The Wedding Crasher - a quarterly party beer, pulls a 2nd at Drunk Monk
vs. 25 other beers in the Catagory.
This batch was Co-Brewed with Bianca Alley (1st supervised brew) and
myself (2nd supervised brew) w/ AJ Jacobs as our Brew Buddy to make
sure we didn't burn the place down.
It was suppose to be a Tripel but the efficiency was so high that it got pushed
up into a Golden Strong.
Brew House beers representing strong at comps! GO CHAOS!
Very nice! Congrats and way to represent!
Sorry - can't figure out how to delete the dupe posts...
--james
Congrats, James! Excellent showing at DMC - and way to keep CHAOS on the map!
You are a medal winning maniac James, I need to watch for you on the brew calendar and schedule some observation time :)
Congrats, James!
Also congrats to Adam York from the Oak Park Homebrewers (who is taking the BJCP class through CHAOS) for pulling in some hardware as well!
As always (my 5th year now), the DMC was well run and a super fun time, even though my wife was less-than-amused with my state of inebriation when I made it home!
"It was suppose to be a Tripel but the efficiency was so high that it got pushed up into a Golden Strong."
Just want to give a friendly tip/point of clarification here. Tripels and GS differ more in just gravity/alcohol. Tripels are generally fuller bodied (but not so much as to be sweet or even cloying) and fall more on the phenolic (spicy) side of the Belgian yeast characteristics. Golden Strongs are super dry and more on the estery (fruity) side of the Beligan yeast characteristics.
As always, the first rule about entering competitions (which James has demonstrated quite well, I believe) is to not brew a beer with the expectation of having it fit an intended/specific category. Taste the beer when it is ready and figure out where it fits best. I.e., if you brew an American IPA that is a little too malty and not as hoppy as you had expected, perhaps it fits better into American Pale Ale.
At the table, judges do not know any ingredients (unless specified in the experimental categories), alcohol percentage, starting/finishing gravities, IBUs, etc. And a good judge will never make an assumption to any of those characterisits either.
What I learned after 1 yr of brewing beers for comps...
Things on the brewday and fermention schedule change what we initially intended to brew. Use taste, color and ABV to decide where it fits in. On my score sheet for Margarita Gose entered as Fruit Beer. I said it was a Gose that had Lemon, Lime and Orange zests. The judges (Kyle) said that they picked up the Lemon, Lime but not the Orange zest. Bottom line, if you have an ingredient that doesn't standout, don't call it out. Or they will go looking for it. This happens to me all the time. I feel I should disclose it because it was in the recipe, but then get marked down when they can't find it. So moving forward - skip the mention of Orange Zest.
Not sure what category your beer fits in? It might cost you a contest, but sometimes the judges are helpful in suggesting a better catagory for your beer and explaining why your beer isn't a fit for where you entered it.
Steven I'd love to brew with you anytime. I like to brew weekdays so I can work remotely and take calls/emails while I brew.
--james
And if you have a great beer that you think would fit somewhere, let me, Jim, Jeff, James, etc., etc., have a taste and see what we/they say. I'm always happy to try to help others out and I always learn new things in the process. I'm always learning as well. Heck, I judged at the same table and did BOS with a Grand Master III judge who is still learning things.
Great job!!!!!
Great job, James!!
Even if you guys aren't entering a competition, I'm more than willing to drink everyone's beer and suggest a style. Please leave your bottles in one of my storage spots.
Cool!!!