Hoppy Halloween Competition Results

I entered my Session American Pale Ale in the Hoppy Halloween Competition in Fargo, ND over Halloween weekend. I did not win, as the pale ale catagory (10A) was a tough one. Due to so many entries, there was only a 3% chance of winning. I did however receive MY BEST COMPETITION SCORE TO DATE, 32!!! 

Two judges tasted my brew and had similar, yet often conflicting, experiences. Example, one said it was astringent, the other said it wasn't; one liked the bitterness, one didn't. Both said more of a malt presence would help to balance out the beer better. I've posted a link to their scoresheets below. I followed the kit to the letter, how could I have added more of a malt presence? Let me know in the comments.

Judge #1

Judge #2

Pic from first tasting night. Wrong glassware for the

style, but it's all my father-in-law had at hand.

Hefeweizen

Brew Day: 10/11/15

5 gal kit from Northern Brewer.

4 gal in the kettle

No steeping grains. Filled up the kettle with filtered tap water, and brought to a boil. 

3 lb Wheat LME - 60 mins
1 lb Wheat DME - 60 mins
1 oz Tettnanger hops 2.7% AA - 60 mins
3 lb Wheat LME - 30 mins (trying to keep the coloring lighter)
1 tablet Whirlfloc - 15 mins

Killed the heat, whirlpooled, and set kettle in metal bucket for ice bath. Took two 20 bags of ice to get down to 74 in about 30 mins. Poured wort through the double-mesh strainer into a 6.5 gallon Big Mouth glass carboy. Took a gravity reading and topped off with about 1.5 gal of cold water to bring volume up to 5 gal. Took gravity reading, was 1.049. Pretty close to the 1.046 I was shooting for. Could've topped off with a bit more water if I wanted to nail the SG. Pitched Wyeast Weinhenstephan Weizen 3068, which hadn't fully swollen, despite being smacked 5 hours earlier. The guy at Northern Brewer told me that a stressed a Hefe yeast can bring out more of the banana esters, which is what I was going for. My wife loves the banana bomb beers of summer. Attached the airlock and put it in the car to drive 45 mins back home. My apartment sits a bit warmer than my father-in-law's basement, and I've been told that higher fermentation temps help accentuate that banana character. I knew the yeast would be a vigorous foamer, so I attached the blowoff tube and put a tshirt over it to keep out of the light before going to bed. Total brewday time ~ 3 hrs.

The recipe calls for 2 weeks in primary, 2 weeks bottle conditioning. 

(krausen at 11 hrs post-pitch)

Target OG: 1.046
Actual OG: 1.049
est IBU: 8.3
est FG: 1.011
est SRM: 3.74
est ABV: 4.99%

Update: 10/21/15

Took a gravity reading at 10 days. Nailed the FG! 1.011 Will be bottling this weekend before we head out of town.

Tasting update: 11/0915

Bottled up 6 six-packs and a 22 oz bottle before we left town and came home to wonderfully carbonated beer. I decided to forgo the carb drops and make a priming solution with 5 oz of corn sugar, which I probably could've cut back to 4.5 oz but the style typically calls for a high level of carbonation, so I'm not worried about it. My lovely brewing assistant helped bottle fill while I capped them all. 

This thing is seriously good. Thick head that sticks around, slight sweetness, and medium body. The cloves are more present than the banana esters. I'd like to make it again in the spring and see if I can get more banana aroma. It's my wife's favorite light beer style (she's a stout woman), so it won't last long. Plan on entering it in a competition next month, so hopefully we'll still have a few bottles to send off by then. 

Autumn Brew Ideas

Seems like most commercial breweries have something either already out or soon to be released for the fall. Anyone doing an autumn seasonal brews? Pumpkin, Oktoberfest, etc.

Session APA

Brew Day: 08/28/15

5 gal kit from Northern Brewer.

4 gal in the kettle

No steeping grains. Filled up the kettle, and brought to a boil. 

3 lb Pils malt LME - 60 mins
1/2 oz Simcoe hops 12.3% AA - 60 mins
3 lb Pils malt LME - 30 mins (trying to keep the coloring lighter)
1/2 oz Simcoe hops 12.3% AA - 15 mins
1 tablet Whirlfloc - 15 mins
1 oz Simcoe hops 12.3% AA - 0 mins
1 oz Simcoe hops 12.3% AA - dry hops

Killed the heat. Whirlpooled and set kettle in metal bucket for ice bath. It was so hot, it melted down all the ice pretty quick and brought the ice water temp up to 85 within 20 mins. Took over 45 mins to bring down to 90. 

Poured wort through the double-mesh strainer into a 6.5 gallon Big Mouth glass carboy. Took a gravity reading and topped off with about 1 gal of cold water to bring volume up to 5 gal. It was my first time using the Brewer's Friend app to figure out how much water to add. Never noticed that option, very clever little app. After adding 1 gal of cold water, the gravity was 1.048. Pretty close to the 1.044 I was shooting for.

 Pitched Wyeast American Ale II, which I had smacked earlier and allowed to fully swell. 

Attached the airlock and let it sit in my father-in-law's basement, where it should stay in the high 60's. Basements in Minnesota are still really cool even in August. As you can see, here's plenty of headspace in the fermenter so we shouldn't need a blowoff tube. I made sure to show him how to install it just in case the airlock is clogged in the morning. Total brewday time ~ 3.5 hrs.

The recipe calls for 1 weeks in primary, 1 week secondary (for the dry hops), 2 weeks bottle conditioning. 

Target OG: 1.044
Actual OG: 1.048
est IBU: 29.22
est FG: 1.011
est SRM: 2.72
est ABV: 4.86%


Bottling Update: 9/13/15

Tasted the sample and it was very promising. Once it's all carbed up, it should be a really good one. The final gravity landed right at 1.011, nailed it! Bottled it up in the in-laws garage.  2 weeks to carbonate, then we'll toast to the coming autumn. 

Tasting night: 09/27/15

All carbed up and chilled. Had it along w/ some nice ribs my father-in-law smoked this afternoon. The beer had a dank citrusy hop aroma, white foam head that lingered around the edge of the glass, medium-light body, medium hop presence in the taste and finish. Very clear for such a young beer. Was in the fridge for maybe 4 hours prior to tasting. I took the below photo this evening. It's a really nice one. Best one I'm done in several months. We're really happy about it. As soon as I got home, I made sure to check the next local homebrew contest. I've entered it in Category 10A, American Pale Ale in the Hoppy Halloween Challenge in Fargo, ND at the end of Oct. 

State Fair Homebrew Contest Results

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.

Bourbon Barrel Porter

Brew Day: 6/10/15

1 gal kit from Northern Brewer.

1 1/4 gal in the kettle

0.2 lb of Chocolate Malt

0.1 lb of Crystal 80L
0.1 lb of Black Patent

Let grains steep while I heated the water. Put them in at 132, took off the heat at 158 (about 10 minutes to heat up). Then disaster almost struck. Realized I didn't have any ice made to cool it down, so before I brought it to a boil, I put the lid on it and went to the store to get a few bags of ice. So the "grain-tea" sat with the lid on for 24 minutes before I got home and returned the kettle to the heat. Down to 149. Turned heat back on. 50 min boil. (Recipe calls for 45 min boil, but waited to add hops until past the hot break, about 5 mins) After adding the DME, but before hops, the pre-boil gravity was 1.047 (11.8 brix).

1.0 lb Dark DME - 50 mins
0.5 lb Wheat DME - 50 mins
3.5 gram Chinook hops 11.8% AA - 45 mins
3.5 gram Willamette hops 4.7% AA - 10 mins

Killed the heat. Whirlpooled and set kettle in sink for ice bath. Poured wort through the double-mesh strainer into a 2 gal bucket. Pitched half a packet of Danstar Windsor yeast at 72. Hoping to keep the fermentation temp between 65-74 using ambient temps in the apartment. Ended up with just under 1 gal in the fermenter. Had the range hood on during the boil, so I must've boiled off a bit more volume than expected.

The recipe calls for 2 weeks in primary. Once fermentation is done, I'll soak 0.5 oz of American Oak Cubes in bourbon for 24 hrs then add them into the fermentor. About 2-3 weeks to bottle condition. 

Target OG: 1.068
Actual OG: 1.072 (17.6 brix) 
est IBU: 28.23
est FG: 1.019
est SRM: 50
est ABV: 6.4%

Update: 7/01/15

Put the 0.5 oz of oak cubes and 2 oz of Bulleit Bourbon into a mason jar. Will let it sit for 2-3 days then add to the fermenter. 

Bottling: 08/26/15

Bottling is my least favorite part of homebrewing. (making the switch to kegs soon) Got a 6 pack out of this brew. Smelled good, but the taster wasn't very good. This had a lot of excitement around it, but I hope it doesn't turn out to be a dud because of all my procrastination. 

Beer Vacation

Ever taken a beer vacation? Even if not the main goal, I attempt to taste as many new beers as I can when out of town. Here, the brewpubs are only allowed to sell their beers at their brewpub location, it's dumb the law in MN. If you visit somewhere that doesn't have national or regional distribution, you have only one chance to sample everything you can (unless you plan another trip).

Last weekend, the Mrs. and I went up to Duluth and did some hiking along the North Shore of Lake Superior. It was a great relaxing weekend. We didn't get to all the breweries we want, because some had limited hours and were closed on Mon-Tues like many here in the Twin Cities, but we got to sample some wonderful brews and food. I put a list together of all the places we dined and the brews we tried there. If you get up to Duluth, check these places out and let us know what you think.

Fitger's Brewhouse Brewery & Grille - Duluth MN
I had a flight, cause it was my birthday. Then tried a couple specialty brews, and paired it with an Elk Burger with blue corn tortilla chips and salsa.

- XXX English Pale Ale (favorite of the flight)
- MN Nice Cream Ale
- Starfire Pale Ale
- Big Boat Oatmeal Stout
- El Nino IPA
- Apricot Wheat
- Lighthouse Golden Ale
- Homegrown Hempen Ale
- Big Boat Oatmeal Stout on cask

Do North Pizzeria - Two Harbors MN
We didn't have any beer here, but the pink lemonade and taco pizza was fantastic for our day of hiking Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock State Park.

Canal Park Brewing Co. - Duluth MN
I had the Duluth Dip (thin cut roast beef topped with sautéed mushrooms & onions with a cup of Au Jus sauce) and beer-battered cheese curds.

- Nut Hatchet Brown Ale (maybe my favorite of the whole trip)
- 40 Acre Saison

Northern Waters Smokehaus - Duluth MN

No beer here either, but this might've been my favorite meal of the whole trip. My mother-in-law's cousin owns this place. It's a little hole in the wall deli in an old warehouse-turned-shopping center. I had the smoked salmon pita wrap with Sprecher's root beer. This place is getting so popular it's hard to find a seat at one of their bistro tables out front, and I've heard they are expanding to a 2nd location in Duluth.

Thirsty Pagan Brewing Co. - Superior WI

It was raining on Monday and most of the breweries in Duluth we wanted to try were closed so we went over the bridge into WI. There's not much to do in Superior on a Monday, so we ended up at Thirsty Pagan Brewing Co. right as the brewpub opened for the afternoon. They were having their 9th anniversary party and we got some happy hour special beers and even free caramel cookies. The guy next to us at the bar said we should try one of their fabulous pizzas, so I guess we'll have to go back soon.

- North Coast Amber Ale

- Bourbon Barrel Aged Penelope Porter on cask (my wife's favorite from the trip)

Grandma's Saloon & Grille - Duluth MN

Just across the canal from our inn is Grandma's, it looks like a northern lumberjack version of Cracker Barrel, but replace all the southern comfort food you'd expect and substitute fresh smoked or fried lake fish and a comprehensive burger menu. We tried to go to Castle Danger Brewery in Two Harbors the day before, but they were closed so I got my Castle Danger fix while I scarfed down the biggest beer-battered walleye sandwich I've ever seen. 

- Castle Cream Ale (the only beer I had all weekend that wasn't made on premises)

Have you ever done a beer vacation? Where did you go and what did you sample?