I am entering my first beer competition and think I've created a real tasty Pilsner beer made with Noble hops and Elderfower. The OG was 1.030 and FG was 1.007, making it a 3% ABV beer. I guess this is right, though I sometimes doubt my ability to correctly read my hydrometer. As I said, I think the beer is tasty and good, but for the sake of the competition, should I be embarrassed by such a low ABV or should I have no shame in this "session" beer?
No shame...although the Elderflower could be a deal breaker if you disclose it for the (BJCP?) comp...unless, of course you are entering it as a specialty beer. Good luck Wow! I just looked at your profile and it says the comp wants 3-4 GROWLERS! ...if the beer is as good as you say, I'd tell them to go BLANK themselves.
Haha thanks greenkrusty101. What is BJCP? They said 3-4 growlers but I talked to them and they just want me to bring beer in any container. I thought you couldn't bottle carbonate beer in growlers anyway. It's my first beer competition so excited and kinda nervous. So I won't hide the 3% ABV. It tastes great and I figure the tasters will be buzzing from other beers so they won't depend on my 2-3oz tasting to effect them!
If you are drinking to get drunk than it will be a problem. Otherwise who give a shit if it tastes good. As far as competitions, it only matters if the judges can detect it. That is unlikely at lower abvs
Sounds like they expect most folks to have kegged their submissions, that's why they mentioned growlers...bottles are fine at most any comp too though. If you aren't familiar with homebrew comps, you should do a little research beforehand about comps in general, and the specific comp you're entering. As others have stated, the style you claim can make or break your comp, so you don't want to enter it under the wrong style and it be disqualified. I experienced this with what would have been the Best In Show beer...brewed a White Stout that was extraordinary but entered it under "Stouts" with the caveat that it wasn't a normal stout. After still taking 1st and 3rd with other beers, the judges came up to me and told me how good the White Stout was but that they had to disqualify it because it wasn't in the color range for the style and if I would have entered it in the Cream Ale category it would have been 1st instead. Lesson learned...
