Kits in the 2015 Competition.

[Bubbles]

Plus they wear a duffel coat. And own a satchel. And scribble tasting notes in Moleskine notebooks...

Entry to a competition is only going to give a homebrewer two opinions on a beer. Going to a homebrewing meet could give you five times that number, with the added advantage of being able to ask questions.

[LordEoin]

The competition's not just for AG. Extract and kit beers can be entered too.
Any beer can be entered, but entering a bad beer will only cost you money and bruise your ego when the feedback basically just scores you 13 and says it's a bad beer.
I'm sure many bad beers get entered, but rarely on purpose.

If this one's bad make the next one better, and if you think it's a good example of the style then enter it.
Details about the competition can be found here: http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,7928.0.html

[Tom]

Plus they wear a duffel coat. And own a satchel. And scribble tasting notes in Moleskine notebooks...

Ah, now I didn't mean to perpetuate the beer nerd stereotype, just a bit of self deprecation now that I sniff damn near any liquid, and raise the point that BJCP judges are available all over the country and will offer your beer feed back all year round, not just in March, as well as hundreds of talented non-bjcp brewers and drinkers too.

[Bubbles]

What a great stereotype it is though! 

[LordEoin]

Just a reminder on this to all the kit brewers out there.
If you have made a great kit beer (kit hacks allowed), keep two 500ml bottles and enter them
The Beersmith software is awesome even if you don't go extract or AG later on!

[dcalnan]

Do we mention somewhere on the entry that it's a kit, I found two bottles of a kit I made and was very happy with, so I thought instead of drinking them I'd enter them.

[LordEoin]

Nope, the beer will speak for itself

[johnrm]

Hmmm... That story sounds familiar...

[LordEoin]

So, how did the kits do in the competition?

[dcalnan]

I guess we won't know fully till the stats are produced, the kit hack I entered got a 33, and I'm now looking into controlling my fermentation temperature more.

[LordEoin]

Stats Schmats! All the scores are up on the competition site.
So far you're the top scoring kit.
What kit was it? and how did you hack it?

[dcalnan]

The craft range citra pale ale, I had around 40g amarillo left over from the beer beforehand so I dry hopped that with the 60g of citra, both judges mentioned that passion fruit was the dominant aroma, so I don't think I added enough amarillo to really change it. It's the one I brought to a meet before.

[LordEoin]

Ahh good stuff. I drank my last one of those recently and was sad i didn't let the rest age a bit. It's a lovely beer with some extra aging

[dcalnan]

I just remembered I bought another one of the citra kits after liking this one, have to put it on soon as the best before date is April, but it will be a nice beer for hopefully will be a nice summer.

[LordEoin]

Well it looks like you're this year's kit champion. Well done

I'll PM you.