Gold Rush Common Takes a Silver Medal!!

Just for kicks, I sent a few bottles of my Gold Rush California Common and Vanilla Pale Ale to the St. Louis Brews Happy Holiday Homebrew Competition.   Their contest is a qualifier for the MCAB XII.
I was pretty happy with my California Common, and the Vanilla Pale was a real longshot, but I always like to get feedback from judges so I can improve my brew.

Out of 11 entries in Category 7 Amber Hybrid Beer, my California Common got a 2nd place!  I'm real happy with this since the guys who got 1st and 3rd, also ended up getting 3rd in the Best of Show round with their smoked beer.

So here is a run-down of how I made my Gold Rush Common:

INGREDIENTS:
6lbs Pale Liquid Extract
1lbs. Light Dry Extract
.9lbs Crystal Malt 45L
.45 lbs Munich Malt
Bittering hops:  Northern Brewer
Flavor and Aroma hops: Cascade
Irish Moss for fining at end of boil
White Labs San Francisco Lager #WLP810

PROCESS
Pretty straight forward extract brew.  I steep the grains in about 160F for 30-40 minutes in 3gallons water.  I used straight tap water with no mineral additions.  I rinse the grains with another 1/2 gallon water to rinse of as much sugar as I can.  Then add the extract and bring to a boil.  At hot-break, I add the bittering hops and boil for 60 minutes, adding flavor and aroma hops at various points throughout the boil.

At end of boil, I put my kettle into an ice bath to bring down the temp.  I can get the temp down to about 60 degrees in under a half hour now.  When the temp is down to 60F, I pour into my carboy and then add preboiled and then cooled water to the carboy to get about 5.25 gallons.  Then I shake the carboy around for awhile to aerate (I haven't stepped up to an aeration system yet), then I pitch my yeast, which has been happily started days before in a little over a pint of wort for a starter.  Then I put the carboy in my beer cave in the garage which at that point was about 64-66F and stayed that way for the whole fermentation.  My target original gravity was 1.056 and I ended up at 1.062 so a bit off, but no big deal.

One thing I did a bit different with this batch was the technique of Krausening.  During the brew, I saved about 10% of the wort and bottled that up and put it in the refrigerator. I also saved some of the yeast starter.  After about 7 days I took the saved yeast and wort and brought them up to  temperature the fermentation was at, and mixed the yeast and wort making a new starter.  After three more days when the starter was bubbling away nicely, I pitched this into the already fermented beer.  This is called krausening.  It's how most beers used to be done, and especially with California Common, they would krausen the beer in the casks it was shipped in so it would naturally carbonate in the final serving vessel.  Now, my technique is a bit different as I krausened in the fermenter, not my final keg.  Two reasons for this.  First, this was my first kegged homebrew and I was afraid of naturally carbonating in the keg without using a bleeder valve to maintain right amount of pressure.  Second, I had read that krausening helps to finish off a beer since the new  yeast active yeast cleans up alot of the unwanted junk from the primary fermentation.  After another 9 days, I racked into keg and force carbonated.  Final gravity was 1.018 putting ABV at 5.74%  That's a bit higher than the style allows, but not by much, and my measurements could have been off anyway.

Sam Adams Longshot 2009: Vanilla Baltic Porter

I just received my results from the Sam Adams Longshot homebrewing competition. I had entered a Vanilla Baltic Porter which was my own recipe using extract and partial mash. I used whole vanilla beans added during secondary fermentation. Pretty satisfied with the results as my final score was a 37.5. That's right between ratings of "Very Good" and "Excellent".

The funny thing is that I didn't think this beer would fair very well because I thougth I used WAY too much vanilla. It almost tasted like medicine to me. But the two judges said "light vanilla flavor" and "just enough vanilla". One judge said that it just needed a few "tweaks" and that I would have a winner.

One other thing that both judges said was that there was a hint of astringency. This seems to be a recurring theme with my beers. This is proabaly from sparging too hot or too long. Also they said there was just some slight phenolic/estery characteristics. I guess I need to get serious and get a fridge for my fermentation so I can control the temp better.

So overall, another encouraging competition result.

Sam Adams Longshot 2008

I received my results from the Sam Adams Longshot Homebrewing contest yesterday for the three beers I had entered. This is my second year entering the contest. My results from last year are here:

http://karlisbeer.blogspot.com/2007/08/sam-adams-logshot-brewing-contest.html

The scoring guide is as follows:
Outstanding (45-50)
Excellent (38-44)
Very Good (30-37)
Good (21-29)
Fair (14-20)
Problematic (0-13)

This year's results are a mixed bag, though I'm very happy with one. Here is the rundown from worst to best:

BELGIAN STRONG GOLDEN (Category 18d)
This one only scored a 20!! But I somewhat expected this since the batch was a total mistake from the beginning. Details here: http://karlisbeer.blogspot.com/2008/03/honey-i-blew-it.html

General consensus between the two judges was that it didn't fit the style, had malt sweetness and harsh hop bitterness, with herbal aroma. One judge actually did like it, but just didn't fit the style I entered.

NOTE: This beer is actually tasting better to me now after about 6 months aging. It has mellowed nicely.

AMERICAN PALE (Category 10A)
I only scored a 25 on this one which was a bit disappointing, though I totally understand the criticisms. One judge scored it a 23 and said he couldn't finish it. The other judge scored it a 27 and said he would finish a pint of the beer. (This beer also scored a 29.5 at the SoCal Brewing competition sponsored by Inland Empire Brewers @ http://www.hopheads.com)

The main critique on this beer was that it had a harsh astringent aftertaste as well as high hop bitterness. I totally agree on both counts. I wanted to make a highly hopped pale, but think I missed the mark in a couple areas. First, I think 90 minutes was probably too long to boil the bittering hops that I used. Second having no real temperature control during fermentation, I think it just got too hot. (Also some real drastic temperature swings from day to night probably don't help either.)

BIG HONKIN' STOUT (Category 13e)
My third entry was a success! It rated a total of 37.5 and actually advanced to a mini BEST-OF-SHOW round!! Not bad considering this was a kit beer I ordered from Northern Brewer. http://www.northernbrewer.com/docs/kis-html/1701.html

Judges rated this a 37 and a 38. Comments were that it had chocolate aroma and coffee/roasty flavor. Main criticism again was a bit of astringency. Again maybe due to my high fermentation temperature?

So overall, I think I did a little better than last year, though this tells me I need to work a bit on my recipe formulation. And hey, free Sam Adams Homebrewing t-shirt out of the deal!!

Sam Adams Longshot Brewing Contest

I finally received my score sheets from the Sam Adams Contest. If you remember, I entered a Porter which was my second attempt at brewing. Two judges scored my beer an average of 27.5 which rates at the high side of "Good"

The scale is as follows:
Outstanding (45-50)
Excellent (38-44)
Very Good (30-37)
Good (21-29)
A satisfactory beer that generally fits the style parameters.
Fair (14-20)
Problematic (0-13)

One judge's comments were "This is a good beer, but not malty enough for style. Slight soap flavor. Very Dry Finish"

The other wrote "Slight roast, mild. Try increasing chocolate malt a bit"

So I think overall not bad for my first entry. And I even got a cool t-shirt that says Samuel Adams Homebrewer on it.

Next year I'll do better...

Samples & Sam Adams Contest

OK, sorry to those of you who I said I would have some samples of my new Porter out to last week. I have slacked off and didn't send them out yet. They are coming I swear.

In other news, Samuel Adams is holding their 2007 LongShot American Homebrew contest and I am going to submit one or two entries. If mine gets chosen as a winner, they will brew and distribute it with other winners in different categories.

http://www.samueladams.com/promotions.aspx