Stewarding - My First BJCP Competition

In my 3+ year homebrew journey I have entered about 10 competitions.  After about 2 years in the hobby, I knew I wanted to become a beer judge.  I had heard from people on the forums getting into one of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) tests required a very proactive approach, and a long wait - they were right.  I first inquired last April (2013) to see if I could take the BJCP exam in Frederick, MD in February of 2013.  I was told that I could be placed 12th on the waitilist...wow!  Didn't look like I was going to be able to take the exam on that day.  I was then informed there would be another test in September of 2013 and did I want to be placed on the list to take it - YES!  Knowing I had a seat in the exam, I procrastinated studying til last month - right inside of 6 months.  I have been studying styles, their guidelines, and the brewing process on paper, but not as much hands-on, or should I say mouth-in, as I should be.  Cue the 21st annual Spirit of Free Beer Competition.

The Spirit of Free Beer competition is put on by he D.C. area homebrew group, BURP (Brewers United for Real Potables) around the beginning of May every year.  This year was the 21st installment of the competition, the third time I have entered, and the 1st time I have assisted as a steward.  This competition is 1 of 16  qualifiers for the Master Championship of Amateuer Brewers and pulls in some very qualified judges.

The competition was hosted by Mad Fox Brewing Company and I arrived bright and early to get complimentary breakfast -  caramel glazed donuts topped with bacon, and a fresh fruit tray was a great way to start the morning.  I then proceeded to sign in and talk to some fellow brewing enthusiasts.  A little after 8 the stewards were called and given preparatory information on how to assist the judges as well as the do's and don'ts.  A steward's job is to is make sure the judge's have all the necessary materials which consist of beers, cups, water, and bread, as well as to manage the scoresheets after each beer is evaluated.  Most judges will also allow the steward to get a sample of each entry to taste alongside the judges.

At 9am I was assigned to one of the 5 flights of Category 14 - IPA.  The first beer in our flight was definitely the best.  Although there were no horrible beers, each consecutive entry tended to have a few stylistic flaws.  Most common for our flight was a rather minimal hop character where beers tendy more to the malty side.  We had all American IPAs and these beers need to be hoppy to score well!  I was able to pick up some tricks for sensory evaluation of aromas.  After pouring a sample, hold your hand over glass for a few seconds, after which, immediately take in a deep sniff.  After sampling and filling out the scoresheets, the judges would share their scores and have a discussion about the beer.  For the most part, in this category, my judges scores were within 3 points of each other so no changes needed to be made.  Due to the number of flights, 1 to 2 beers from each flight was promoted to a mini best of show round.  I watched as 5 judges (one from each flight to avoid bias) debated over 10 IPAs to deem 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the category.

(Mini BOS for IPAs - The Mad Fermentationist is seen on the right)

After all the mini BOS rounds were conducted it was time to break for lunch.  Mad Fox provided us with a keg of their Defender American Pale Ale (very tasty!) to wash down our pork bbq sandwhiches, pasta salad, cole slaw, and fresh mixed green salad.  Our sweet tooths were also indulged in the form of chocolate chip cookies, and brownies!  Around 1pm everyone reconvened to begin the afternoon session of judging where I was assigned to two new judges in Category 23- Specialty beers.

Specialty is a great category.  It allows for homebrewers to enter beers that don't fall into one of the other classical style categories.  It can provide combination styled beers like belgian ipa's, or highly hopped lagers (IPLs), smoked hefeweizens and the list goes on.  I really want to point out something to brewers who plan on entering this category: BE VERY DESCRIPTIVE.  It was really unfortunate that two of the entries in this flight only listed the 1-3 specialty malts they used in the beer.  The beers were very well made, with no flaws, but since the brewer's description associated no other style or parameter to base it off of, the judges had to give it a middle of the road score around a 30.  Had the brewer of these beers said something along the lines of "I brewed a Black IPA" they possibly could have had a best of show beer.  Other than the description miscues, this was a GREAT flight of 8 beers.  Every single beer was extremely drinkable and I (a very picky drinker) would have drank, and then ordered a second pint of any of them!

I assisted with the mini BOS for the Specialty Category and was able to snap a picture of all the beers.

(Mini BOS for Category 23 - Specialty Beers)

I stuck around to watch the overall Best of Show judging where the 1st place winner from every category was tasted by a panel of 5 judges, that is 23 different beers!  It was a little crazy and they slowly wittled things down to about 6 beers.  Some judges were very adamant about one of the beers being their favorite, but in the end there was compromise and a group decision was made on the top three.  A kolsch finished 1st, English Barleywine 2nd, and a Belgian Specialty took 3rd (think it was a dark strong?).

It was a long day, but a lot of fun!  I learned a great deal, and now have a better idea of how and what I need to study for my BJCP exam in September.

(Best of Show)

Before I sign off on this post, I want to applaud BURP Member Bob Rouse.  Bob created a system to streamline the scoresheet digitization and score processing.  Bob's program assosicates a barcode with each entrant.  The barcode is scanned first, followed by the scoresheets for an entrant.  The program reads the barcode and a pdf document is then created and appended, and the score uploaded to the competition software.  He used it for the first time in last years competition.  This year he improved upon it so it would then be able to automatically email all the entrants after the competition.  Bob's program allowed the results to be uploaded online minutes after the BOS judging finished.  Within 24 hours, all entrants had an email with one pdf, and all of their scoresheets... AMAZING!

May the Fourth Beer with you

This year National Homebrew day celebrations falls on May 4th.  Shared only with another big holiday - Star Wars day, which coins the term "May the fourth, be with you."  National Homebrew day is actually May 7th, however, the closest Saturday surrounding it generally gets deemed as the Big Brew Day.  It's a day where homebrew clubs get together to brew high alcohol beers and Homebrew stores teach the craft of brewing to new people.  I unfortunately, in my 3 years of brewing have never been able to coordinate my schedule to sync up with this holiday.  One day, I will, but for now I will just have to obey princess leia and have a homebrew.

I did want to take this time to check in on and evaluate things based on my 2012-2013 brew schedule.  As you can see by the updated table below, I did not stick to my plan.  I did give myself the right to make changes, but  it really boils down to not being able to brew as often as I'd planned.  I started a new job in August and have had to work quite a bit more than I expected.  That, coupled with my lengthy commute lends to very little time for brewing. Another reason I have brewed less is because my consumption has been low.  I always talk about brewing smaller batches, but I never follow through...I always seem to want to fill the keg to the brim.  I might need to change my way of thinking and move back to 2-3 gallon batches or so.  Also, might need to start bottling some as well - I would say 75% of my homebrew gets consumed away from my kegerator.  This means more time cleaning, sanitizing, and filling bottles from the keg...if I just bottle I can alleviate all that!

The last two beers in the schedule are doubtful at this time, because my wife and I are in the process of buying a house!  This will be exciting as I should be revamping and creating a new brewery setup, however, it will delay wort production for a few months!

Competitions 

I got my scoresheets back from the regional rounds of NHC (National Homebrew Competition) and I will go into detail on those later, probably once I get feedback from all the other competitions I entered.  The other competitions entered are the Spirit of Free Beer and the Battle of the Bubbles.  I will be stewarding the Spirit of Free Beer as well, so be on the look out for some competition related posts in the future...Stay Tuned!

Durstlöscher - German Pilsner

This is my second time brewing a lager.  I made a munich helles last year, which came out ok - there was just something off about it.  Given the simplicity of the ingredients in these styles, I knew I needed to focus more on my water.  I scoured forums and decided that using 50% distilled water for my mash and adding just a little bit of minerals to achieve an estimated 5.4 pH would produce a better beer.  Additionally, my parents bought me a stirplate for my birthday, which allowed me to more efficiently propogate the yeast for this batch.

(Filling the Fermenter with as much trub-free wort as possible)

Durstlöscher - German Pilsner Brewed On: February 18, 2013
Kegged On: 4/6/2013
Style: 2A -German Pilsner
Batch Size: 6 gallons (5 gal into fermenter)
Efficiency: 83%
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.009
IBU: 36 calculated (Rager) 
ABV: 5.1%
Yeast: WLP830 German Lager from Starter ~400 billion cells .  Fermented at 50° 

Grist Mashed at 147 for 60 minutes
97% - Weyermann Pilsner - 9.5 lbs
3% - Acidulated Malt - 4.5 oz

Hop Additions (90 minute boil)
.55 oz - Magnum - 60 min - 30 IBUs
.50 oz - Hallertau - 20 min - 6 IBUs
.50 oz - Hallertau - 0 min

Water Adjustments
Mash - 4 gallons Montgomery County, MD Water consisting of 50% distilled with 
3 grams Gypsum
2 grams CaCL
Sparge - Montgomery County, MD Water (treated with campden tablet)

This lager pours a nice deep straw color with a frothy white head.  The aroma is a strong, crisp and clean smell of malt with some slight yeast character - touch of sulfur.  It has medium body with medium carbonation.  The beer really showcases the continental pilsner malt, and washing it over your tongue you can pick up a grainy sweetness.  The sweetness is really more "maltiness" which is a compliment to the extreme crispness and lack of esters left by the lager yeast.  The firm, but pleasant bitterness from the hallertau hops helps the beer finish dry.  A real thirst quencher perfect for spring!

I left this one in the fermenter a little longer than I would have liked due to my keg issues.  It could have a little more fresh hop character, but overall it is pretty tasty.  Being my second lager, I am greatly pleased with the outcome.  Two big differences between this lager and my first. 1) I used liquid yeast this time, and did a double step starter on my stir plate (used dry the first time) 2) I cut my mash water with 50% distilled water. After writing my tasting notes I decided to go to the BJCP guidelines and see how I was doing.  Pretty much falls right in line with the guidelines - I just entered this in two competitions, so hopefully my palate is tasting accurately!  

Kegging - The Not-So Awesome Side of Packaging

Browse the homebrew forums in their "Bottling/Kegging" section and you will notice a lot of reoccurring questions pop up.  Many of those questions revolve around a fairly new homebrewer asking questions about bottle carbonation.  A few people will respond with well constructed and helpful advise...then, there is always one wise guy who posts "Just keg and you don't have to worry about it!"  While that may be true, there are quite a few frustrations that can accompany the pleasantries of kegging.

We know the benefits of kegging our homebrew:

• Clean, Sanitize and fill just one container
• Fine tune your carbonation level
• Force carbonate your beer quickly (<24 hours if necessary)
• Draft homebrew is awesome and it allows you to sample less than 12 ounces at a time
• You cold condition and carbonate at the same time, producing a larger quantity of clear beer sooner.

Now let me explain some of my problems I have had while kegging:

(Velcro Picnic Tap)

• CO2 Leak:  I avoided this for over a year!  I decided to upgrade my dual body regulator with 2 wye splitters (allowing myself the ability to carbonate and serve 4 beers rather than 2) and I guess I didn't find the leaks...killed 2 tanks worth of CO₂.  Not a huge deal, but thats about $40 down the drain right there.  Solution: My problem was I didn't check for leaks at 30psi, I did it at 10psi.  Make sure to check for leaks at a higher pressure so they will be more visible. Use soapy water or star san for visibility.
• Unsecured Lines:  I started out with the plastic "Picnic Taps" to save some scratch until I could upgrade to perlick forward-seal faucets.  I learned the hard way that picnic lines lose flexibility the colder they become.  This led to my picnic tap falling and opening itself, making a huge mess! Solution: Secure your lines.  I purchased some velcrow tape and fastened it around my tap and secured it to the side of the fridge.

(Foamy Beer!)

• Overcarbed Beer:  Remember the benefit of quickly carbing beer from above?  Well what if you do to much too quickly?  While it is fixable, an overcarbed keg is a nuisance.  I recently had this happen while trying to force carb some beer for bottling for NHC 2013.  Solution:  Vent keg daily.  You can pull the keg out of your keggerator and leave it a room temp (higher temp = less CO₂ in solution which means you venting is more effective). 

• Equipment Maintenance:  You are always needing to replace O-rings, or other items.  I just recently had a HUGE SNAFU because I bent a poppet valve on one of my kegs.  After a trying a bunch of things, including purchasing a universal poppet which didn't seal fully (I need a long-legged poppet), I find out there are 3 different types of poppets for pin lock kegs (6 types overall?)!  Solution: First off, be very carefully tightening down your keg posts - I didn't notice the poppet pin was being obstructed by the post itself and ended up bending it AND the flange on my dip tube.  Second, make sure you know which type of kegs you have and have a backup plan - either spare kegs, poppets, o-rings or All three!  (just purchased bulk o-rings from Orings and More - highly recommend!)

(Different poppet types)

• Bottling:  Wait! I thought we are talking kegging, right?  Well yes, but even though you keg your beer  you will eventually have to bottle some of it for competitions or to give to your friends and family that can't make it to your tap.  Solution:  You can create a cheap bottle filler (execution here) or buy a Blichmann Beer gun.  Either way, you are now doing twice as much work as you originally were just bottling!

So beware!  Kegging comes with its own set of problems.  Spending hours trying to find leaks, or cleaning up gallons of beer from the garage floor may make that hour of bottling and 3 weeks waiting for carbonation to be achieved seem just a little better.  But at the end of the day, nothing beats pulling a pint from one of the 3 taps below!

(Shegogue Brew's 3 Perlick Taps)

Wrong Coast - IPA

Its been a while since I have brewed anything hoppy, almost a half a year to be exact.  My taste buds have been asking for the hops, and I finally decided to indulge them.  I have been reading up a lot about hoppy beers over at fellow blogger Scott's site: Bertus Brewery.  Scott has some of the best info out there on how to make a great IPA and I used that info to formulate the recipe below.

The grain bill is based on principals made popular for pale ales by Firestone Walker Brewmaster Matt Brynildson.  Mostly 2-row or pale ale malt with some munich and carapils.  This will provide a solid canvas which I then showered with hops - close to 10 ounces for a 5-6gal batch.  My wife bought me 3lbs of hops for my birthday - 1lb each of Simcoe, Cascade, and Citra.  I decided to hop this beer with a classic IPA combo, Simcoe and Cascade.

(Hops for Wrong Coast IPA)

Living on the East coast, my first IPA experience was Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA - great beer.  Since homebrewing and becoming a more educated craft beer consumer, I have come to enjoy the hop blasting lupulin bombs from the west coast.  This beer is more to that style, but from an east coast brewer.  I therefore have deemed this beer "Wrong Coast" and adulterated the U.S. Map in the logo.

Brewed On: January 26, 2013 (My birthday and 3 year brewing anniversary)
Kegged On: February 18, 2013
Style: 14B -American IPA
Batch Size: 6 gallons (5 gal into fermenter)
Efficiency: 75%
OG: 1.066
FG: 1.012
IBU: 63 calculated (Rager) 
ABV: 7%
Yeast: Safale S-05 American Ale Yeast Slurry from Porter.  Fermented at 62° for 3 days then rise and held at 67°


Grist Mashed at 151 for 70 minutes
80% - Great Western Pale Ale Malt - 11.5 lbs
15% - Briess Munich - 2 lbs
5%  - Briess Carapils - 12 oz

Hop Additions
.7 oz - Magnum - 60 min - 38 IBUs
1 oz - Cascade - 20 min - 8 IBUs
1 oz - Simcoe - 20 min -17 IBUs
1.5 oz - Cascade - 0 min 
1.5 oz - Simcoe - 0 min
Dry Hop Addtions, equal parts Simcoe and Cascade
1st Addition - 2 oz - 8 days
2nd Addition - 2 oz - 4 days (added to primary 4 days after 1st addition)

Water Adjustments
Montgomery County, MD Water - 1/2 Campden Tablet for all brewing water
12 grams gypsum to mash water
2 oz acid malt

Tasting Notes

The beer has a nice white head and a grainy gold color, which due to some kegging issues is still fairly hazy - shows nice lacing.  It smells of sweet citrus and grapefruit and overall fruity dominance backed up by subtle maltiness from the munich. It currently has medium-to-low carbonation (keg issues) which contributes a creamy mouthfeel that finishes slightly bitter and dry with a slight alcohol warmth at the end. Fresh american hop character sounds its trumpet throughout.  Delicious :)

The only real knock on this bitter is that I don't think the bitterness is bold enough.  In the future I will increase the bittering charge, or lower the total malt a bit to decrease the alcohol, which should enhance the bitterness.

Printing Press Porter

After I created my 2012-2013 brew calendar, I went out to my LHBS and purchased ingredients for my next 3 beers.  The third was to be this porter which I planned to brew in December.  My homebrew store had received their chocolate and black patent malts pre-crushed.  I didn't think about it at the time of purchase, but when it came time to brew this beer, I just didn't want to risk using the pre-crushed dark malts from 3 months ago (I failed to store them properly).  This meant I had to get new chocolate and black patent malt for brewday...

Brewday was scheduled for Saturday December 22, 2012.  This was my first day of vacation for the holidays (had use or lose time by the end of the year).  The day before I decided to take the metro and walk to the DC Homebrew Store located at 3 Stars in D.C. on my way home from work.  A quick check of google maps, and I figured I would be able to hit the brew store, and only increase my commute by a 45 minutes...well it ended up being a good 25 minute walk from the nearest metro station each way.  In addition, when I got to the train station to catch the MARC commuter train, the schedules had been rearranged for the holidays and I had to wait an extra 30 minutes for the next train.  In addition to the time, the weather was not in my favor as it was low 30s and snow flurrying - if you don't consider that dedication to brewing with fresh and quality ingredients, then I don't know what you would.

On the aforementioned MARC commuter train I spend my time reading.  Recently, I was reading the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and in a passage he described how at the Printing house he worked at, all the other workers would be drink beer all day - before, during, and after every meal.  Around the early 1700s I would assume the ale they were drinking were similar to a porter style, and have therefore deemed this beer, a modern interpretation of the style, Printing Press Porter.

Printing Press Porter

Brewed On: December 22, 2012
Kegged On: January 12, 2013
Style: 12B - Robust Porter
Batch Size: 6 gallons (5 gal into fermenter)
Efficiency: 75%
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.016

IBU: 41 calculated (Rager) 
ABV: 5.9%
Yeast: Safale S-05 American Ale Yeast (Re-hydrated) Fermented at 62° for 4 days then rise to 67°

Grist Mashed at 154 for an hour
84% - Maris Otter (Muntons) - 11.5 lbs
7%  - Crystal 40 - 1 lb
5%  - Chocolate - 12 oz
4%  - Black malt - 8 oz

Hop Additions 
0.67 oz - Columbus 14.6% AAU - 60 minutes - 37 IBUs
1.00 oz  - EKG 5.8% AAU - 5 minutes - 4 IBUs

Water Adjustments
Montgomery County, MD Water - 1/2 Campden Tablet for all brewing water
4 grams gypsum to mash water
4 grams CaCl to mash water

Tasting Notes

This porter appears almost black in the nonick pint glass I am drinking from and has a tan head of foam, with great lacing.  Smells of sweet malt, slight roast and earthy hops dominate the aroma.  The beer has medium body and medium to high carbonation.  The flavor is dominated by english hop character and a clean malt backbone with just enough dark malt character to produce a crisp bitter finish.  This beer is easy drinking and could definitely be consumed throughout the day at your printing press job.

I really enjoy drinking this beer.  The inner beer nerd can continually sip and pick out subtle nuisances, but the regular beer drinker will be able to toss them back as each sip finishes with a dryness, not expected from the final gravity.  The bitterness of the hops and the dark malts keep this beer in check.  I plan on trying to keep a variation of this in the pipeline in the future.  Its a versatile style which can showcase english, or american hops in the finish.  Be on the lookout for future additions.

35th Annual NHC 2013 - Brewing up a Revolution

Wow...Sold out in 20 hours with nearly twice as many tickets available!  I am glad I was able to secure my tickets for myself and my friend.  This will be my first year attending the National Homebrewers Conference.  You can check out the full info here.

Brewery News

I finally kicked my 5lb CO2 tank..lasted me abut 15 months! Got it refilled and my porter is carbing up.  Should have a review of that soon.  IPA in the fermentation chamber soon to be dry-hopped this weekend.