Well the results are in! http://snafu.brewcompetition.com/index.php
And I'm not on them. I had entered a Saison, a Baltic Porter, an American Pale Ale, a Belgian Wit and a Munich Dunkel. I won't see my score sheets for two weeks, but I have a fair idea where I went wrong:
Saison - Added anise and I don't think people care much for anise or licorice flavors.
Baltic Porter - added more licorice than prior batches and I'm sure that turned them off, but I'm one of the few black licorice afficiandoes. If I'd had one of the prior batches, I would have entered that instead as they had a better balance with the malts.
American Pale Ale - not sure what would have turned them off with this; I added some coriander, but it wasn't that prominent. Dry hopped it with Cascade, but I thought it was pretty well done. Awful lot of competition in this category. However, if they allowed it to warm up too much, I'm sure it wouldn't be that good. With all the entries in this style, there is a fair chance it was sitting on the judging table for a while waiting its turn.
Munich Dunkel - probably could have been a bit maltier, as I was on the low end of the ABV at 4%. Was just hoping there wouldn't be much competition, but turns out if you don't make at least a 40/50, you can't even place.
Belgian Wit - orange peels didn't add much flavor, maybe some off-bitterness. Probably shouldn't have used a navel orange. But I thought it came out pretty well in spite of it. Guess I need to raise my standards or use better ingredients. But will be interested in the comments on this one as well as the APA.
So I went in with low expectations and wasn't disappointed. Mostly I wanted some good feedback, and it will be interesting to see if my assessment above aligns with the judges. My assessments aligned pretty well with the certified judges in the styles I judged, so I am not expecting any surprises. I'll post those comments when I get them.
No comments:
Post a Comment