During judging, a steward is required to fetch entries for and assist the judges in their duties. As part of the educational aspect of this (yes, there is learning to be done here!), the judges very usually share the beer with the stewards to discuss the quality of the beer after completing their feedback forms.

Judging in Progress...

I was steward to John Hatch (from the Ram Brewery in Wandsworth) and to BJCP judge Ali Kocho-Williams (@alikocho), our flight consisting of Ordinary Bitters (8A) and Mild (11A) along with one Southern English Brown Ale (11B). Having been to similar competitions in previous years over in Sutton that were organised by Richard from Cheers, I found it interesting to see how the beers entered compared to those from previous years.

Overall, the standard of beers entered was very good as usual, with much greater range of styles entered, and many more adventurous beers submitted. However, I found the standard in our flight to be somewhat lower than previous years in these categories – there were a variety of problems including: infections, beers having vegetal/”cooked” characteristics, under attenuated beer (“worty”), beer that was thin or lacking in finish, and unfortunately, one gusher. There were some stylistic issues such as milds that were too hoppy, and there were some beers that unfortunately were entered into the wrong category. While, as a steward, this it’s great for learning about flavour defects, it also backs up the idea that the hardest beers to brew are the lowest gravity styles – there is often little to hide behind and any defect sticks out like a sore thumb.

Not a great beer...

Defects aside, for ordinary bitters and milds, it is hard to get sufficient malt character into the brew – I think some of this comes down to yeast choice (e.g. I find WLP002 leaves a much stronger malt profile than, say, Nottingham). But, interestingly, Ali pointed out that the mashing process could well be the key here.

On large scales (several BBL), the sparge will take hours, rather than 20min or so in a homebrew situation (1/8BBL!). Does the shorter sparge result in less malt character being carried over in the malt? Seems like a possible reason. Perhaps as he suggested, the no-sparge technique could be used to compensate here by using a larger proportion of the rich first runnings? Commercially, Fullers ESB (parti-gyled with London Pride) has a very rich malt profile – almost certainly with a strong influence from the mash/sparge process as well as their unique yeast.

Additionally, related to the yeast choice is the pitching rate of the yeast you are using – it’s easier to under or over pitch in a homebrew setting. Perhaps the balance between getting good yeast derived flavours and not having enough healthy yeast to fully ferment the wort is an even finer one than maybe I previously suspected?

On the subject of “entering the right category”, I saw several examples of this on Saturday. Now, before we get into a “the guidelines are wrong” type argument (again), these are the pre-set conditions for judging this competition – the judges have to use these guidelines to make their choices, so as an entrant, you need to do a bit of making sure that you’re giving your beer the best possible chance of doing well.

So, from our set of beers, we had a strong mild (in the style of Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild) which actually did well in the flight – but it was discussed if it could have performed better in another class? The flavour profile and strength of Victorian/Edwardian style milds are a fair way outside of the mild guidelines (but of course, they are guidelines and not concrete limits…). Sarah Hughes itself (though slightly stronger than our example) is actually listed in Old Ale as an example of the style – would it have scored better there perhaps, or even entered as a lower hopped porter?

And, as odd it is trying to place a real life distinction between classes 11B and 11C (Southern/Northern Brown), there will be an expected difference from a judge’s perspective. Manns and Newcastle Brown Ale are quoted as commercial examples in the guidelines – try them out to see the obvious difference. One is quite sweet and caramel with dark fruit, the other has much firmer bitterness.

Some beers landed up being entered into Speciality (23A) on the basis of them being “too bitter” or “too hoppy” for the English bitter classes. There was one such speciality beer I tried in the tasting afterwards that was a very good APA, but I would happily have expected it to fall into the APA category rather than speciality, especially given the strong influence from the Columbus hops used.

Possibly the best (or worse, depending on viewpoint…) example of “great beer, wrong category” (even by his own admission) was Fergus McIver’s (@fergusmciver) excellent “Taste the Darkness” that deservedly won the “People’s Choice” award. It was a great beer, heavily hopped with American varieties giving a strong resinous and citrus nose with a dark roast coffee/slightly plummy undertone. Citrus complimented the coffee/chocolate flavours very well, and bitterness was firm but not overwhelming. It was entered into Imperial Stouts (13F) which was a real shame – had it been entered into 13E (American Stouts), I think it could well have been in with a shout of winning!

Another interesting moment during my judging flight came when dispensing a beer from our flight for judging – this was a mild presented in corny keg with party tap, and upon first serving into a jug, I got a lot of foaming which blew out any condition the beer had – and the beer itself seemed somewhat thin and lacking in aroma. After reducing the serving pressure by venting the keg off, the beer was markedly different – body increased and so did aroma, and the condition was much improved. Surprising how the tap used, or the pressure at which it is forced out makes such a difference to the same beer. There was a marked difference in the quality of the beer between the two versions of the same beer.

Perhaps this is somewhat akin to the sparkler argument? (no sparklers on milds for me, thank you!). And, even more controversial, perhaps CAMRA are right regarding their method of dispense arguments for certain beers, but perhaps not for the reasons they think the argument should be based around! I think with a freeflow tap and slightly longer line, that mild would have been fine served as was. Temperature does make an enormous difference here to serving and foaming, and it’s not necessarily the brewer’s fault in these instances. My “Boeuf de l’Ouest” (strong saison) also suffered from unbelievable foaming in the temperatures of the school hall, whereas it served flawlessly at 8-10C at home – arguably, the carbonation could have been reduced on it, but it’s tricky to predict how these things will behave ahead of time…

So there we go – a very interesting, and tiring day. Congratulations to the winners (especially Tom Greasley for his winning Sweet Stout (“Sarcastro’s Stout”) and to the multi-talented roaming photographer Gregg Irwin (@dredpenguin) who not only picked up a 1st and a 2nd (Dry Stout and Belgian Speciality) but who also walked off with the award for best label design! Congrats! Check out Gregg’s post for a selection of photos of all the prizewinners.

Thanks also to the guys from the London Amateur Brewers for organising the day – a lot of behind the scenes work takes place, and no event like this would take place without all their hard work!

(Red Sparrowhawk picked up another award with 2nd place in IPA/American Ales – when getting the rosette presented, I had my photo taken next to a Swedish guy called Ingemar Jansson, who is possibly the tallest person I have ever met…! Check out Gregg’s post for a ridiculous picture of me…)

#1

Maris Otter 3kg
Flaked Rye 500g
Munich Malt 350g
Crystal 60EBC 250g
Special B 140g
Crystal 240EBC 140g
Pale Chocolate 80g

Cascade 6% 18g 60min FWH
Columbus 13% 18g 20min
Columbus 13% 24g 10min
Columbus 13% 34g 0min

OG 1.045
FG ~1.011
IBU ~33
SRM 19

Yeast: US-05 (probably)

 

#2

Maris Otter 3.8kg
Crystal 120EBC 240g
Carapils 200g
Crystal 240EBC 110g
Pale Chocolate 60g

Northdown 8% 28g 60min
Fuggle 3.2% 28g 60min
Northdown 8% 15g 15min
Fuggle 3.2% 15g 15min
Styrian Goldings (Bobek) 20g 0min
Cascade 12g 0min

OG 1.043
FG ~1.011
IBU ~37
SRM 13

Yeast to be chosen from: S-04, Windsor, WLP002, Wyeast 1028, Harveys Sussex?

And in amongst this I need to brew a weizenbock… (the recipe for which I have nailed down now thankfully…). Any thoughts/comments on the above?

The results will collated and used to develop any required organisation to fulfil ass many of these requirements as is possible. If you’re a UK homebrewer, and even if you’re not a member of the CBA in the UK, it’d be great if you can spend 10 minutes to tell the group exactly what you feel on the subject.

The questionnaire can be found here – thanks for your time!

http://kwiksurveys.com?u=HomeBrewersSurvey

By all accounts, there was quite some array of judges – notably John Keeling (@FullersJohn) from Fullers, Justin Hawke from Moor Beer (@drinkmoorbeer), Chris Kay from The Bristol Beer Factory, Tim Hampson (@beerhero) from the Guild of Beer Writers, beer writer Des De Moor (@desdemoor), Phil Lowry (@PhilLowry) from Beer Merchants (@beermerchants) amongst many others. Included was Ali Kocko-Williams (@alikocho) who organised the event – and what a great job he did – many thanks to Ali!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it along for the day, as playing cricket (and winning the league!) took precedence, but by all accounts it sounded like a great event (make sure you check out Phil Lowry’s blog page on the event with photos and video interview with Ali).

I was even lucky enough to pickup four 1st places and a 2nd place, as well as 2nd and 3rd in the Best of Show round!

I was particularly pleased with the US Amber (which I think tastes excellent), and getting such a high score (in the “Outstanding/World Class” range) for the weizen, which landed up being judged as a “kristallweizen” as it was super clear. Also, it was good to see “The Handicapper” (entered as an Old Ale – pictured) finally getting an award after sitting patiently in store for two and a half years!

Finally, big congratulations to Tom Dobson (@quadrangularus1) for winning best of show with his Vanilla Milk Stout, and well done to all the other guys (including you all on Twitter – I won’t try and list you because I’ll miss someone out!) who picked up awards, not least fellow Oxford Brewer, Matthew Hicks getting a 3rd and an HM in his first competition

My results included:

• 1st Place American Amber/Brown Ales – “Red Sparrowhawk” (10B US Amber) -  40/50
• 2nd Place American Amber/Brown Ales – “Bad Choirboy” (10C US Brown) – 39/50
• 1st Place Belgian & French – “Boeuf de l’Ouest” (16E Belgian Speciality – Strong Saison) – 42/50
• 1st Place Strong Ales – “The Handicapper” (19A Old Ale) – 39/50
• 1st Place Wheat and Rye – “Triticum” (15A Weizen/Weissbier) – 45/50 (!!)

• Runner-up Best of Show – “Red Sparrowhawk”
• 3rd Place Best of Show – “Triticum”

Coming up, it’s the Thornbridge/Nicholson Competition and the London/Home Counties in November. Time to get brewing again…

UPDATE, 9th Sept 2011: R.I.P. Triticum keg. Tash finished it last night. Only one bottle remains…

WLP300, check.

Ready to go for brewday on Sunday!

I was having lots of issues in getting the wort to syphon out of the boiler post-boil, even when the level of the wort was higher than the top of the internal pickup in the kettle – seemingly defying the laws of physics, and resulting in me being beaten into submission by a simple syphon… (I think it’s basically an airlock being setup in the pipes before filling the kettle, and this never gets cleared out).

So my current setup, now tested and leak free, is to have the March May pump wort from the kettle back into the boiler via the new return pipe thus allowing a “whirlpool” type arrangement (though without the need to form the “cone” of trub since I use whole hops) which sterilises the piping with boiling liquid, and then aids in the cooling by keeping the wort moving around while the cold circuit supplies the cooling water (which at the moment is just mains tap water). It might let me get a bit more hop aroma out too from the late hops, and possible save on cooling water.

Then, when suitably cool, the return feed is disconnected and pointed into a fermenter and the whole kettle (bar the half litre or so deadspace) is pumped out at a rate I desire by setting the output valve on the March May. The hoses I’m using are platinum cured silicon hoses – not cheap, but reliable and food safe at boiling temps.

First brewday is hopefully going to be next week, and I’ll be making a lovely session bitter based on a commercial recipe supplied to me direct from a brewer in Wiltshire, with Challenger, Styrians, Goldings and Pioneer for hops, and the ever popular Wyeast 1968 to ferment with. The yeast is ready to go now, and is just settling out to let me decant the spent starter solution.

I decided that this year I would offer to bring some of my own beer for people to try, so at the minute I have 3 kegs of beer sitting next to my desk at work – a Whitbread 1850 Porter (a real malty, roasty whack!), an American Pale Ale with Summit, Centennial and Cascade hops (aroma of citrus and pink grapefruit!), and a best bitter brewed with Progress, home-grown First Gold, 5% dark crystal malt and WLP002.

Slightly apprehensive about so many (non-brewers) trying it, especially since the lager drinkers will find the beers have too much flavour for them, most people have no idea that I make my own beer, and a lot will do the classic “Homebrew? That’s awful tasting rocket fuel!”. Ah well, there must be some proper beer drinkers in the department – more for me if not!

(In fact, I know I have one colleague whose father is a well respected professional  (head) brewer. My guess is that he’ll drink some of it and give a decent assessment… erk.)

The Vintage will be put into “store” for several (18…?) years. The XX (see Ron’s post for details), which I really didn’t expect to get my hands on at all, may not last quite as long, but it’ll be a long drawn out process of drinking them to see how they slowly mature, starting this Christmas I think.

In homebrewing, I have brewed 20 batches of beer this year (so far), of which I was highly commended in the CBA national competition in Skipton in Strong Ales and took a first in bitters over 1045 at Sutton in the London and Home Counties competition in November with my “Yew Tree Ale” (Pale, wheat, caramalt, Munich, WGV & fuggles, WLP005). Both beers made their debut at Badger’s stag in Wales – went down just as well (if not better) with the boys as well as with the judges

No complete disasters yet either this year – and maybe even time to get one or two on at Christmas too if I’m lucky.

The first sample of a 7.2% Belgian Dark Strong Ale I brewed way back in mid-April. It has been conditioning for the last few months and it is now getting very smooth indeed. Excellent carbonation; slightly peppery; some faint banana with some dark fruits (though could do with more to be more like a Rochefort); hints of roses in the aroma; warming alcohol and slight, but pleasant sourness in the finish.

Not too bad at all. And looks great in a good glass.