I recently submitted my beers to my first ever competitions which had some pretty different results. I got dinged more by Robert’s Cove and my beers were praised more by the Dixie Cup. I got my results from the Robert’s Cove competition back about 3 weeks before the Dixie Cup results and was a little upset at the results thinking I may have some serious process problems. I listened to a Brew Strong episode on competitions where Jamil Zainasheff mentioned not to sweat results of a single competition much due to how results could be very different from competition to competition but look for patterns. I felt a little better at that point and felt a lot better when I got my results back from Dixie Cup which included a medal for my stout and a second round showing for my Maibock.
So here’s how the results were different:
1. My Maibock which I thought was excellent received a heartbreaking 26/28 at Roberts Cove with them dinging it for characteristics I thought should be there. Dixie Cup scored it 37/39 and it made it to the second round. DC identified the flaw I feared; it was somewhat too bitter/astringent due to excess boil off to get the right gravity. RC judges marked it lifeless, significant flaws and not to style which had me very skeptical being the German example I found at Calandros tasted very much like my beer in a side by side taste.
2. The English Sweet Stout which won a second place medal was a style I had never tasted before. (It’s why I brewed it) I thought it was a pretty decent easy drinking beer but wasn’t expecting anything out of it. It’s the only brew submitted which my brew notes mention as “Everything was spot on”. 44/41 at Dixie Cup and 35/31 at Robert’s Cove. Roberts Cove had me scratching my head after their comments because they noted I should add more sweetness for creaminess. Perhaps they were thinking oatmeal stout?
3. The Centennial IPA was why many of you have heard me saying “I guess I don’t know what diacetyl is”. RC gave it 33/31 and complained very much about diacetyl recommending I let it sit longer on the yeast. I let it sit longer than necessary on the yeast due to having to wait until the weekend to transfer it so I was very confused. If anything I worried the Safale 05 would do too much damage. The Dixie Cup judges scored it 35/35, didn’t mention diacetyl and noted it needed more malt. I missed OG by a .006 on that beer so I agree with that. A knowledgeable club member mentioned it tasted a “hint of butterscotch” so I tend to think Roberts Cove had something with the diacetyl but they made too big a deal about it due to no comments at Dixie Cup.
4. The porter I only submitted to Dixie Cup. It got dinged on astringency but still scored 34/33. It was noted I should add less black malt which I agree with. It was too astringent. It got hammered for that quality in our club competition as well.
All in all I’m very happy with the first round of competition I entered. I think it holds true from the Brew Strong episode that if you want to draw real conclusions from competitions you’ve got to enter several. I feel like just two competitions weren’t enough although two of my Dixie Cup entries were entered by the recent “National Homebrewer of the Year” Mark Schoppe which I thought was very neat to see.
