2013 NHC Results

Nice job Thorpe! I did not enter beers this year though I kind of wish that I did. The registration times were not very favorable for me this time around.

 

As long as you can locate the issue its an easy fix (hopefully)!

 

Yeah its good in this case that you had a few constants and a few variables in the right places so you didnt have the guess over multiple batches. Is your 35 or 41 moving on to the next round?

 

It could be that your wort was just too fermentable. I had a split batch of saison finish out at 0.992 and 0.994 (0.992 ECY Saison Brasserie, 0.994 WY3724), both had an astringency in the finish and more apparent bitterness because they were so dry.

The other potential is that your water had something in it. The last batches I did with spring water (I switched to RO about a year ago) had a horrible astringency in the finish, that literally was consistent across five batches I did in one day using the same batch of arrow head water. Since switching to RO, no issues.

Congrats on the 35+ scores, btw! Hopefully they advanced to the second round!

 

Guess I should expect my results from Kansas City soon then. I am excite.

 

I did not judge your fruit beer but tasted it. Really nice work! There were 2 or 3 judge pairs working Cat 20, but rarely did "advanced to mini-bos" get checked that weekend.
hopefully you've got uh, say, 3 more bottles lying around...

 

Only a few have been judged. Wait for the official results to be released once all regions are done and data bears verified by the AHA.

 

Hate to be the one to bring bad news, but if you don't have a number in the Place Awarded box on your cover sheet, you didn't place.

I spoke to Steve Cook, the guy in charge of the Kansas City site and these are his words pasted from an email:

As far as the results reported to individual brewers, the judges and stewards were instructed to put the place information on the cover sheet if the beer placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. There is no actual designation in the NHC competition for "Honorable Mention" other than the judges desire to let the brewer know they had a difficult time deciding which beer would advance in 3rd place. There is no advance for 4th (HM) place. Further, If there is no "place" designation on the cover sheet then that beer did not advance to the final round even though it made the cut to mini-BOS. Here are the exact instructions we have from Janice Gross at the AHA:

There are rules around the results of the competition, so I think a reminder is in order.

Please do these things:
Write 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place as appropriate on the cover sheets of the winning entries, and send all score sheets to the entrants ASAP following the competition.
Verbally announce the winners after the conclusion of the competition.

Please do NOT do these things:
Make hard copies of the competition results available.
Post the competition results on a website.
Email or electronically make available the results from the competition.

There is a perception of fairness, or the lack thereof, when we post competition results before all of the competitions have finished judging. Thanks.

I'm disappointed, too. I had one beer move on, but I had 2 beers that scored 42 and one that scored 43 and all 3 missed the cut. Based on what I'm seeing overall from this region, I think the scoring is skewed to a higher level. I've entered comps for a long time and I've never seen so many scores in the 42-45 range. Not saying we aren't making good beer, but it seems like a little grade inflation.

How many comps have you guys entered and not taken at least 3rd with a beer that scored 43? I know I haven't.

 

re: the first part, that was the intention, but mistakes and oversights happen. I'm happy to say that Thorpe429 was one of them.
re: the last part, I'd take two things from this. 1. it sounds like you make great beer, and 2. people tend to send their best to Nationals. It is tough. 50+ stouts, and 65 Belgian and French - tough competition.

 

ISO: bottle of raspberry-lime berliner

 

I entered a vanilla ris as a spice beer in kc and got a 44.5 and didn't place, along with 2 other 40+ scores, so there must have been some really great beers there!

 

ouch...
I'm sure you already knew it was great, but at least now you know others agree.

Looks like I went 3/3 on Mead/Cider, but sledding was tougher in beer. 1/5 advanced.
still, 4/8 doesn't suck!

cheers--
--Michael

 

IIRC from Brewing Better Beer Gordon Strong had about a 50% success rate getting beers/mead/cider into the NHC second round.... so, yeah, 50% does not suck!

 

Anyone received any sheets from San Diego?

 

More like 1/3.

 

score sheets already!? wow. I thought May 4 on the AHA website was the best hope.