Any of you fellow homebrewers out there ever entered in the AHA National Homebrew Competition? First timer here, been brewing 8 years finally putting some in, got a Belgian Tripel and an American IPA that I am submitted. Can't wait to hear the feedback.
Don't have any delusions of grandeur with them, but in my homebrew club I've had a couple of guys tell me that the Tripel is the best they've ever had, and one of them was from a guy who is all about Belgian style beers. The American IPA jsut won our club competition, so should be decent beers going forth.
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I have never applied to the AHA National competition. I have thought about it, but I rarely plan my beers out to taste best during competition.
On top that, I rarely brew the same beer twice. And when I do, it is for things like the spring game (I make a citrus-hopped Saison with honey) or my parent's Oktoberfest party. In either case, all the beer is consumed rather quickly.
A lot of my beers rarely fit into a particular category, like that citrus hopped Saison. Right now I have a chocolate milk oatmeal stout in primary. I'll be adding bourbon soaked cacao nibs to the primary. These could be specialties, but that's such a mixed bag of a category.
I really want to get my hands on some Wyeast 3725 Biere de Garde yeast and let one age for a couple years. I know I have the malt profile and aging down for this beer - I've made dark and amber versions with the White Labs French Ale yeast before. Now, I just need to right yeast to make it.
Out of curiosity, what hops do you put in your IPA?
I haven't 'competed' either, but I appreciate the work of those that do.
I discovered homebrewing later; I was peeved to find out that my science education could be put to use in other more tasty directions.
My current favorite category is a good farmhouse ale/saison-I've been enjoying 'Tank #7 Farmhouse Ale' whenever I can find it. (yum.) So I'm intrigued by your citrus hopped Saison. It sounds like a winner.
Tank 7 is a great beer! I love that one!
My saison is pretty solid, but there's always something to imorove. I use a blend of Cascade, Galaxy, Amarillo Gold, and Simcoe. About 1 oz each. 1/4 oz of Simcoe as a first wort hop, and then half and half of the rest for a 15 minute boil and 7 day dry hop. Keeps the IBUs low with Citrus flavor and aroma.
I may be coming back to this thread as for my spring beer in a couple weeks. I want to do something with a lot of citrus hops and some agave nectar, haven't settled on a style yet though, and I am not a hop head. I like hops, but they have to be balanced with the malt and not take over the flavor profile.
I love a lot of the Boulevard Beers. Tank 7 is definitely up there among their best. Been to their brewery no fewer than 3 times when visiting family in KC, great operation from everything I can tell.
Like you, I rarely brew the same recipe twice...for this particular American IPA, I went with:
0.5oz Columbus (60 min)
0.75oz Cascade (20)
0.75 Columbus (20)
0.25 Cascade (10)
0.25 Columbus (10)
Then dry-hopped with a half ounce each of centennial, columbus and amarillo
That looks great! Looks like a recipe that really balances malt with the hops instead of being a hop bomb.
I typically short the recipe when I see a ridiculous hop bill anyway. For a Columbus Bodhi IIPA clone recipe I make a lot, they call for 15 oz of hops for a 5 gallon batch. Cut that in half and it's still pretty hoppy, but I don't feel like I have allergies from drinking it!
Yea good point. You really don't need to hop bomb typically. Russian River provides a homebrew clone of Pliny the Elder. It calls for about 17 oz of hops. The first addition by itself puts the beer (theoretically but not actually) over 100 IBUs (3.5 oz of CTZ for 90 min). Despite how many hops go in, I just brew it the same each time I make it because it's 90% of a real Pliny the Elder.
Well, yes and no in terms of IBU.
Yes, your calculation is probably correct however, it's not actually effective that way. The equations tend to think of hop element extraction as linear. It is not but, it very much does depend on a number of other factors, including your equipment and your individual processes.
There does come to a certain amount of saturation.
You really can't get 100 IBU into 5 gallon of wort that way. There is a tipping point at which the efficiency of extracting hop elements drops way off.
If you want to cut bitterness but keep the hop flavor, cut out some of the hops added up until 30 minutes left in the boil.
Leave the other additions from @ 30-20 minutes onward intact. The late boil additions don't add much bitterness and do add a lot of flavor and aroma.
Yea the equations are linear. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I said you can get that high of an IBU. From what I understand I'm pretty sure that's the whole point of why that first addition is huge. It effectively saturates the wort with the bitter components from the hops. Then you are mainly left with the ability to impart flavor and aroma characteristics from the hops.
That's exactly what I do with most of my hoppy beers now! I normally have a minimal first worth hop addition and then add hops at 15 minutes, aroma steep, and/or dry hop.
Excellent!
I have never actually entered my beers in any competition. People always say they are good, but I always find some flaws in what I make, never had the confidence to compete.
"Homebrewing Hokies"
I'd have to find a consenting Hokie lady first.
Just recently started home brewing, and my first batch was a giant success in my eyes! I did an IPA, because I'm a hop head. As for the brewing clubs? If you don't mind me asking where are yall located in the state? I live near the burg and have not heard of any clubs around here, and would love to get together with someone who has been brewing a little while to get some valuable advice and critique my brews as well.
As for home brewing clubs in Blacksburg, you have 2 options.
I'd recommend the Nee River Valley Brewer's Guild.
http://hbd.org/nrvbg/
The other, if you are still a student, is the home brewing club at VT.
http://homebrewatvirginiatech.weebly.com
That student homebrew club page is outdated.
Use this instead: https://gobblerconnect.vt.edu/organization/homebrewatvt
Nee River Valley Brewer's Guild?
I'm still waiting on my first ever brew to finish fermenting, so needless to say I won't be entering any contests any time soon, but I hope your entries do well!
I'm ready to take one for the team and test each batch!
I'm ready to start on my 4th batch (I tend to stick with 1 gallon batches due to not wanting to invest in more equipment). Each one has had good and bad things to take from it, and I'm still following recipes. I hope to get more adventurous in the future to tweak my recipes and try different combinations. Good luck with the competition!
That's funny, I am considering buying 1 gal equipment so I can experiment in smaller quantities not wanting to invest the time and ingredients into 5 gal batches.
It's not bad, I use Brooklyn Brew Shop's kit, it has everything you need, plus I find they're really helpful on twitter with questions and such. I don't really have the need ever to make a 5 gallon batch, plus if I get something that's not good I don't end up with near as much of it.
I have participated in 1 non-local competition. It was the forerunner to the Sam Adams Longshot, in 1995.
Won a couple of awards but, decided it was too much of a pain and never competed again.
I have other friends that think it's a blast, however, and compete in these types of things quite a bit.
Good luck to you.
I'm considering entering a stout, mainly for the feedback. Also considering attending the conference, which is in Baltimore this year. I'm not sure yet whether I can make it, but NHC probably won't be back on the east coast for a while. Is anyone else considering going?
Application window for this one ended on the 7th...I would like to go to the conference, I believe I will be in Charlotte that weekend seeing the Dead and Company.
I guess I can stop considering whether to enter my stout!
I just ages my first bourbon. It was a kit but it was fun. I don't remember the super bowl.
The Panthers won. It was historic. Commercials sucked, though.
To the OP, what kind of yeast do you use for your Tripel?
I used WLP500, Trappist Ale Yest
Here is the full recipe:
12.8lb Belgian Pilsner
1.6lb Munich
1.6lb Belgian Candied Sugar, clear
1.8oz Hallertauer (60)
.4oz Styrian Golding (30)
.8oz Saaz (3)
WLP500
mashed for an hour at 150
Nice recipe! How long have you aged it for? In my experience the candy sugar requires a little time to mellow out (1 beer reached its peak after about 1.5 years).
What temperature do you ferment this beer and what sort of yeast flavors are you getting? I know Belgian yeasts have a wide variance of flavors based on fermentation temperature.
I could debate for hours the double step mash you are referring to here.
I like to do a rest at 122F for protein modification.
I also think it has a positive impact on mouthfeel.
There are many that feel it is ineffective with highly modified malts.
You can do this dual step mash with water and an assist with a burner under your mash with liquid circulation.
There is nothing wrong with adding a little high protein barley or a wheat to help the cloudy and head retention.
Wheat additions are a fantastic little trick, this is great advice.
I too do not agree with the "no need to do those mash rests due to highly modified malts"
So many precursors are produced....
I completely agree that step mashes have some benefits. While being a little different, I also really appreciate what a decoction mash can do for a beer.
I am curious though, did I say something incorrectly that referenced a step mash? I thought I was asking about aging the beer and fermentation. Anyway, these are really helpful tips I will have to try! Thank you!
I think it was to go under Orien86
I brewed that one in August, so going on 6-7 months so far. I'm gonna try to keep a liter or two for at least a year before cracking them open. Fermented around 66-67, sort of a subtle spiciness to the yeast. I've read a lot about this strain getting fruity, but I'm not picking up too much of that.
In order to get the most of the plummy, fruity stuff out of this, fermentation a temps should be higher than most ales. A fermentation temp of over 65 F but not over 75 F is best.
That is the toughest thing to control for a home Brewer. Were you able to ferment at about this temp?
Yeah, for the most part is was right around 67ish. Haven't gotten around to building a dedicated fermentation chamber yet, for now I've been using the swamp cooler method
Good news for students
Good luck! I have been brewing only for a couple years and haven't entered any competitions. Seems like a great way to find out how true to style your beers are.
I love Belgian beers but haven't tried brewing many because they're so tricky to replicate. Looking over your recipe, one bit of feedback you might get is that your Belgian needs better head retention. Belgians are know for luxurious lingering head, and that is tough to get out of a single stage mash. You mashed at kind of a low temp which will help, but a step mash would yield better results. Of course step mashing requires a good bit more work and/or equipment. (Personally that's something I will skip until I have HERMS/RIMS setup... $$$)
Also how much did you carb? (Traditional Belgians tend to be highly carbonated, along the lines of 3.5+ vols.)
I have been thinking about getting back into brewing, been a long time (since I was at Tech).
Wondering if anyone has any experience with or opinion about the Grainfather.
One of the guys here at the club in Roanoke hot one and he really likes it.
It makes a respectable beer.
What is the name of the club? I am in the Roanoke area.
Star city brewer's guild.
Looks like there is a meeting of SCBG tomorrow. I am trying to find out the details. Would like to talk to the guy who has the grainfather.
So I went to my first Brew club meeting in Cincinnati and just absolutely got (indirectly) put in my place. I thought I knew things about beer, but these guys were in another level. Made me realize that I have a whole lot to learn. They did convince me to enter my beer in competitions to get the detailed feedback and it really took my nerves away about sharing my less than perfect brews. I can't wait to bring some to the next meeting and find out what I can improve. I would encourage anyone who enjoys the hobby to seek out your local club, at worst you get to try a bunch of beer each month.
Psh, I try a bunch of beer every month and I'm not even in the club!
Yeah but these beers are better because they are free.