With the success of last nights competition I'm putting up this thread to get peoples comments on having our own Winter beer competition for capital brewers club members. The style is being intentionally broad so anything from stouts to spice beers are would suit. Really it should be something that you would regard as being pleasant to drink during winter.
To give people enough time to brew, get ingredients etc I'm proposing maybe the first Tuesday in December for the competition. December is always a weird month for people with work nights out money issues etc so I think its good to have it early in the month as I would say Kavanagh's will be packed with Christmas parties after that point. That will give people in excess of 8 weeks to brew the beer which should be loads. The approach would be the same as last night but we will modify the marking scheme to suit a winter beer where aroma would play a much bigger role, body would be expected as a given so would have lower marks.
I'm suggesting the following parameters
ABV: <6% (To avoid subtle flavours being destroyed with imperial stouts)
Style: Winter Beer
Comments, suggestions and improvements encouraged!
Winter Warmer?
Winter warmer is a specific style isn't it?
No idea :o
Just looked it up, its not a BJCP style per se. So yeah it could be a winter warmer or variant that you would like to drink after a long day at work on a freezing cold evening with the fire lighting. :)
The way I'm looking at it, people will be brewing winter beers regardless so the broad range isn't forcing them into anything they don't want to brew.
Would <7% (or 6.5%) be more realistic?
Quote from: Dunkel on September 25, 2013, 05:04:44 PM
Would <7% (or 6.5%) be more realistic?
Yeah I think your right. Probably 7% just in case beers end up finishing dryer than expected.
Quote from: Il Tubo on September 25, 2013, 05:05:37 PM
How about making this a Dublin competition?
Limiting it to the club keeps the size manageable. The eventual goal is to have a quarterly competition so we would have one for each season.
If a person repeatedly comes to the tastings then I regard them as being in the club. I think that is a suitable definition and I will probably say that in the rules to clarify.
By the way, perhaps I should reveal that Il Tubo (whom I shall consider to represent the whole Liffey Brewers club), after many Smithwick's and a bottle of Busmills, challenged me (ditto Capital Brewers) to "brew an English Bitter that isn't boring". Any other takers?
I have a similar opinion about English bitters. To the extent that I might have to brew one for the competition to make sure I'm not judging the category.
TT
Local brewery in UK which I shall visit over the next few days is doing British bitters with US hops. Certainly less boring than usual... That said I love a good real ale.
Sent using a complex system of semaphore and ninjas.
The next time I'm in the UK I'm going to make it my mission to find good ales because I really think I am missing out.
My Bram x was a bitter.
Interesting, that was my highest score my marking sheet. I wonder if I knew it was a bitter would I have marked it differently.
Quote from: Il Tubo on September 25, 2013, 05:11:18 PMBut people from outside the club are allowed enter, as club is a loose defintion?
I don't have any problem with non-members entering as long as the logistics are manageable. One thing I would say though is that if we were to open the competition up I reckon we'd be talking about a different kind of event. The meet last night was not so much a big competition but a slightly more formal version of a normal meet where we all agreed ahead of time to brew to a theme. I think it worked really well because it was relatively small and easy to plan. I'm not sure you could have an event like this if the numbers started to swell.
I do like the idea of a larger themed competition where multiple clubs are involved but I'd still like to have the option to hold regular Capital Brewers mini competitions where we follow a similar procedure to last night's event. That's just my initial thoughts but I'd like to hear what others think.
So are we going for Tuesday 3rd December for the Winter Warmer comp? Does anyone object to limiting the ABV to 7%?
It looks like the theme is shaping up to cover weighty beers of the dark, brooding, soulful variety; possibly spicy, probably roasty, definitely malty. A beer to warm the cockles of your heart on a cold winter's night.
Looking forward to this one!
The 3rd makes sense to me anyway, any later and it will just be too busy.
id like to enter this but iv got a tripel in the fermentor and i think its gonna be 9% :/
I sat down and had a good luck at the calendar and realised we would be putting ourselves under pressure if we aimed to run the comp on the 3rd of December. How about postponing until the last Tuesday in January and maybe lifting the ABV limit? That should keep everyone happy and give people enough time to brew something substantial and let it mature etc. I still think we should avoid entering massive beers (RISs etc.) mainly for practical reasons. We can always hold a big beer comp some other time, but if people want to lift all restrictions that's cool.
The comp could be a good testing ground for beers that people plan to submit to the Nationals.
Opinions?