Club competition for "Summer Session Beer finals"

[Shane Phelan]

I'm just proposing a date in September for our own mini competition to select what beers will be put forward for the final. I know its ages away yet but I'm just trying to plan in terms of recipe formulation, brewing, fermentation and ageing time.

Info:

From the original thread:
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The inaugural mid year competition will be titled Summer Session Beers of <4%.

    The idea is to run it at club level at the local meet ups for members only.
    Each member gets a vote as to the best beer on the night.
    Entrants should bring brew sheets to show how their beer was made.
    Two beers get selected at the meet up and will be sent through to a national final.
    The final will take place in early Oct.


It is not a BJCP categorized competition so the tag line is 'Summer Session Beers of <4%'. The beer should reflect the following -  Summer in a glass. Light, refreshing, medium body, thirst quenching, balanced beer of low ABV (a lawnmower beer). Something to enjoy on those two days of summer we get every year.

Prizes and entry fee are to be announced but it is time to get brewing.

Tips to brewing a low ABV beer -

    Be careful not to mash too low and end up with a very dry & light bodied beer.
    Use different malts to build body
    Be careful to balance hop bitterness with the lighter body.
    Attenuation of a beer like this is key so choose your yeast carefully


We are a little short on time on this one but low alcohol beers ferment and mature quickly so get brewing.
More details to follow. [/list][/list]
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How does 24th 25th September sound as I think the 30th is a bit late?

[Rossa]

Once September comes I can't make Tuedays     but fire away.

[Shane Phelan]

Now is the time to make a suggestion before anyone commits to it!

It could just as easily be the Monday, I didn't put it on the Wednesday as that tends to overlap with other meets.

[Rossa]

Now is the time to make a suggestion before anyone commits to it!

It could just as easily be the Monday, I didn't put it on the Wednesday as that tends to overlap with other meets.

Wed would be good for me I'm pretty much back to Mon,Tue,Thur nights working from Sept

[Shane Phelan]

Fine with me anyway.

Maybe they will actually practice this year? 

[brenmurph]

its in my diary now...no prob....is it planned to be 1 brew each or can we enter more than 1?

[Shane Phelan]

It depends on how many people enter a beer to be honest. If we have 10-15 people entering one beer then that is a reasonable amount to get though in an evening.

I would go as far as to say there is no limit at the moment but if a lot of people enter we might have to revise that.

Edit:

We will talk about it this evening at the tasting and try and get an idea how many entrants we are going to have.

[brenmurph]

count me in for at least one definatly.. and Ill watch this space

[brenmurph]

Is this the same as will-d's summer comp in september?

[irish_goat]

Is this the same as will-d's summer comp in september?

It's for this competition.
http://nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,3116.0.html

Each club is organising local level heats and then submitting 2 beers to the national final.

[Shane Phelan]

That was my next question as to whether South Kildare were holding their own one as we will have a fair bit of work on our hands with capital brewers never mind other club members entering as well.

[brenmurph]

I will jump in with Liffey ( north Kildare)

got the details from will-d..

so its local club heats and a final  battle of the clubs thats great.

We did a parti gyle on sunday with an english ale as the weak one 3.4.. thatll be perfect Ill enter that as south Klldare as we brewed at out brewday. I will liase with reuben / tube re merging with Liffey for this one.

[Shane Phelan]

Since the competition isn't going to be BJCP related and we are brewing to a very specific style there isn't much point in using conventional score sheets. Rossa suggested it in the original thread that we could make our own score sheets for the event. 

Something along the lines of this with the club logo and a little bit more content.

[Shane Phelan]

I'm putting on my starter tonight to brew my beer for this comp. I reckon next weekend is a fairly optimal time to brew in terms of having the best possible aroma by the time of the competition.

[beerfly]

did mine last week.  the only thing im kinda concerenced about is the hops i wanted to use were on the old side on the plus side its a good excuse to use them all up