Second Floor Brewing

And by Thursday I mean Tuesday…

If you want to catch up, check out the posts tagged with “NHC.”  This being our first year brewing, and us only having one beer in 12 ounce bottles, we only entered one beer in the contest, our Dark American Wheat Ale.  We scored a 35 of 50!  According to the key on the cover sheet of the packet I received from the beer judges.

Below is a recap of how we did followed by some choice quotes from the score sheets.  I am surprised how close the scores from the different judges are to each other but I guess, if two judges are doing their jobs well then there should be little difference in how they perceive the beers.  I think this is a success for our first beer contest attempt.

Judge 1:

• Aroma – 9/12 – “Very complex aroma.  Dark Chocolate and fruity.”
• Appearance – 3 /3 – “Think, very dark black with brown head.”
• Flavor – 14/20 – “Intense chocolate & fruit – similar to aroma, including grapefruit, tangerine, apricot.”
• Mouthfeel – 4/5 – “Full bodied, think and creamy with some alcoholic warmth.”
• Overall Impression – 6/10 – “A Very interesting and complex beer.  It seems that chocolate & fruit were added… Seeing like a pretty high ABV beer and would want to be careful drinking many of these.”

Judge 2:

• Aroma – 8/12 – “Chocolate malts with an interesting mild fruity aroma.”
• Appearance – 3/3 – “Beer pours with a large dark brown head.”
• Flavor – 13/20 – “Rich chocolate malt flavor, noticeable wheat, citrusy resembling oranges.”
• Mouthfeel – 3/5 – “Medium body, medium-high carbonation.”
• Overall Impression – 7/10 – “Reminds me of a chocolate orange.  A very interesting combination of flavors.  The body is a little bigger than one would expect with a wheat beer.”

So the 2010 National Homebrew Competition snuck up on me this year… and this is the first year I’ve been paying any attention.  According to http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/ I’ll need one bottle for each entry for the regional competition and three additional bottles for each entry selected for the National Competition.

The only beer we have enough of in 10-14oz bottles is the Dark American Wheat.  I suppose we should start putting more beers in 12 oz bottles so they will be ready for competition.  I wanted to put our beer in Category 6 with the American Wheat and American Rye beers but there is a note in the official style sheet that mentions dark wheat beers should go into Category 23, Specialty Beer.  I don’t know if having our beer in Category 23 is good or bad.  So far I can see mostly bad.  I don’t like that there are not style guidelines.  There is no perfect beer in this category.  I don’t like that this is essentially a catch-all category.  There could be many more entries in this category than in others.  I wonder if the beers will be judged against the defined attributes of the style you pick or if they will stand on their own deliciousness.

The beer is wrapped in bubble wrap, covered in a plastic bag, and taped into a box on its way to Ohio.  Good luck to you White Shadow.  Apparently each entry will receive a score and notes regardless of points earned.  I am looking forward to an honest judging of our beer.

Look forward to “NHC 2010 – Part 2: The Score” sometime in the beginning of May.