Winter Beer competition [Discussion]

[Shane Phelan]

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!

[Rossa]

Winter Warmer?

[Shane Phelan]

Winter warmer is a specific style isn't it?

[Rossa]

No idea

[Shane Phelan]

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.

[Dunkel]

Would <7% (or 6.5%) be more realistic?

[Shane Phelan]

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.

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.

[Shane Phelan]

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.

[Dunkel]

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?

[Shane Phelan]

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

[Eoin]

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.

[Shane Phelan]

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.

[Rossa]

My Bram x was a bitter.

[Shane Phelan]

Interesting, that was my highest score my marking sheet. I wonder if I knew it was a bitter would I have marked it differently.

[Dr Jacoby]

But 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.