Competition Ready Beers and Unseen Problems for Entrants

Competition Awards

I personally enjoy submitting my beers for competition. I always go into it thinking I'll win big. However, its usually followed by disappointment due to a competition worksheet with comments about how to improve my brew.

The fact is that after attending my clubs competitions and tasting the beers, I realized that most beers get a score around 30 out of a possible 50 if it is half way palatable.

One of the problems faced in submitting your beer is that it will sit in a warm room for one to several weeks. If there is any infection, it grows creating beers that either gush , or taste sour and nasty. I know, I tasted them.

Infections are a major problem with brewing beer, especially if you brew in a garage like myself, where winds blow wild yeast around your brew. I had so many infections, I created a closed system where the beer travels from the brewing vessel, through hoses to a heat exchanger, and to the fermenter without ever being exposed to elements within my garage. This has worked out perfectly.

The key to keeping my fermenter closed is to clean it, close it and add a homemade carbon filter to allow clean

air exchange, add a disinfecting agent, swirl the disinfectant, drain it and close the drain. From that point on, the air is allowed to pass in and out of the fermenter through the filter as temperature changes and/or wort is added. However, rarely do I see an infection.

The other key to submitting beers is to make sure you place your entry that is rubber banded to the bottle in a sandwich bag prior to banding it to the bottle. My club numbers the bottle and doesn't need this step. However, many competitions include the paper banded to the bottle. The problem is that text is often printed on color ink printers, which can run.

There are often problems with the judges themselves. When a competition is overwhelmed with entries, often judges with little to no experience are allowed to judge. This may be the case with clubs that have few competent judges. 

Another important issue is Palate fatigue and inebriation. The tongue starts to lose its ability to define the finer points of your wonderful brew when faced with issues like large amounts of hops or other ingredients that seem to overwhelm and won't leave the palate, like pomegranate or high acid adjuncts.

The final thought is that it doesn't matter how good of a brewer your are. Or, how wonderful, or rock'n, your brew came out, part of it is just good old luck. Your judge might just fall in love with your brew for whatever reason. However, I think the biggest issue is that a judge might be faced with multiple beers that are all good. What makes him choose yours over another? Sometimes its just adding an extra ingredient without taking it out of its style category.

Some have figured out that it is a numbers game and often send multiple beers. Until the most recent beer limitations at the National Homebrew Competition, many submitted as many as 60 entries! Based on the entrants and the number of entries in the 2013 National Homebrew Competition, it roughly appears there were an average of seven entries per person. However, there was a limitation this year and I can guarantee that multiple entrants submitted their limit. I entered seven and won a 3rd place award.

How to prepare for upcoming competitions

Know your competitions: 

You need to get a calendar and note when each competition will be held during the year. 

Are your competitions local or out of state, which require shipping.

Schedule your competitions on a calendar to correspond with brewing:

Many beers need to be fresh. Some take long periods to mature. Make sure you mark your calendar to allow the brew day, maturity, bottling and a holding period to correspond with your competition.

Admittedly, I am not big winner at all the competitions. However, I've thought a lot about it and have taken action on the above to make sure I can enter my beers at all the competitions that I believe will be a big benefit to me. Good luck, and if you have any additional ideas, please post them in the comments below.

Cheers,

David