So What do I need to do to make competition winning beer?

[Parky]

K-I-S-S - Keep It Simple Stupid 


Some of the best beers I've brewed (and tasted) have often had quite simple grain and hop bills. It's also been my experience of competitions that even a fairly basic beer, well executed, can attract some pretty high scores.

[Will_D]

Invite Bren Murph to stay over for a week

[Tom]

Yeah, Kildare is the brewing capital alright.

I judged APAs a couple of years ago, and I feel that hoppy beers are quite popular. If you're brewing a hoppy beer, add plenty of hops. If it's hoppy, the hoppiness is more pronounced when the beer is fresh. Use oxygen-scavenging caps. Keep the beer cold once conditioned. Hardly any of the beers cut the mustard with respect to the hoppy aroma.

Irish Goat is good at getting hops into beer, using the 'never stop adding hops' method. Very effective. Dry hopping in the bottle, too, I think I saw once... (don't do it).

This is an excellent thread, CH.

[Andy__]

Understand the style you are making; Research it; seek out and enjoy commercial examples and then be honest with yourself about the flaws in the beer you have brewed.

Many times I have entered a beer in a competition that I have convinced myself is good and when the judges say its isn't and give there reasons I kick myself because I had tasted that and chosen to ignore it. We all need to set ourselves a high standard.   

Of course the competition itself is a great learning experience, so read and understand the judges feedback and do better next time.

Finally and most important. Brew something you like. Better still something you have a passion for.

[Leann ull]

Weigh your ingredients accurately especially for smaller weights, recently discovered that my "brew"kitchen scales was out by 5g and invested in one I can calibrate

[mr hoppy]

How did you find that out?

[Bubbles]

Here's a good strategy for brewing an award-winning beer for the Nationals.

Pick a beer style that enjoy drinking regularly
Make a list of 5 or 6 examples of that beer style. You can use the classic examples section for each beer style in the BJCP guidelines, or you can use websites like RateBeer or BeerAdvocate.
Procure said beers and evaluate each one. Have a crack at scoring each one for aroma, appearance, flavour, mouthfeel and overall impression. Make a note of your favourites, but more importantly, why they're your favourite. Tropical hop flavours? Dry finish? Slight smokiness from the roasted malts?
Do some research on these beers - check out the brewery website for recipe details, then hit the home brew forums for clone recipes. JimsBeerKit is particularly good for English styles, HomeBrewTalk is great for anything American. BYO magazine is a great resource, with lots of useful stuff in its online archive. Ask on this forum for advice on doing a clone. Someone here will have done something similar and will review your recipe and suggest improvements if required.
Brew and ferment the beer (the easy bit, right?)
Taste and critique in a side-by-side comparison with your chosen commercial beer. This is the most important thing. The idea is not necessarily to produce an exact clone, but to produce something of comparable quality.
Make a note of the differences between the two beers. Too bitter? Too much residual sweetness? Too roasty? Not hoppy enough?
Adjust your recipe and brew it again until you're happy with it.

[Leann ull]

@mrhoppy my old man had an old balance scales with weights I also weighed water in 500ml batches from an accurate graduated cylinder,both gave me the same result,the new scales confirmed it

Anyways back on topic...
If you are using a beer gun compensate for the loss of carbonation, I use a beer gun and counter pressure and am coming round to the belief that bottle carbing is the best process for competition entries.
One of the first things a judge does is look at the bottom to see how it's been carbed

Wherever possible try and avoid the use of plastic bottles, they are acceptable but judges don't like them

[Shane Phelan]

@mrhoppy my old man had an old balance scales with weights I also weighed water in 500ml batches from an accurate graduated cylinder,both gave me the same result,the new scales confirmed it

Its an interesting problem, not one I have heard about that often.

[SlugTrap]

Learn the rule before you play:

Become intimately familiar with the BJCP guidelines for the style you're making.

[Bubbles]

Let's keep this going...

Become familiar with which beer styles are best consumed fresh (like hefeweizen, hoppy American ales) and which need a little more age on them (lagers obviously, imperial stout, Belgian quad) and plan your brewing calendar accordingly.

[Shane Phelan]

K-I-S-S - Keep It Simple Stupid 


Some of the best beers I've brewed (and tasted) have often had quite simple grain and hop bills. It's also been my experience of competitions that even a fairly basic beer, well executed, can attract some pretty high scores.

I have had the opposite experience, some of the best beers I have tasted have very complex malt bills. If a beer is described as "rich" in the guidelines you wont be getting anywhere with a beer that has a limited amount of malt complexity, especially for styles where the malt is the dominant ingredient. James's winning beer in the Liffey comp would be prime example of this.

[Bubbles]

K-I-S-S - Keep It Simple Stupid 


Some of the best beers I've brewed (and tasted) have often had quite simple grain and hop bills. It's also been my experience of competitions that even a fairly basic beer, well executed, can attract some pretty high scores.

I have had the opposite experience, some of the best beers I have tasted have very complex malt bills. If a beer is described as "rich" in the guidelines you wont be getting anywhere with a beer that has a limited amount of malt complexity, especially for styles where the malt is the dominant ingredient. James's winning beer in the Liffey comp would be prime example of this.

Completely agree. But it depends on the style of beer. I find that styles like English bitter, pale Belgians etc. benefit from keeping the grain bills simple. Porters and stouts on the other hand can benefit from layering plenty of different types of specialty malts.

[molc]

Does anyone have the excel doc which shows the entry spread from the last few years? Want to enter in a smaller category for a change this year with one beer.

[lordstilton]

New BJCP guide this year...Alot of beers have moved category.