Brewing for Competition
To some, homebrew competitions are overwhelming. To others they are a waste of good beer. But to us, they are serious business. The ability to brew up the perfect beer that nails the target style and is in its prime right as it’s being judged truly shows mastery of our great homebrewing hobby. As challenging as that may be there are many other factors that go into winning medals. What was the size of the competition? What place was your beer in the flight? How qualified were the judges who sampled your beer? With so many variables and other factors, how is it the same people can consistently win awards?
There is one thing to be certain of; winning isn’t just about making good beer. In this article we will go through our process for entering competitions. That process, after more than a decade of competing on both the local and national levels, has helped us reach a degree of predictable success that culminated in winning the Ninkasi Award at the National Homebrew Competition (NHC), which is given to the brewer who receives the most points in the final round.
Setting Goals and Managing Expectations
Someone recently asked us online, “What is the point of entering your beer into competitions?” It’s a valid question that made us ponder why we, or other homebrewers, may want to enter homebrews into competitions. Is it some sort of ego trip or thrill of winning that keeps people entering or is it something else? For us, competing is about perfecting the craft of homebrewing. Sure, at first we were just trying to see how our beer compared to other homebrewers and maybe win a medal or two. But now we enter competitions to see how different ingredients and processes can affect our beer and give us a flavor profile that will help those brews stand out from the crowd. The thrill of winning isn’t lost on us but scoring a 45 on a great beer is much more rewarding.
Like all other aspects of life, goal setting is crucial to success. If it’s your first time entering, just have fun. The process of making beer, bottling and labeling them, dropping off, and going to the awards ceremony can be a lot to take in. Just having gone through that process is something to be proud of, winning should be considered “icing on the cake.”
If you’ve entered a few competitions, awards aren’t the only measure of success. Try setting some small goals like getting half of your beers to the second round (or mini Best of Show) or have all your beers score above a 30 in total score. Many brewers become discouraged — or even worse, cynical — about not winning. Don’t fall into this trap! A lot can be gained from a competition even if your beer doesn’t medal.
If you enter competitions regularly, see what percentage of your beers medal. Also see which entries achieve an excellent score over multiple competitions after several attempts of making the exact same beer.
No matter your level there are goals that can be set. Furthermore, managing your expectations and not getting too hung up on your medal count will keep you having fun and help grow your passion for this hobby.
Choosing Competitions
Probably the most overlooked factor in entering competitions is choosing the right competition(s) to enter. There is a little bit of reverse logic that we found helps us choose a competition if its medals we are after: The bigger the competition the easier it is for experienced homebrewers to medal.
I know that seems off but here’s why. Let’s say your local brewery is putting on a competition. No beer style requirements, just the best three beers medal and they cap the entries at 50 beers. With 34 different Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) categories and 120 styles, how are they going to judge these beers? Typically, they will group all the dark malty beers into one category, the hoppy ones into another, and a third category for the others.
For example, last year we entered a competition where, we were later told, barleywines were in the same category as double IPAs. Yes, both are high-alcohol beers, but the two styles couldn’t be more different. It would take a great judge with an excellent range of experience to judge examples of both styles against each other. However, typically the judges are the brewers and most often, although they know beer, aren’t experienced judges.
These factors make the results in smaller competitions unpredictable. On the flipside, in large competitions beer styles can be judged individually and it allows the judges to really dive into the intricacies of a style and give you some great feedback. Also, the judges are typically certified and ranked Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) judges. You can read your score sheets and instantly see how much credibility you should give to the analysis. That’s what we’re looking for!
Here is a list of some of the competitions that we consider on that level, both in size and reputation:
Competition Calendar
We sit down a couple times a year and choose the events we would like to enter. For example, this last year we chose the following competitions:
Many of them are in the early part of the year (when we are working on our recipes the most) and we can enter the same beers across multiple competitions. For example, the Mash Out, Midwinter, and Bluebonnet competition entry deadlines are all around the same time in December and January. This allows for a bunch of feedback in a relatively short amount of time. So, if we try something new to a beer, we can get definitive feedback from groups of judges and not let a single score sheet weigh too heavily.
Once we choose the event, more importantly, we talk through the beers we want to work on. We have a few tried-and-true recipes that we generally only enter for medal count and these go into competitions where we are trying to win a cumulative award, like Homebrew Team of the Year or the Ninkasi. These are beers that win consistently, and we are happy with (at least for now).
After choosing the beers we will enter we talk through the styles and work backwards from the entry deadlines to make a competition brew calendar. As a general rule of thumb we use these timeframes to determine when we make the beers so that they are at their best when the judges sample them:
It’s also important to note when the beers are going to be judged versus when the entries are due. A few of the larger competitions take 4–6 weeks to judge entries. In that case we might brew ales where entries are going into competition bottles just a few days after being kegged for the most shelf life possible.
Brewing for a specific competition gives a huge advantage over the competitor that simply enters what they have sitting around. We don’t want a beer judged before or past its prime resulting in poor feedback.
Recipes and Ingredients
Ask any Kansas City Barbeque Society or competition BBQ pit master and they will tell you they don’t make the same food for competitions that they do for their family and friends. Often this holds true for winning brewers as well. Bigger, bolder, and different flavors win competitions.
One strategy when brewing for competition success is to push the boundaries of a given style or make them stand out in some way. If you haven’t judged before, entries are typically placed in flights of 10–15 beers and the judges choose medal winners or a few to advance to a second round from each flight. After the judges have tasted a handful of the same style, flavors begin to run together and the beers with a little “something extra” seem to stand out.
This doesn’t always mean brewing over the style to win. Sometimes making a lager on the bottom end of the style can make it seem more delicate and balanced. Additionally, adding ingredients that might not be typically in the style can make a beer stand out. For example, maybe try adding a little honey malt to your Belgian wit or make a pale ale with Maris Otter as opposed to regular 2-row to give your recipe a slight edge.
Train Your Palate and Judge for Yourself
One thing we often do before entering and always do the first few times we try a new recipe is drink that beer in a blind lineup of other beers in the BJCP style guidelines. If you make an Oktoberfest, when you think its ready, get a few friends together and do some blind side-by-sides with your favorite examples and the ones listed in the guidelines. Seeing how your Oktoberfest stacks up against Hacker-Pschorr and Paulaner is a fun experience and gives you instant results.
Remember the judges are using those example beers as mental guides to help evaluate your entry. Why not cut out the middleman and train your palate a little in the process? After a while you’ll be able to taste a beer for yourself and know the chances it has in an upcoming competition. If your beer misses the mark maybe choose to rebrew it and enter it into another competition later that year.
Other Advantages
This article isn’t intended to talk too in-depth about brewing process (for more information on our process read our article “The Little Things” in the May-June 2019 issue of Brew Your Own). However, there are some points related to recipe formulation and the brewing process that you can try to improve your beer’s quality and chances that we would like to mention:
Water
Either adjusting your water with mineral additions or building it from scratch with reverse osmosis water will make a huge difference. At bare minimum you should have your water tested to know what is in your water and which beer styles it may favor. For more information on the subject, we’d recommend you refer to John Palmer and Colin Kaminski’s Water book.
Sourcing Ingredients
Don’t overlook ingredient quality and selection. Sometimes just having fresher hops can make all the difference between a 30-point pale ale and a 40-point winner. Please support your local homebrew stores but if you notice the hops, yeast, or malt are a little past their prime try sourcing from online vendors with a reputation for fresh ingredients and turning their inventory on a regular basis. Or maybe select a yeast that is a little different but is fresher from the source.
Lesser Used & New Ingredients
We mentioned earlier about adding ingredients that are a little out of the norm for a given style. Furthermore, maltsters are always releasing new malts like Briess Caramel Rye or Simpsons Double Roasted Crystal that many homebrew stores don’t even carry. If you are making a pale ale, why not try a few experimental hops for something the judges have a hard time picking out. Maybe try a yeast that is a seasonal-only release to give it a different mouthfeel or attenuation than might be expected. Many brewers make the same recipes with the same ingredients that have been around for decades — and it is likely many of the beers in your flight will use the same yeast strain as well — try something new for an edge!
Brew Day Process
Sometimes the difference in a first and second place beer can be a small process change, like using a step mash or whirlpool hop additions. Some people swear by decocting their German beers for this exact reason. For example, we stray from our usual process and use a no-sparge technique when brewing our English mild, and the practice seems to being paying off as the beer won 2nd place at NHC in 2018.
Carbonation and Bottling
We can’t overstate how important it is to have the proper level of carbonation in your entries and normally we even slightly over-carbonate our beers. The reason is these entries are poured and sit out for a while when being judged. Additionally, because we keg all of our beers and then bottle entries using a counter-pressure bottle filler, we tend to lose a little bit of carbonation in the bottling process. So, to get this right we always keg our beers, get them just above the ideal level of carbonation, and then bottle them. We use a Blichmann BeerGun to purge the bottles of oxygen and slowly fill to the proper level.
Lady Luck and Number of Entries
No matter how good a brewer you are, there is an element of luck to winning. The quality of the beer right before or after yours can make a huge difference. And even though biases aren’t supposed to be a part of judging, they can often creep into the equation. Maybe the person judging your flight likes pale ales that are a little more malty than you do.
Getting things to line up you need to enter as many beers as you can. Some of the best brewers only place on 30–40% of their entries, unless they get lucky. If it is the medals you are after, it’s much better to get up for a few competitions than to enter a bunch of different ones lightly throughout the year.
Double Entering Beers
We realize everyone has a day job and you can’t sit around making beer all day (although we wish that were the case). So, to help get the number of entries up in a competition consider double entering beers into multiple categories. Some examples would be entering an IPA in both imperial and single IPA categories. Porters and milds can be very close and double entered. Also, some styles have subcategories that are very similar like English bitters and Scottish ales.
Evaluating Results and Rebrewing
Hopefully you’ve taken our advice and entered your beer in some of the better competitions or at least a BJCP-certified event, meaning you will get a uniform score sheet and certified judges. When you get back your score sheets the first thing to look for is the judge and their ranking. If they are a certified (or higher) BJCP judge or cicerone, you will usually get good and precise feedback. However, sometimes even good competitions must use judges that are unranked or haven’t judged before. Hopefully they will at minimum place these judges with more experienced ones to make a two-person team. This will be your frame of reference when evaluating the sheets.
The one thing you shouldn’t focus on too heavily is your actual score. Yes, a 40-point beer is almost always a great beer and a sub 30-point beer needs improvement, but many times a beer in the high 30s can be a winner. This is because every judge has their own scale and without knowing that scale it’s hard to go off the number. Also be sure to notice the amount of entries in your flight and what order your entry was sampled. You don’t want to be too early or late in the flight as sometimes these judging sessions can take some time. Again, this will come down to luck.
Mainly you should be looking for any major or minor points that the more experienced judges suggest. Maybe they suggest upping your mash temperature, trying a less attenuating yeast, or the dreaded “watch your sanitation.” Sometimes the feedback is more subtle like “good beer but misses the style a bit.” Whatever the comments may be, try and read between the lines and understand what the judge is implying. These are unbiased and experienced opinions that can help make a good beer into a great one. Furthermore, entering the same beer in several competitions in a relatively short amount of time can create a consensus that will lead to more precise adjustments when you rebrew.
Final Thoughts
No matter what results you get entering competition, the process should be fun. We really suggest entering the ones you can attend. Building camaraderie with fellow brewers and enjoying your successes in person can’t be overstated. Once you have the competition itch it can drive you to be the best brewer you can be.
