Reasons for Entering Homebrew Competitions
Feedback
Entering homebrew competitions is a great way of getting feedback on our recipes and brewing efforts. This feedback can take your brewing skills to the next level. Instead of just brewing good beer, you can use the feedback to brew great award winning beer.
Competition
Many of us are very competitive by nature and not only want to make the best beer we can, but we want to prove it to ourselves and everyone else. Even if you are not one to brag, winning a major homebrew competition gives you bragging rights in case it comes up in conversation.
Involvement in the hobby
Homebrewing is a wonderful hobby, one that sneaks up on you and before you know it, you are obsessed with making award winning beer. There are brewers who just enjoy being involved. These are the people who work their way up, eventually running some of the larger homebrew competitions themselves.
Fun
Homebrew competitions can be a lot of fun to enter, especially if you can attend in person. Many competitions have a mini conference with speakers and general brewing discussions about homebrewing that can be invaluable information.
Networking
Winning competitions, providing constructive feedback to competition managers, providing your winning recipes to the competitions, and just exchanging information with other homebrewers is a great way to make some great contacts. Who knows, you might even be able to exchange bottles of beer with Gordon Strong, Jamil Zainasheff, and Mike McDole.
Credibility
For some, winning competitions is a way of gaining credibility for their brewing skills. Maybe you want to open a brew pub or even write a website about homebrewing. Being able to say you are an award winning homebrewer goes a long way in getting you a job in the brewing industry, on loan applications for your new commercial brewing endeavor, or to get other homebrewers to visit your website.
Step #1
Some strategy — and a bit of luck — does play a role in homebrews contests, they are not complete crap-shoots. Quality beers rise to the top in homebrew contests and have a shot at winning. Poorly-made beers never go anywhere
Know the style
Know the style you are brewing inside and out. Read the BJCP guidelines on the style. Look online for sites specializing on the kind of beer you are brewing for some great historical and style related information.
Know the Definitive Beer
You should know each category you enter well enough to know the top examples of the style- these are listed in the BJCP Style guidelines. It pays to emulate these beers.
i.e. Commercial Examples: IPA- Alpine Duet, Bell’s Two-Hearted,Ale, Fat Heads Head Hunter IPA, Firestone Walker Union Jack, Lagunitas IPA, Russian River Blind Pig IPA, Stone IPA
Commercial Examples: American Brown Ale: Anchor Brekle’s Brown, Big Sky Moose Drool Brown Ale, Brooklyn Brown Ale, Bell’s Best Brown,Cigar City Maduro Brown Ale, Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale, Telluride Face Down Brown
Step #2
Brew a Clean beer
When picking your beer make sure it is very clean beer. It should have no noticeable defects. Make sure it is carbonated properly. That can play a fairly big role. When a judge opens up a bottle, if it goes flying across the room you’re not going to score too well. The same as if it’s flat. In the end you’ll lose points for it.
First Impressions
It sounds shallow, but one of your big concerns should be presentation. A lot of judging is based on first impressions. Some of the things judges look for right away are the clarity of the beer and the level of carbonation. It’s very important to make sure your beer is carbonated correctly. If the judges open up a beer and it’s a foamer or if it’s flat, that goes a long way.
Take a good look at the bottles before sending them in to homebrew competitions. Make sure the outside is clean and all label and glue is removed. Judges are people after all, and if they see the steward pouring a beer from a funky bottle, they will just naturally think the beer coming out of that bottle may be funky too.
Think Big / Bold
Winning beers are often the kind of beers that stand out in a crowd.
Whatever that beer category is about, your beer should show this character in spades. If you’re entering the IPA category, big malt and — more importantly — big hops are the order of the day. If you’re entering barleywines, your beer should be big. Fruit beers should be fruity. Smoked beers should be smoky. If the judge has to hunt to find the main attribute of a category in your beer, it will not score well.
For most categories, this means formulating your recipe so that the “main things” in that category are emphasized. Thus if you’re entering a category where hop presence is a main feature of the beer style, brew the beer so it’s at the top end (or even a little over the top) of the category range.
Stand up to the flight
Judges’ palates can easy be saturated by elements of the beers being judged, and these are often the elements the category revolves around. A super hoppy beer in a lineup is going to make all the beers following it seem less hoppy. A very alcoholic beer can make the beers following it seem anemic. (Smoke is actually one of the characters that can “blow out” a judge’s palate the easiest.) Brew your beer so it can stand up the “heavyweights” in its category.
Step #3
Location
Think about the likely competition when you formulate the recipe and brew the beer.
It helps to know what the competitions are looking for. Sometimes there is a regional bias on the part of the judges. For example, all the judges living in the Midwest may like their pale ales perfectly balanced, and you know judges from the west coast like their pale ales hoppy and bitter.
How Long until the Competition
Time your brewing to coincide with the homebrew competitions you want to enter. Many beers require long lagering and/or conditioning periods before they hit their prime. And the opposite is also true of some styles. Many IPAs need to be judged when they are fresh so the hops shine through and before they begin to fade. If you think one or more of your favorite beers may be past its prime or not yet to it’s prime, either brew another batch or wait until it reaches its prime before you enter it.
Know the rules
Most homebrew competitions are sanctioned by the AHA and go by the same set of rules and regulations. Read these and understand them
Keep secrets
Some styles require that you give information about your recipe or process. Before simply listing everything on your recipe sheet, taste your beer and see what ingredients you can detect and which you can’t. If you made a holiday ale with cinnamon and nutmeg, but all you can taste is cinnamon, don’t write “nutmeg” on your entry sheet. If the judges are expecting a dark ale with cinnamon and nutmeg and they can’t taste the nutmeg, you will be “dinked” for not having nutmeg in your beer. Bottom line- Don’t give the judges information that will only work against you.
Best fit for your beer
Forget what you intended to brew and examine how your beer actually turned out. Did you miss the target OG on your IPA? Then consider if it might score better as a pale ale.
Homebrew judges will not know what style of beer you were trying to make, what your ingredient list was, what procedures you used or anything other than the category you submitted your beer in. Evaluate your beer from this perspective when deciding on which category to enter. Read the style guidelines looking for any beer style that seems to describe what your beer tastes like.
If you added smoked malt to a beer but you can’t taste any smoke in it, don’t enter it in the smoked beer category. Likewise, if you made a fruit beer, but the fruit flavor is MIA (which can happen in dark styles like raspberry porter or cherry stout), don’t enter it in the fruit beer category.
Homebrew Club = FLOPS
Give some props to your club- and if you make it to the AHA Nationals your entires earn points that go towards the Homebrew Club of the Year. The Homebrew Club of the Year Award goes to the club that earns the most total points in both rounds of the Nationals.
Step #4
Prepare your entries for shipping
Print your entry labels- one label per beer. Place label in zip lock bag and affix to each individual beer with rubber bands. This will allow stewards to read the labels in the event of breakage during shipping.
Wrap individual bottles in bubble wrap, then place in a trash sack lined padded box. Be sure to show “this way is up” (bottles are stronger standing up) and “Fragile / Glass”.
Ship entries via UPS or Fed ex. Not that there is anything wrong with shipping beer, but if asked “yeast samples” or “homebrew supplies” are typically used.
Step #5
Relax, don’t worry, and have a homebrew
Keep Some Perspective
Don’t be discouraged if your beer doesn’t do well in a competition remember that your beer will always taste better to you than it ever will to any judge.
You will have tasted your homebrew at the peak of its conditioning; this may or may not be the case with the judges. Your beer will likely have been stored with care at home, while your contest beer will have been shipped — and likely heated and jostled — before the judges sample it. You probably don’t drink your beer in a line-up of other beers, so other examples don’t dull your palate while you’re drinking your own beer.
Also some judges are better than others and some may not even be able to taste the complex flavors you brewed into your beer. Enter your beer into a few competitions and get a general consensus. Average your scores and discard the low and high (I know it’s hard to discard a 47 point score). The average will be a good indication of the quality of your beer or at least how well it fits into a particular style guideline.
There’s nothing to lose. You might win a medal or a ribbon, and if you don’t you’ll learn how to make better beer next time.
