22 and 23. Those two categories were also the fastest rising categories last year.  However, I was shocked to see Hefeweizens and Scottish/Irish Ales amongst the sinkings beers.  Category 9 is one of my all time favorites styles, yet entry selection has been fickle to it in the past few years.  Sad.

The complete data set for how each beer style category performed is presented below.  

2011 NHC Entry Rankings by Beer Style Categories

2011 Rank	Cat. #	Name	# of Entries (2010)	% of Entries (2010)	2010 Rank	2009 Rank
1	13	Stout	566	8.7%	2	1
2	10	American Ale	493	7.6%	1	2
3	14	IPA	462	7.1%	4	4
4	18	Belgian Strong	404	6.2%	5	5
5	16	Belg & French	394	6.1%	3	3
6	23	Specialty Beers	346	5.3%	7	10
7	12	Porter	320	4.9%	6	6
8	22	Smoke / Wood	289	4.5%	11	13
9	21	Spiced/Herb	286	4.4%	10	9
10	6	Light Hybrids	272	4.2%	9	8
11	9	Scottish & Irish	257	4.0%	8	7
12	8	English Pale Ale	256	3.9%	16	11
13	19	Strong Ale	252	3.9%	12	12
14	5	Bock	230	3.5%	15	16
15	11	English Brown	227	3.5%	14	19
16	15	German Wheat Beer	216	3.3%	13	15
17	2	Pilsner	215	3.3%	17	14
18	17	Sour Ales	204	3.1%	19	18
19	1	Light Lager	191	2.9%	18	17
20	4	Dark Lager	171	2.6%	22	20
21	7	Amber Hybrid Beer	157	2.4%	20	22
22	20	Fruit Beer	143	2.2%	21	22
23	3	Euro Amber Lager	140	2.2%	21	23

Everyone has a list of favorite beer styles – let us know which are your favorites and how they are represented in the competition scene.

Slainte!

-JW


"I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer."
-Homer Simpson

Flemish Fisherman - To Submit or Not, That is the Question

It has been a more than a year since Jeff and I brewed the Flemish Fisherman, a Belgian dark strong ale.  The beer was brewed in the beginning of July 2010 as part of our Lug Wrench collaborative beer series.  The recipe was supposed to be a clone of De Struise's Pannepot, a world class complex dark ale.  Given that a year has past, I figured it was time to give Flemish Fisherman a review.  I also needed to determine if the beer should be sent to a Richmond, VA homebrew competition - The Dominion Cup.

The beer pours an almost opaque dark brown color, with hints of ruby highlights when backlit by a strong light (seen above "caught" by my daughter's fishnet of stuffed animals).  A course off-white head sits atop the beer, though it fades rapidly, leaving just a thin white ring around the surface of the beer.  The aroma of the beer is complex, with stronger notes of banana mixed with dark fruit.  There is also a hint of brown sugar or toffee in the nose.  The spices placed in the beer have faded dramatically over the year since the beer was brewed, leaving only the faintest trace - which could exist in my mind because the recipe is known to me.

The beer's flavor is deep and complex.  The first part of the taste reveals a slickness on the palate that slides into a dark caramel sweetness.  The sweetness is abruptly interrupted by a spicy flavor reminiscent of cinnamon and coriander.  The sweetness returns in the end of the taste, accompanied by a warm alcohol sensation that is a bit out of place on this warm July evening.

All said, Flemish Fisherman is a complex and interesting beer.  My biggest complaint is that it does not finish drier.  The result is that the sweetness and alcohol build as the pint continues, making it less drinkable than is ideal in the Belgian dark strong ale style.  On the other hand, the judges of the Dominion Cup will taste only a small amount of the beer, probably only 2 or 3 ounces, so they will be less susceptible to this factor.

I guess it really comes down to my desire to send in two bottles from my precious stash of Lug Wrench beers.  I count myself lucky to have to make such a decision.

Cheers,

TW

Iron Brewer Competitor

Lug Wrench first reported on the Iron Brewer contest in a post in November 2010 and I have been following the competition ever since.  Iron Brewer is back again in 2011 with the same concept - brew a beer with three randomly determined ingredients within 2 months of the round's start date.  The winning beer for that round will be the beer that best features the secret ingredients, and is selected during a live Internet radio broadcast with the competitors.  The winner of each round advances to the championship competition at the end of the year, where the real prizes are, aside from bragging rights.

I am finally a contestant in Iron Brewer, Batch #2, Round 6, where I will be competing against seven other homebrewers.  I am most interested in Iron Brewer because it will push me in directions I have been reluctant to follow.  I primarily work with established recipes with "normal" brewing ingredients.  Iron Brewer, for better or worse, will push me to make my own recipe out of crazy ingredients.  The secret ingredients for the Round 6 are:

• Melanoidin Malt
• Galena Hops
• Rose Hips

I have used all of the ingredients before, except the rose hips.  The research I have done so far indicates that they could add a fruity and slightly spicy flavor, possibly like cranberries.  I hope to make a tea or extract out of the rose hips to get a sense of what they can do and the potency of their flavor.  I am excited to see what the other competitors do with these ingredients.

If any of our readers has recipe suggestions for how to use the secret ingredients, please post a comment and let me know.  I am fairly certain of what direction I am going, but I am curious what others may think.

Best of luck to all of the Iron Brewer competitors.

Cheers,

TW

Club-Only Competition - The Results

Back in the beginning of March, Lug Wrench reported on a unique situation, one that would test the metal of the two Lug Wrench Brothers' brews.  Both Jeff and Tom were selected by their respective clubs (the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale and the Rhode Island Fermentation Technicians) to represent their clubs in the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) Club-Only Competition (CoC) for British pale ales - The Battle of the Bitters.  Jeff brewed an ordinary bitter, Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) Category 8a, while Tom brewed a special bitter, Category 8b.  Jeff and Tom sent samples into the competition and eagerly awaited feedback.

The results are in, and the bragging rights go to:  neither of us.

Amazingly, both of us scored almost exactly the same score - 33 points for Tom and 32.5 points for Jeff.  The score is really the icing on the cake of coincidence.  It is relatively rare to score almost exactly the same number of points for two beers (scores are out of 50 points).  Combine that with the fact we each, independently, decided to brew a beer for the CoC and then we were each selected to represent our clubs.  Now, to score the same number of points.  It is in a word . . . strange.

As for feedback, the score sheets were relatively detailed in both cases.  We have, in the past, complained about the lack of helpful feedback from homebrewing competition judges.  These score sheets were descriptive in what the judges observed and tasted in our beers and provided recommendations to improve the beer in the future.  Tom's sheets stated that the beer tasted more like an ordinary bitter because of its clean and smooth body and lack of hop edge.  Jeff's sheets recommended some more age to smooth out the hop character and to increase the yeast flavor contribution slightly.

Overall, it was a neat, if strange, experience to have our beers compete against each other.  If you have ever hesitated to enter a CoC or other homebrewing competition, give it a shot.  You never know what opportunities might present themselves.

Cheers,

TW

Broken Bottles and Shipping Beer

The first round of the National Homebrewing Competition (NHC) is currently open.  This year features a twist on previous competitions in that there are nine competition sites and each one is capped at 750 entries.  The twist is that a homebrewer can enter any competition site, so long as that site's cap has not yet been reached.  In previous years, the first round competition site was specified by a homebrewer's location, which led to some sites "selling out" while others still had room.  This change is a welcome one and it worked, as all nine sites completely filled up as of March 24th.

I elected to send my NHC entries to the competition site in Nashville, Tennessee, both because it is relatively close and because it is not one of the historically strong homebrewing competition areas (think Ohio area equals Gordon Strong and California equals Jamil Zainacheff, both big-time winnners).  I boxed up my entries, and those from one other member of the my homebrewing club (Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale - CAMRA), as I have many times in the past.  I shipped them off via UPS and delivery was assured in two days.  On the day of delivery, I was shocked to receive a "damaged package" report, which stated some of the package contents were broken, but some were salvagable and were delivered to the final destination.  I immediately sent an email to the competition organizer, who replied and stated he would not be able to find the package and get back to me until it was too late to send in replacement entries.  Thus, I packed up another set of entries and sent them off to ensure I had beer for the judges.

Shipping homebrew has long been a difficult process that has caused many homebrewers problems.  One of the members of my homebrew club, Jamey, has written an excellent post on how to help prevent bottle breakage in shipping beer (he has extensive experience in this area).  It is definately worth reading before sending any of your precious creations through the perils of the shipping process.

Good luck,

TW

Club-Only Competitions - A Unique Situation

 The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) organizes a series of competitions every year to promote inter-homebrewing club rivalry.  Each Club-Only Competition (COC) focuses on a specific beer or mead style and allows clubs to compete against each other.  Results from a year's COCs are one factor in determining the AHA Homebrew Club of the Year, an annual award given at the AHA National Homebrewers Conference.  The official COC schedule can be found here.

The basic rules of a COC are:

• Only AHA-registered clubs may participate.
• Each club may only submit one entry in the style specified in the COC.
• The club's entry must be received by the COC deadline.
• All COC entries are compared to the style guidelines and each other and medals are awarded based on overall merit.

If a club wants to participate in a COC, it organizes an internal event to select the single "best" homebrewed example of that style that its members can produce.  In my club, the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale (CAMRA), this process is organized through an annual calendar.  As the date for a specific COC approaches, the club leadership reminds members that they should consider brewing a batch of beer in the specified style and they organize a night for a tasting/evaluation.  Any member who wants to participate in the COC brings an entry on the tasting night and a panel of judges select the example that most matches the BJCP style guidelines.

The COC for February 2011 presented a unique opportunity for Jeff and I.  Our respective clubs (Jeff's club is the Rhode Island Fermentation Technicians - RIFT) the picked each of our beers to send on to the competition.  While Jeff and I have gone head-to-head in competitions before, this would be the first time we represented our homebrewing clubs against each other.  The "Battle of the Bitters" COC featured the English pale ale styles (BJCP Category 8), which represent a series of English session ales that were paler than other beers of their day (porter), and had a bracing bitterness.  Examples ranged from 3.2% ABV on the low end (standard/ordinary bitter) to 6.2% ABV on the high end (extra special/strong bitter).  Commercial examples that readers may have tried include: Fuller's Chiswick Bitter, Boddington's Pub Draught, Fuller's London Pride, Goose Island Honkers Ale, Fuller's ESB, Bass Ale, and Anderson Valley Boont ESB.

Jeff and I are eagerly awaiting feedback on our beer and to see who's club can claim Lug Wrench "bragging rights."  Stay tuned for the results.

Cheers,

TW

Midnight Wheat Collaboration Beer Gets A Bronze

This year I entered one or two of the Lug Wrench Collaborative Beers into the 2011 Boston Homebrew Competition (BHC).  The results of the competition were announced yesterday and we were incredibly pleased that our Midnight Wheat collaboration beer placed third in the Fruit/Smoked/Wood-Aged/Specialty Beer category (out of 20 entries).

This marks the second medal in two years that a Lug Wrench collaborative beer has been awarded at the BHC. 

Midnight Wheat, which was a wheat wine brewed with local Rhode Island honey, was a collaboration brew done this past Thanksgiving while I was visiting Tom in Virginia.  The full recipe and background to the beer can be found in one of our prior blog postings.

Slainte!

-JW


"They who drink beer will think beer."
-Washington Irving

Iron Brewer

I first heard of the concept of Iron Brewer on Basic Brewing Radio back in January.  The Garage Brewers Society homebrewing club, located in O'Fallon, Missouri, conducted an innovated homebrewing competition.  Similar to Iron Chef, now on the Food Network, contestants were given "mystery ingredients" and asked to brew a beer with them and present the results for tasting at the next club meeting.  Contestants were paired head-to-head, with the winner of each pairing advancing to the next round.  Beers were selected for highlighting the mystery ingredient and overall flavor.  Memorable mystery ingredients included: iced oatmeal cookies, breakfast cereal, sweet potatoes, and rice.  The overall champion was Kent Critchell, who brewed a Potato Ale.

There is another Iron Brewer competition that is conducted nationwide, amongst interested homebrewers.  Iron Brewer, run by Simply Beer, is a similar type of event, but it is not tied to a specific club.  The folks at Simply Beer send out a tweet and an email announcement of a given round and the first six people to respond are selected.  Each round has three mystery ingredients that must be used and the brewers have eight weeks to brew and present their beers.  Then, the brewers send beers to each other and everyone, including the moderator from Simply Beer, votes for their favorites.  Like the Garage Brewers Society event, beers are evaluated for highlighting the selected ingredients and overall flavor.  The winner of each of the six rounds advances to the finals.

I heard about the Simply Beer competition from a friend, Jamey Barlow, who got second place in Round 3 (ingredients: smoked malt, vanilla bean, and centennial hops).  Jamey brewed a smoked baltic porter and was the only contestant of the round to try a lager.  The baltic porter, which I tried at a recent CAMRA meeting, is smokey, rich, and delicious.  It is a fantastic beer, though the centennial hops did not come through as much as Jamey hoped.

I must say that I love the Iron Brewer concept.  It highlights all of the things that make homebrewing great: innovation, brewing without bounds, and camaraderie through beer.  Having listened to the interview with the Garage Brewers Society and reading on the Simply Beer site, organizing such events takes a good deal of work.  Still, the results seem worth it.

Would you ever consider organizing or participating in a Iron Brewer competition.  Post a comment and let us know.

Cheers,

TW