National Homebrew Comp

Your Barleywine advanced. You will get an envelope in the mail with the instructions for the next steps.

 

Heard Indy scoresheets were out, anyone from the Denver regional get feedback yet?

 

Nope. My guess is we'll get them after they announce the results. I did my preemptive re-brew last weekend just in case I made it through (Doubtful).

 

Got mine today from Pittsburgh. Did about what I expected, they pointed out a lot of the flaws I saw with my beer as well. One thing I found funny was I submitted an American Wheat/Rye Beer which was named House Pale Wheat Ale and in the description I wrote American Pale Wheat Ale and they judged it as a rye beer, telling me it had that nice Rye spiciness... not sure what to make of that. And as a kicker, it was my highest scoring beer of the 6 I submitted.

 

I'm not sure what you mean when you say 'judged it as a rye beer,' since it's not a separate category. Do you mean that they assumed in their comments that you had used rye? It's not too uncommon for judges to make assumptions (sometimes erroneous) about what ingredients you actually used. My understanding is that they are trained not to, but I have seen it. Maybe one of our BJCP judges can chime in.

As for the supposed rye 'spiciness'... that's a puzzler, because even if you had used rye, I don't really think rye is 'spicy.' I wonder if they tasted somwthing 'tart' and described it as spicy.

Did the rest of the comments seem to fit your entry?

 

Well the category is 6D American Wheat or Rye Beer. On the entry form it says they will assume wheat is used of rye is not specified.

From the guidelines: THE BREWER SHOULD SPECIFY IF RYE IS USED; IF NO DOMINANT GRAIN IS SPECIFIED, WHEAT WILL BE ASSUMED.

I can understand what they mean by describing a rye spiciness, but only if there was rye in there. I just had another bottle of the beer last night to see what they meant but still do not get any rye character. I mean reading the 2 reviews a lot of the other characteristics seem to match but some parts I did not necessarily notice in my own tasting, but then again they are BJCP judges, I am not. They are looking for different characteristics and have an independent and unbiased approach to the beer.

 

So you just mail them the beer? You don't actually need to be anywhere?

 

Yup exactly.

 

That's awesome. I guess I'll have to give it a try with a future beer. I tend to ignore style guidelines when I brew.

 

Hah, that is funny. It's possible they were confusing hop presence with rye spiciness.

 

Received my sheets last week from Indy and was very pleased.
Had an APA score 40.5 and place 3rd and an ESB at 35 also place 3rd.
My best beer, a Belgian Dark scored 41.5 but did not show as placing in the mini BOS round.
Also had and American Brown, Black IPA and Amber with scores of 33, 34, and 34 respectively.

Big thanks to the judges, as the comments were very well thought out and thorough.

 

My single entry, an American Stout scored 39 and went to the mini BOS so I am pleased. This was my first time entering the NHC and only my second comp altogether. Guess next year I will try and enter a few more beers.

 

Anyone from Atlanta get their scores yet?

 

Still waiting for mine. Guess I'll find out if I advanced tomorrow before I get to see the sheets :/

 

I think everyone from Denver is in the same boat, if that makes you feel any better...

 

Thanks, I was figuring as much.

 

"I don't really think rye is 'spicy.' I wonder if they tasted somwthing 'tart' and described it as spicy."

I perceive rye as spicy and bready and I hear it described as spicy all the time.

 

I would certainly agree that Rye Bread is spicy and bready, because of the caraway and the, well, bread. But eating whole rye grains, I get nothing spicy at all, and don't get it in beer either. 'Earthy' maybe, but not 'spicy.'

 

I'm certainly not disagreeing with what your palate is telling you, but you may be in the minority. Go look up Hop Rod Rye or any other rye beer and see how many times you read "spicy" in the reviews.

 

Though the more I think of it, peppery may also be a good description.