The Welsh Homebrew competition judging took place over the past weekend (marked on average from 2 judges sheets) and although I unfortunately wasn't successful in getting in the top 3 in my category I did learn something from my feedback sheets.

It wasn't until now I understand one of the main top tips (Enter competitions to get 'qualified' judged feedback) given to Home Brewers to improve their beer.  The feedback given to me has been really helpful, as it just has highlighted the flaws I had with this brew day in particular and what I struggle generally.

What both judges picked up on occurred, I believe because I struggled to get the temperature down fast and well before pitching the yeast, by the time I did all the oxygen that was in the wort dissipated.
Even though my Saison (of love) was still judged in the Belgium/Saison category it wasn't quite to style as it was dry hopped to make it more citrus and I was aiming for this rather than the traditional peppery tones. So a few marks came off because of that too. I can however feel good that the dry hopped flavours were retained enough as I brewed this 2 months prior to the competition, the bottles were only kept slightly lower than room temp too.

I did however get some additional positives in the comments, with the BCJP judge sheet saying that overall it was a good beer.

Would I enter another competition that's judged with the bjcp style guide? Probably, but not this year or until I can sort out the flaws in my brew day. I have an idea on how.

Until next time......Happy Brewing

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The big night came and went, with some great beers to try at the end after the results.

I met some new faces in the local home brew community, trying their beer they entered too and going by it was only their 3rd brew they are getting things right and was probably better than some of the brews I did at a comparable stage.



Regarding my result.....

From what I learnt after the results talking to Malcolm Irving from Irving & Co. Brewers, I came 5th in my category of 'Light beers' (in terms of pale ales, IPAs, APAs, blonde beers, Amber ale, Red ale or English Bitter an Black IPAs) (judged on taste, aroma, colour, clarity, drinkability, name/presentation/label). 

I am pretty happy with this result, being that there was over 25 entries in my category and drinking some of the others there was a lot of great beers, many from people who have entered in the past and brewing for far longer than myself. So 5th in my first competition is probably a fair result.  

I was a long night for the judges sampling over 40 beers across all the different categories.

If the competition comes around next year would I do it again? Yes! Would I do it with G.E.B again? probably not....Not for the reason it came 5th but with the fact it was good to get feedback on this beer so I would like to enter another for the same reason.



What beer would I enter? I currently have 2, Fimbulwinter  my black IPA or Saison of Love, my dry hopped saison. Both I will brew again this year.

As for G.E.B its now part of Brann Brew's 'core range'

Until next time......Happy Brewing

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Since my last post, Ive been working on improving/modifying my most successful brew (G.E.B. Pale Ale) after reading back at my notes in my brew diary and the memory I have of it the malt backbone was slightly week compared to the hops.  I like flavourful hoppy beers but it was a little one sided. So I set to work on this aspect of beer for improvement.

During this time Strong Island announced their 7th Annual Home brew Competition, I set out the plan to get this beer ready in time.

G.E.B. Pale Ale 

Fast forward a few weeks from brewday. I've been trying my allocated test bottles prior to the competition this coming week at Meat & Barrel, Portsmouth. After 2 years of brewing I am still taken aback how the bottled beers change overtime.
Over a space of a week of 'testing' the beer went from very malty to the hops coming to the forefront and being quite bitter to achieving a nice balance with a punchy tropical aroma blended with a slightly spicy malt base.

I've now had all my bottles and have 1 non competition bottle left, which I'll give to my Dad (it's named after him after all). Hopefully the taste wont change much from now till Wednesday, I may have to chill them down abit more just to be on the safe side.  The beer is certainly in the 3-4 week sweet spot - so its been perfectly timed!

In myself I am happy how this beer has turned out, really very happy, the competition if nothing else will allow me to get unbiased, expertly judged feedback. I would love to get in the prize spots (don't we all) that would just be a bonus to me.

I'll report back on how I did next week.






Until next time.......Happy Brewing

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