Taking the dive into competition, once again. I've entered my Milk Stout w/ Coffee Addition in the MN State Fair Homebrew Contest. It's probably the biggest competition in the state with over 750 entries. My beer is not going to fool the judges into thinking it's an award-winning beer, so I'm just looking for good feedback. Have any of you entered a competition before? How did you do? Let me know in the comments.
Results Update:
I got my results back from the MN State Fair. I got a 28.5!!! My best competition score yet! Click here for a link to my scoresheets to see what the judges had to say. I didn't think it turned out very good, and while a 28.5 isn't really that great of a score anyway, it did surpass my expectations and give me a bit of a confidence booster to keep trying and improving.
My social circle of beer buddies all live 500+ miles away, so I don't get a lot of feedback on my beers. Most of them aren't connoisseurs but they know a good brew when they taste it. A large reason for entering these competitions is for the feedback. If you look at my scoresheets, you'll see that both judges offered suggestions as well as critiques, which I really appreciate.
I listened to a recent Dr. Homebrew podcast where the guys judged a stout with coffee. Some of the things my scoresheets said about a "peppery" taste were discussed in the podcast about Ernie's beer. So now I have some more ideas on how to handle a coffee addition the next time I make a stout (which could be very soon).
Have you entered a homebrew in a competition? How did it go? Let me know in the comments.
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