just a quick thank you!

Congrats!

What was the recipe like??

 

So we can sell it

 

linky to thread?

 

thats great. i do find it a bit funny though that the winner of the APA category came in at 6.8%. IPAs are the new APAs, IIPAs are the new IPAs. need to start working on a IIIPA or a IIIIPA. basically, the more I's the better.

 

The below comments are not directed at the OP.

“ i do find it a bit funny though that the winner of the APA category came in at 6.8%.”

There have been a number of discussions in past threads that homebrewers will brew a beer ‘bigger’ than the style guidelines in order to win medals at homebrewing contests. The fact that the OP won a Gold medal for an APA that is bigger than the style guidelines seems to bear out that it is indeed a good strategy to brew BIG if you want to win. It seems to me that those homebrewers who do brew to be within the style guidelines are at a disadvantage.

Cheers!

 

“ …if I continue to compete in this category with this beer I will always go for the palate wreck.” That would appear to be a winning strategy.

Cheers!

 

That would be a real shame, and a rather telling failure of the BJCP judging program, if this were true, and those who brewed to style were at a disadvantage. I understand that a highly flavorful beer will beat a mediocre one in any category, but the implications in this thread seem a bit disturbing.

 

Something I posted in a past thread:

Ironically there is a thread going on in another forum concerning homebrew competitions. I found the below interesting:

“Today I just received my copy of the September-October Zymurgy, which has the recipes that won gold medals in the second round of this year's National Homebrew Competition. I was struck by just how many of them are "big" beers. Only four winners of the 23 categories (the equivalent best of show Munich helles, a German pilsner, an ordinary bitter and a Berliner weisse) had starting gravities of 1.050 or below and could be considered session beers. Only seven (the German pilsner, a doppelbock, a strong Scotch ale, an IPA, a Belgian dark strong ale, a fruit beer, and a spice/herb/vegetable beer) were in the lower half of the BJCP O.G. guidelines for that style, most of those in styles with a very high maximum O.G. to allow for a wide range of examples. And six winners were above the O.G. guidelines for their style, most notably a 1.065 Vienna lager that seems to fit the style guidelines for a traditional bock.

As a judge, I tend to be sensitive to beers that seem higher in gravity and/or other characteristics than the guidelines for that style. I will make note of it in my comments and adjust my score. I think it's only fair for beers to be judged against their true peers. Apparently the judges at the NHC have somewhat different priorities.”

In a subsequent post:

“I also acknowledge that even a very experienced judge is unlikely to be able to estimate the O.G. of a beer within any more than about a 5 point range when judging. However, surely the judges who awarded the gold medal to that 1.065 Vienna lager should have realized it was very "big" for its style and taken note of this.”

Cheers!

 

I've had lots of success with APAs brewing them to style (~4.5-5%). Sometimes a bigger one wins, sometimes a smaller one wins, really depends on the judges, the ordinal position, other competing beers, etc.. You can never go wrong brewing a flavorful beer without flaws.

 

“I do wonder if it had an affect on judging.” I have no wonder about it but to paraphrase the Big Lebowski: Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, my opinion, man.

Cheers!

 

The concept of submitting a BIGGER beer in order to win medals is not confined to homebrewing competitions. Professional breweries adopt this strategy as well. A case in point: Troegs submits their Doppelbock (Troegenator) in the Bock category at the GABF. This strategy has been pretty successful for Troegs in that they have won many awards over the past few years:

· Gold: 2011, 2009, 2207
· Silver: 2010, 2006

An individual could state that Troegs is unethical in submitting their Doppelbock in the Bock category. Another individual could state that Troegs is very smart in that by submitting Troegenator into the Bock category, they greatly increase their chances of winning medals.

I personally will not make a judgment specific to Troegs but I will repeat the message I made earlier: there is no doubt in my mind that by submitting a beer that is BIGGER for a given beer category increases your chances of winning a medal.

Cheers!

 

I almost think that this tendency towards bigger beers reflects a change in the collective palate. Makes me wonder if the BJCP will ever consider altering their guidelines to reflect that as well.

 

Bigger doesn't mean better. Its a function of many more things than just bigger beers catching attention. An example of the reverse case would be Three Floyds submitting Zombie Dust (Labelled as an APA) to the IPA category at GABF and medaling. In terms of homebrewing, I've done variants of the same beer (one 9.5% the other 6.5%) and over multiple submissions to competitions in the same category, the smaller beer has medalled more, with an equal number of total entries.