Summer session club roll call

[Kevco5]

That's a Galway 1-2 in my books!
Well done Eanna, Barry and Bren!
And a big shout out to all judging on the day!

[imark]

So what were the beers?

[Will_D]

Yes indeed - congrats to all the entrants and the support team.

Just think though:

A little over a year ago a lovely pair of brewers won the first comp and look how far they have come in that short length of time!

[brenmurph]

Well dun eanna an bakar. We r thrilled with 3rd and 2 in showdown and a 98 scoring beer. Tanx rascals shiny rossa ronan reuben andrew and all involved. Up galway.. Get yis back nxt time

[DEMPSEY]

Well done lads. De beers were great as was the company of so many nice people

[Shane Phelan]

So what were the beers?

Top 3 Beers:

1st Eanna Burke - Lemon Saison
2nd BarKar - Berliner Weisse with Raspberries
3rd. Bren Murphy - Passion Fruit Beer

Remainder of beers in Best of show (due to ties there were 8 in total)

GCB2 - Blond Ale (Honourable Mention: Judges described as a lovely beer they could drink all day)
John Craddock - Dark Mild (Honourable Mention: Judges described as a great beer)
Rossa - Mild
Beerfly - "Red" ale (Did very well in the qualifying stages)
Brenmurph - Beetroot lager


I would like to add that the standard of beers this year was exceptional and it has definitely become more competitive with higher average scores as people are better prepared for the competition. The colours and contrast in the best of show was very impressive.

[markc]

Well done all. A fruity top three! Would love to try that Lemon Saison, will the Rascals brew that soon enough? Sounds like it fit the brief to a tee, a few low abv Lemon Saisons while the weather is warm would go down a treat!

Will we get feedback/score sheets?

Mark

[Will_D]

Will we get feedback/score sheets?

+1 on the feedback.

As a sugestion for next year: Declare the ABV of the beer (maybe also OG/FG as a check) and factor it into the scoring.

As in WeightedScore = Score * (abv/4)

My beer was 2.5% or less and was probably fighting against a 3.6 or 3.7%

Ok this is what the comp states <4% but what do we all think.

Also next year I have been asked to make some low alcohol ciders. Could we factor in a cider into the comp?

@Eanna; Well done, We can't wait for the new breweery to open!

[beerfly]

Think shiny is scanning the score sheets

Maybe having different bands might be better.  2-3% and 3-4% the judges should be able to factor it into their scoring if they are aware of it, weighted scores could get a bit messy.

Also since all the beers are judged together the style should be provided as this also helps the judges. 
Can't see any problems with having ciders in, just they would have to be judged with all the other entrys, or a pair of judges could nominate themselves to do them.  not really practical to have seperate judges for them as there might only be one or two entries.

[brenmurph]

Think shiny is scanning the score sheets

Maybe having different bands might be better.  2-3% and 3-4% the judges should be able to factor it into their scoring if they are aware of it, weighted scores could get a bit messy.

Also since all the beers are judged together the style should be provided as this also helps the judges. 
Can't see any problems with having ciders in, just they would have to be judged with all the other entrys, or a pair of judges could nominate themselves to do them.  not really practical to have seperate judges for them as there might only be one or two entries.

agree, with some process tweaking it could be different / better / more validated. WEe had beetroot 3.7%, passion fruit 3.4% and a 2% no name ale on bottle condition. If I was judging I would choose the first two over the latter, however knowing a brewer produced a great beer at 2% would be an acheivement that deserved some merit.

If anyone has brewed a 2 / 2.5% beer you would know how tough it is to get flavour from  half the volume of malt....hence the difficulty so perhaps a sub 2.5% section and a 2.5 to 4% section may help make it fair to those entering ultra low abv beers after all from a health viewpoint it may be a great publicilty to show that as homebrewers we are at least interested in low abv beers

BTW our 2% ale scored a cracking 37 I believe, despite abv not being publicised we are delighted with this achievement

[Shane Phelan]

I have the score sheets and will scan them all in at some stage this week. Will I see no problem with accommodating cider's into the competition, I know it says summer session beer competition but I don't think anyone would have disallowed a cider especially if it has come in the top 3 in your club.

[brenmurph]

Agree shiny. No one sed it was summer session beer only did they?

[Shane Phelan]

I don't think so but it definitely wasn't excluded to the best of my knowledge.

[John_C]

Thanks everyone who was involved in organising. This is my favourite competition in the year.

I agree with the point above about declaring your abv. I don't think there's any need for a mathematical weighting of the scores but if some of the beers are almost double the abv of others, that's useful info for the judges to take into account.

[eanna]

I forgot to thank the judges and Shiny for their work yesterday, it was a lot of beers for very few judges, especially after the conference weekend some of them had. Thanks to everyone involved!