Beat the Brewer Recipe Ideas

Thanks everyone for the advice. I really appreciate it and I'm glad to see that I wasn't the only one who thought this grain bill was horrible.

I really like the idea of souring, but I'm not confident in my ability to get it done correctly and by the time of the competition.

I've decided to add a mix of roasted barley and chocolate malt as my 5% grain addition and some dark candi syrup. Ferment with a Belgian Abbey strain and try a Belgian inspired stout. I'm hoping the color/style will be unique and set it apart from the rest of the competition.

 

To those who are interested:

I am turning in my keg this weekend (Nov. 3rd.) The beer will be transferred to a sanke keg and carbed at the brewery, so one less thing I need to worry about.

Just to reiterate I turned my recipe into a Belgian-inspired stout of sorts. I cold steeped the dark grains to reduce the astringency and fermented with a Belgian yeast at a bit of a higher fermentation temp (72F) to get more character from the yeast strain. I also added some D-180 candi syrup. If my hydrometer and refractometer readings are correct I'm right around 7% ABV. Color looks more brown like a quad, but we'll go with it.

I'll report back with what the other brewers did and how everything turned out.

Thanks again for the advise leading up to this.

 

I am here to report the events from this past weekend for the Beat the Brewer competition. Sorry in advance for the length. It was the first time that I participated in a homebrew competition of this design. It was a learning experience, that's for sure.

As a refresher, there were 11 homebrewers and the head brewer/owner of the brewery involved in the competition. Everyone has the same base grain bill, everyone could add up to 5% additional grain and everything else (hop, yeast, additives, etc.) were fair game. All the beers were presented at the event and the people who attended the event would vote for the winner. Everyone who beat the brewer's beer would receive a $50 gift certificate to the brewery and the overall winner would get to brew their beer at the brewery for a January special release.




The results came back and my beer beat the brewer, but did not win over all. So a good showing I think if my beer was considered a better option than the brewer. Unfortunately, we didn't receive any type of tasting notes other than the one we provided. The brewery was supposed to provide a sheet on the beers as far as styles/adjuncts that were used, however, at the time of writing this it hasn't been done.

Here's the break down of beers and some descriptions to the best of my ability along with my wife's not so descriptive but initial impressions. Of the 12 beers provided I'd say most of them were all generally the same color of a red copper hue aside from mine and beer #12. Mine was by far the darkest and easy to pick out. So I did not note color on the note card



Beer #1- thin watery mouthfeel. Subtle hop aroma. Clean finish. Residual sweetness. Wife: meh

Beer #2- citrus hop aroma, pungent bitterness, decent mouthfeel. Wife: strong bitterness...too bitter.

Beer #3- Apples? Cider and sweet. Tastes like it was blended with apple juice. Intentional or acetalhyde? Wife- ugh, cider.

Beer #4- Dark. Roasted chocolate aroma and flavor. Belgian yeast character slight spice. Dry finish. Wife:

Beer #5- I put a giant X through the box for this one. It was not good. Ton of off flavors which I couldn't describe so I just Xed it out. Wife: wow, no. According to the brewery this was red ale aged on Mangos.

Beer #6: Mild citrus hop aroma. Needs more hops to stand out. Overly sweet for IPA style. Taste like liquid extract? Wife: no description.

Beer #7: Pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg. Bubblegum aftertaste. Residually sweet. Wife: meh

Beer #8: Juicy citrusy hop aroma. Mild bitterness, with a tropical citrus flavor. Moderate body. Wife: Good ipa

Beer #9: Dank, citrus hop aroma. Strong IPA bitterness and dank flavors. Alcohol warmth and sweetness. Full bodied beer. Wife: Really good IPA.

Side note-spoke with the brewer after the competition to compliment him on his IPA. Apparently, he had a heat-attack while dry hopping this beer. Went to the hospital where they put in some stents. Was released from the hospital a week later and he kegged the beer. That's some dedication right there!

Beer #10: Malty sweetness, no hop aroma present. Sweet finish. Wife: Too sweet

Beer #11: Traditional Irish red. Malty, some caramel and biscuit flavors. Low bitterness. Clean finish. Wife: No description

Beer #12: Darker than the others. Bready sweetness maybe used some dark wheat? Bubblegum aftertaste. Wife: Meh


Overall, there were 6 brewers who beat the head brewer. Unfortunately, I never found out which one was brewed by him. Maybe if/when they release the descriptors I'll find out. The winning beer was Beer #5. The second place had a two way tie with Beer #1 and Beer #7. If I was not involved in this competition I would have probably voted for #8 or #9. Also, this was a fun experience but how the judging was done I probably wouldn't enter something like this again because you're not going to get honest feedback. I'm not upset that I didn't win the competition. My beer was good enough to beat the brewer. I'm just disappointed that a sub-par beer won because the winning brewer brought a lot of friends with him. I think there could have been a better way to judge this. I can't even say that I blame the guy for having a huge support, if I could have done that I would have as well.


TL/DR: 12 beers were brewed for the competition. Some good & some bad. Overall, it doesn't matter how good or bad a beer is because the winning beer will be decided by whoever recruits more people to vote for their beer. Overall Winner was beer #5. Beer # 1 and #7 tied for second. Beer #4, #8, and #9 also beat the brewer.

 

Thanks I was excited that I beat the brewer! It was pretty cool. I spoke with some of the other brewers after the competition and other people who attended about the results. We were all surprised about the winning beer. But like I said, he had a large party with him to vote so I guess not too surprising.

As part of the competition, I received a token to come back when the winning beer is released and use that token for a free pint. I guess I'll be reporting back the results of the end product.

 

I've entered BJCP sanctioned competitions in the past and have had great experiences and success there. I just thought this would going to be a better experience than it was. I agree the constraints made this interesting, but the contest as a whole was flawed in many regards. They're going to be doing this again in the Spring, but I'm probably going to sit that round out.