BeerBorg

I entered the South Ferry Steam Beer in two competitions this fall. I didn't adequately clean and sanitize my carboy, though. There was some sour off-flavor that I was hoping would condition out, but that was just a fool's wish.

I haven't seen the judges' sheets from the second one (judging was last night), but I've downloaded them from the one in October. Scored in the low-mid 20s, and the off-flavor was pretty much all they could notice. Very poor showing. '

But it's still been a learning experience for me. Cleaning and sanitation are essential, especially when considering a competition batch. It may also be time to replace one or both of my smaller carboys. I wish I could use glass, but I'm too nervous about smashing them on my cellar's slab floor.

Well, on Tuesday I'm brewing a smoked amber ale for another competition, being held in February, and I've taken great pains to clean the carboy thoroughly, and I will be sure to use a fresh batch of Star San on every piece of equipment.

Sometimes we just put it on automatic pilot, and while it's okay for our tastes, the judges are, by definition, more picky about what they're tasting.

Lesson learned.

Sorry for the poor results. Lets get you where you what to be!

FedoraDave wrote:I entered the South Ferry Steam Beer in two competitions this fall. I didn't adequately clean and sanitize my carboy, though. There was some sour off-flavor that I was hoping would condition out, but that was just a fool's wish.

More information is needed to determine whether it's a clean/sanitize issue or something else in the process.

FedoraDave wrote:I haven't seen the judges' sheets from the second one (judging was last night), but I've downloaded them from the one in October. Scored in the low-mid 20s, and the off-flavor was pretty much all they could notice. Very poor showing. '

But it's still been a learning experience for me. Cleaning and sanitation are essential, especially when considering a competition batch. It may also be time to replace one or both of my smaller carboys. I wish I could use glass, but I'm too nervous about smashing them on my cellar's slab floor.

Poor scores happen, been there got the ribbon. Ok some of my beers didn't even ribbon!
Once something is cleaned it can be sanitized. Those two go hand in hand.
I traced all of mine back too improper yeast pitch rates and poor fermentation temperature control. Once I payed attention to those my scores increased from the low 30s to the upper 30s and even to the mid 40s.

I once submitted a nice pale ale that had a slow bottle infection. By the time they tasted it, it gushed. My worst score ever. I stopped trying to sanitize bottles by spraying, went back to dunking.
Better luck next time.

see what happens when you don't obey the hat?

It was definitely cleaning, and possibly sanitizing. I had made a batch with acidulated malt prior to brewing this batch, and while the acid won't permanently contaminate the plastic carboy, it needed a more thorough cleaning than I gave it. The sour taste was similar to the one I got from the acidulated malt. I haven't noticed it in any subsequent batches.

As far as pitch rate and temperature control, I didn't make a yeast starter, but don't really see the need for one in this case. It's a smaller batch, and I pitch an entire packet of White Labs San Francisco Lager yeast. Yeast count should be plenty high enough for a 2.5 gallon batch. I was careful to chill the wort to the low 60s before pitching, and I fermented in my lager fridge at 60 degrees. If not ideal conditions, then pretty darn good, and not a contributing factor, IMO.

I'm taking the lumps and moving on, looking beyond the major, acknowledged screw-up, and focusing on the comments that can actually improve this recipe. There was a consensus among the judges that it was a little too dark for the style, so I'll need to re-assess my grain bill. Not enough hop influence was another comment made more than once, so I'll have to tinker with that, as well.

The results from the second competition pretty much echoed the results from the first; mid-20s, sour, etc. But having four independent comment sheets shows me where the actual improvements can be made. So back to the drawing board.

As it happens, while I write this, I'm mashing a batch of smoked amber ale that I'm entering in a competition being held in early February. I'm eager to see those results, because I do think this is a really good amber on its own, and the addition of the smoke makes it that much better, if my previous batch is any yardstick. So, onward and upward.

Sorry to hear Dave it didn't turn out that good on the score, but I bet you anyone of us on here would have liked it. I've entered competitions with a beer I call Funky Farmhouse a Belgian that I really like a couple times and it didn't place, have sent some to some of the Borg members with good reviews on it. I have also entered beers that I thought maybe I shouldn't have and got a first place......you never know.

The frustrating thing is, this is the second time I've entered this recipe in a competition, only to have things go pear-shaped. The first time, it was a gusher (the only one of the batch, apparently; it didn't happen on any of the bottles I kept for my own consumption). And now this. I really want an honest evaluation of my California Common recipe, but apparently this is a cursed beer.

Very coincidental, Dave - I also had a bad experience entering a beer in a competition this fall, and it just so happened to be a Cal Common, too.

I was cutting it very close with my brewing schedule, needing to get the beer bottled one day and shipped the next (the judging was a couple of weeks later, giving it time to carb beforehand). So, I had to ship it before knowing how it turned out. It tasted fine at bottling time. But a few days before the judging, I tried my tester and it was showing signs of a slight infection. I am guessing I may have an issue with something in my bottling equipment (siphon, bucket, spigot, bottling wand) and so I'll be making changes there.

It's really frustrating to put the effort - and expense - into submitting a beer in a competition, only to have it be a complete waste of time and money. I've brewed some really good beers this year, and Murphy's Law was in full effect on the one that I submitted for judging!

Not to mention, I feel bad for the judges for having to drink a bad beer and take the time to analyze and evaluate it. Kind of embarrassing...

Today I'm dropping off my entry for another competition. It's a smoked amber ale, but the bottles I've tasted so far still have a trace of the sour acid flavor. I think this carboy is toast; in fact, I bought two new 3-gallon Better Bottles with a Northern Brewer gift card I got for Christmas, so moving forward, I can start clean and pay better attention to my cleaning procedure. To paraphrase Joan Crawford, No More Wire Brushes! Well, they're nylon bottle brushes, but they have a wire core, and I no doubt scratched the interior, and some of the acid lodged in them. That's my theory, anyway. I'm keeping one of the carboys to use as a dedicated sour vessel, so I can experiment with lactic acid. And I'll do an overnight soak with PBW to clean, with no scrubbing. If there is any stubborn dried krausen, I'll put a damp rag in and agitate it by shaking.

So I'm expecting a poor result from this competition, and comments recommending me to focus on yeast health, sanitation, yada yada yada.

Both this and the Cali Common recipe are good recipes, I believe, and there will be other competitions. I want feedback on the beers as they're intended to be presented.

Mistakes were made, and lessons learned. And I'll just move forward and make efforts to do a better job.

There is a guy on Home brew network that sells containers for shipping brews safely via ups. Wouldn’t mind getting a few and using them to ship to guys on here back and forth. Can do some critiquing as a group. I’d trust honest feedback from most on here.

Oh man, if you trust some of these knuckleheads...

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D_Rabbit wrote:There is a guy on Home brew network that sells containers for shipping brews safely via ups. Wouldn’t mind getting a few and using them to ship to guys on here back and forth. Can do some critiquing as a group. I’d trust honest feedback from most on here.

These look pretty nice.
http://spiritedshipper.com/category/5/b ... pper/p/0/0

I just ordered (4) two bottle shippers and (4) four bottle shippers.
The warehouse is in Astoria ,Queens,NY. I can drive there or coerce my daughter into picking them up for me. She is in Astoria a lot. I knew that I liked boyfriend!