2017 National Brewing Championships

[Bubbles]

I'd suggest:

1. Specialty Wood aged
2. Fruit Beer, definitely not English porter given the addition of fruit

[Jonnycheech]

I'd suggest:

1. Specialty Wood aged
2. Fruit Beer, definitely not English porter given the addition of fruit

Cheers Bubbles. I was hoping you weren't going to suggest fruit beer actually. I added orange peel at flame out and it is only slightly coming through. I think it's nice and well balanced but i think many would think the orange is not strong enough. I was nearly thinking of going the English porter route, not mentioning the orange at all. What ya reckon?

[molc]

If it's just an accent, I'd not mention it. For fruit, the judge will be looking for the flavour mentioned.

[Bubbles]

What molc said, for sure. Though if it's noticeable, and you get a sharp judge on the day, you might get dinged for an inappropriate fruit flavour. A judge might even interpret the fruit as an inappropriate fermentation ester byproduct, or an American hop addition that doesn't belong in an English style. And tbh, they'd be correct to do so, as far as I know.

Fruit beer is still probably the best category. The guidelines allow for mild-high fruit character, as long as the fruit is complementary with the base style. Unfortunately, competition brewing will more often than not favour the beers that have bolder flavours.

Best thing is to bring it along to your local meet with a copy of the BJCP guidelines for the styles which you think might be a good fit, and let them decide. Hard to advise properly without having tasted the beer.

Or enter it in both cats!

[pob]

I was nearly thinking of going the English porter route, not mentioning the orange at all. What ya reckon?

As per CH & Molc above, it's what you can taste is important, in fact you should be tasting all of your beers before even deciding what category to enter it in; there is overlaps in some of the categories, so may preform better in one rather than the one you originally brewed. Remember, the judges can only judge the beer based on the category it was entered in.

For the orangy English Porter, could the flavour/aroma have come from Admiral or Amarillo hops, or something similar? If so then I probably wouldn't mention the fruit. If it's a glass of OJ with some Porter (exaggerating for point) in it, then go for the fruit beer.

My earlier point was that if you are definitely entering a speciality beer, don't rely on the name of your beer being enough for the judges to know what is in it - they don't see the name, only the brewing notes on your registration/entry form.

[pob]

Or enter it in both cats!

or this

[guest1906]

What volume of bottles can we enter as I have my cider in 500ml bottles and is it crown top or flip top bottles or does that matter. My plan plan is to berry and two apple cider, that's three in total. and would I need to be entering 6 bottles for the two legg's

[pob]

It's 2 x 500ml crown or flip top per entry (the cider will be judged at one of the legs. 2 bottles are required, one for the scoring sheet & 2nd if it progresses to BOS (Best of Show) for the Cider category).

Make sure you also tick the relevant boxes in the cider category, e.g. Dry, sparkling or Medium, petillant, etc.

More guidelines on how the cider is judged here

[Leann ull]

Remember only 1 entry per sub category
Have a read of the cats and decide how you are going to split your 2 apple ciders

[garciaBernal]

Question regarding 28A Brett Beer. Is there a history of people actually entering this category and if so is there a judge sufficiently versed in the nuances of Brett beer? Just wondering in case I am wasting my time entering a 100% brett beer. Cheers.

[Leann ull]

I know 5-10 entries in this cat in past, not all Brett by design.
The one I seem to remember most is the one where the entrant in the description said, "I think my beer is infected but it brings something to the flavour"
Your basically saying my Brett Beer is better than everybody else's and the judges and organisers are amateurs and don't have a clue
It's judged to a documented style category not a judges experience in tasting lots of Brett style beers. There will be loads of funk experts there.
Enter it

[garciaBernal]

Your basically saying my Brett Beer is better than everybody else's and the judges and organisers are amateurs and don't have a clue
It's judged to a documented style category not a judges experience in tasting lots of Brett style beers.
Enter it

Not saying they don't have a clue just trying to gauge their level of experience. I don't drink cider so I wouldn't think it fair for me to sit down and judge one. I think experience is key in judging any style of beer not just brett. Judging something you've never tasted before would be tough I'd imagine no matter how well the guidelines steer you through it.

[Leann ull]

Majority of Judges are BJCP, and it's the BJCP system the judges are measuring against, don't think the organisers are ever going to let us entrants know who judges which cat in advance, just be rest assured that judging is done to the highest possible standard.
I'll let some of the BJCP qualified judges comment at this point
Have you had a bad experience before?

[garciaBernal]

Majority of Judges are BJCP, and it's the BJCP system the judges are measuring against, don't think the organisers are ever going to let us entrants know who judges which cat in advance, just be rest assured that judging is done to the highest possible standard.
I'll let some of the BJCP qualified judges comment at this point
Have you had a bad experience before?

I've had a beer judged by non BJCP judge last year but I was happy with the critique. Will it be 100% BJCP judges this year?

[Leann ull]

I don't know tbh and organiser for reasons of fairness typically only let's judges know a week before, and that's so they can read up or practice on commercial samples.