BeerBorg

I entered a couple in this competition that was held last Saturday in Erie, Pa., no medals but.... Brown Ale scored 37, English Amber scored 34 and sent a Wheat entered as an American Wheat should have maybe entered as German Heffe scored 26. The Brown is the same recipe as the Bronze that scored 32 from the Spring except for using tap water and treating this time around. So water really made a difference. One of our club members from the local HBC judged my Brown Ale asked him what it took to medal in the American Ales said there were a few beers that scored over 40! So I am absolutely happy with the results of these. Next up Son of Brewzilla at Fat Heads Nov 7th, entered the Brown again and a Cali-Common, I volunteered to steward this one, will be an interesting day to see behind the curtain at a competition.

Sounds like fun and most of those were very good scores. Keep up the great brewing!

Thanks Paul, I was very surprised to see such high scores. Just goes to show what adjusted water can bring to a beer. Plus I am saving about $6.00 per recipe not buying spring water anymore.

Great scores Steve, congratulations.
I'm interested to hear about your Wheat. As I've found out, the wrong category can can hurt a good beer.

Good scored Steve. I entered the Four Point Pale Ale in this and it scored a 31. I'll take it.

Sounds like some solid beers you have there. Congrats on the scores and good luck in that next one!!

Big Congrats Steve!

Great Job!

Good luck in the next one as well!

Inkleg wrote:Great scores Steve, congratulations.
I'm interested to hear about your Wheat. As I've found out, the wrong category can can hurt a good beer.

Thanks!!

Both judges picked up noticeable sour flavor, I don't detect any sour. Both lacking wheat malt flavor, I think I was at 50% wheat on this recipe. Both, wheat malt aroma, touch of perfume hop aroma. fruity esters. Both said they picked up lacto type infection, hiding some sweetness in the background. One judge was certified, one was a provisional who almost word for word entered the same comments of the certified. I put this beer right up there with any of the commercial craft Summer Ales that I had tried this summer, I get a nice somewhat clove/banana, no sour at all. If anything I thought I would have heard more not to style for American Wheat and more to German Wheat. I'll be sending this along with the others.

Glad to hear your feedback from the judges. You have to take all competitions and judges with a grain of salt.

It's amazing what a change in category or even a play on words will do for your beer. The last beer I had in a competion was a Spice Beer. I labeled it a Chocolate Coffee Porter and was surprized that it didnt' do as well as I was sure it would. It came back with comments such as the Chocolate was more Cocoa like than Chocolate and that the coffee was a more upfront than the Chocolate...ok. Sent it out a week later to another comp, same beer bottled at the same time and labeled it a Porter with Coffee and Cocoa. It scored 12 points higher. Again, it was a different comp and possibly different conditions but that play on words changed the perception of the beer. Something I have leaned is you really need to paint the picture for what they will experience in the beer they are judging.

Congrats! Good scores there.

RE: the wheat - what wheat yeast did you use? Some wheat beer yeast depending on fermentation temps and wort composition (IE amount of residual sweetness determines if you notice it or not, IE too many IBUs can bring it to the front, where low IBUs mask it, crystal malt can mask it, etc.) can produce a low level of tartness that tastes a lot like a very mild lacto infection. The way you know it's not is that it never changes, it does not get stronger over time. A real live lacto infection will.

Since you do not taste it, and the judges do, I would bet that it's what I'm describing. Especially if you don't start tasting it at some point and/or you start tasting it and then note it getting stronger over some weeks. Your beer is probably just barely at the perception threshold of it.

Pulled the recipe on this, it wasn't 50% wheat, only 30% but here is the recipe
5.5 gallon batch

5.2 lbs 2 Row Malt
3 lbs White Wheat Malt
.75 lbs Honey Malt
.5 lbs Carapils
.25 lbs Acidulated Malt
2 grams Gypsum
1.5 grams Calcium Chloride

.5 oz Cascade 7.1% AA @ 60
.5 oz Cascade 7.1% AA @ 30
1 oz Cascade 7.1% AA @ 5
.5 oz Dried Lemon Peel @ flameout. and into primary for 7 days
1 Packet WB-06 Safbrew Wheat Yeast

Mash temp was low 148,( brain fart, forgot to put the manifold in the mash cooler ) fermented at 68 degrees for 3 weeks
OG 1.041
FG 1.002

As I was typing the list of ingredients, which was necessary on the entry for this competition, it started to strike me why they were perceiving some of these flavors, one being that it attenuated to the dry side and the tartness from lemon peel and maybe some from the acidulated malt.

Normally I would say that that much honey malt would cover up the acidulated malt, as it wasn't really that much.

But mashing so low in temp that you end up at 1.002 with ~30 IBUs, now that's enough IBUs to kill whatever residual sweetness was left by the honey malt. Which isn't as much as you think, because at least a whole gravity point of it fermented out if you got to 1.002. Probably more, assuming any complex sugar was left from the other stuff like the carapils. Honey malt is not like crystal malt, it has enzymes, and it can convert (it can actually self convert like Munich) and it will ferment out a good bit when mashed at lower temps.

And WB-06 is one of those yeasts that sometimes produces a noticeably tart beer, especially if IBUs are high and FG is low. I would not use WB-06 in an American style wheat beer, which is what your recipe otherwise suggests. I think it is better for more traditional low IBU wheat beers. It tastes best with German/French (spicy/floral/earthy) hops IMHO in a beer mashed at temps that will leave some residual sweetness. Or American derivatives like Santium or Mt. Hood or the like. I'd just use S-05 in an American wheat if I was picking a dry yeast.

So between all that, yes, if I were to taste your beer I'd probably think it's a bit tart too.

I did this recipe last summer, minus the water treatment and acidulated malt and mashed at 152 used S-05 and it just about came out like Leinie Summer Shandy. With this batch it was nowhere near that taste, but was very comparable to the Craft Summer Ale that I had tried just a bit drier than the commercial ones.

Dawg LB Steve wrote:I entered a couple in this competition that was held last Saturday in Erie, Pa., no medals but.... Brown Ale scored 37, English Amber scored 34 and sent a Wheat entered as an American Wheat should have maybe entered as German Heffe scored 26. The Brown is the same recipe as the Bronze that scored 32 from the Spring except for using tap water and treating this time around. So water really made a difference. One of our club members from the local HBC judged my Brown Ale asked him what it took to medal in the American Ales said there were a few beers that scored over 40! So I am absolutely happy with the results of these. Next up Son of Brewzilla at Fat Heads Nov 7th, entered the Brown again and a Cali-Common, I volunteered to steward this one, will be an interesting day to see behind the curtain at a competition.

Hey there, I came across this thread from a google search looking up articles on this years Haztoberfest. I took 2nd place in American Ales at Haztoberfest this year with my Pearl Road Pale Ale. A pale ale mainly of two row and specialty grains with cascade hops. It scored a 41 so I can only imagine what 1st place scored. Congrats on your scores! Those are all great. I live down the road from Fat Heads so I will be stewarding the morning session. Looking forward to meeting you.

PaperKittenBrewingCo and Congrats on your 2nd place win! That is truly awesome. Please take a moment to make a "proper" introduction in the Assimilation section of the forum so everyone has a chance to say hello and welcome you. Looking forward to hearing more about your brewing.