2012 Brewer Royale

[Bill Lawrence]

Ok you bozos, are we just going to let Orlando walk away with all the glory again in 2012? Of course he is a very good brewer but I am personally getting sick of listening to it, I would love to seriously kick his butt for a change. Our club does the Brewer Royale every year (it's tradition) and many of the best brewers have their names on the perpetual trophy, it's quite an honor to have your name listed along with the greats like Jim Layton for instance. Anyhow, I would love to see this club contest get really competative this year. Besides making it more fun, it will "up the level of play" throughout the club and hopefully will spill over to more wins at the big contests like the Blue Bonnet. Anyhow, the styles involved are already known to some extent at least so it is time to start brewing for this yearlong contest right now. By way of example, I will be doing a Munich Dunkel this weekend and I plan to do both a Stout and an Irish Red for both the Bluebonnet as well as this contest. Orlando and I always get some side action going on the Blue Bonnet as well as the Limbo, maybe we can organize something for this contest in 2012 as well. Anyhow, get off your fat butts and do some brewing for this contest, it's fun and best of all, there are no entry fees.

[MixnMatchBrew]

You offering to mentor new members?

Seriously though I agree that we need to up our game and I think it will happen next year.
I've done the hard core competitive brewing circuit for Lone Star and judged competitions so if anyone needs advice I'll be happy to help.

The Brewer Royale is a great way to test the waters and get some free feedback.

[Bill Lawrence]

Well, I seriously doubt that the newer members would want to subject themselves to my tender mercies, after all I really don't know what the hell I'm doing. If anybody wants to see me in action however, I will be brewing under the direction of both Melinda and Kim on the 18th at Kim's brewday (this year they promise to keep the corporal punishment down to a low roar but we have agreed on a "safe word" just in case). We are doing a clone of Fireman's #4 from Real Ale down in the hill country. My job is come up with a decent formulation and my prelimiary research indicates it will be pretty simple. Since I don't remember ever trying it, I just need to get a bottle or two so I can see how much hop flavor is involved and what the malt character is like (I am betting that American 2 row is the grain of choice however). Other than that, the beer is a Blonde ale like you would find in many micros or brew pubs. The commercial version has an O.G. of 1.048 and has 21IBU's of bittering with a fairly low terminal gravity (and pretty high alcholol given the relatively low O.G.). They use a house yeast but after poking around on the internet, it looks like the best choice would be WLP07 which should give us decent attenuation if we pitch enough. Besides a yeast that attenuates pretty well, I suspect we will mash low to get a fairly fermentable wort. I also need to find out how much yeast contribution there is in the flavor, if the stuff is pretty fruity, that will give me an idea about fermenation temperatures. Anyhow the whole deal beats the hell out of holiday shopping so it should be fun.

[rack04]

Being a new member I'm really looking forward to entering my brews into competitions. I haven't seen a 2012 schedule posted for the events. Is anything coming up that I should start brewing for?

[Guerra]

I haven't seen a 2012 schedule posted for the events. Is anything coming up that I should start brewing for?

Click on file to get a better look.. The competitions comming up are the Jan/Feb COC, the Bluebonnet BrewOff, & AHA NHC.

2012 Competition Schedule V1.0.gif

[rack04]

I haven't seen a 2012 schedule posted for the events. Is anything coming up that I should start brewing for?

Click on file to get a better look.. The competitions comming up are the Jan/Feb COC, the Bluebonnet BrewOff, & AHA NHC.

2012 Competition Schedule V1.0.gif

Have the details of the club COC been released yet? I would be interested in submitting a munich dunkel. I assume the club picks the best cat 4 from the submissions and submit to AHA.

[Guerra]

Have the details of the club COC been released yet? I would be interested in submitting a munich dunkel. I assume the club picks the best cat 4 from the submissions and submit to AHA.

Yeah, that is pretty much it. The NTHBA 2nd VP (aka Competition Coordinator, Einar Jonsson, [email protected]) will announce when the COC entries will be due. He will then collect the entries and coordinate a judging session. The judges will sellect a winner from the entries, and that person will be notified to send there entry to the AHA COC competition as the NTHBA represenative.

The best place to find out info about the COC are the Newsletters & this forum. The following is an excerpt from the Dec. NTHBA Newsletter:

"We still have several Club Only Competitions that will help to get us ready for next year's competition season.
All entries can be dropped off at either Home Brew Headquarters or The Wine Maker's Toy Store.
The January/February COC is Dark Lagers. The club deadline is January 27th."

You can also go the the Homebrewers Association web site for more COC info: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/p ... mpetitions. The AHA web site has the following info:

"January/February 2012
Dark Lagers

Entries are due February 10, 2012 and judging will be held February 18, 2012. Entry fee is $7. Make checks payable to American Homebrewers Association.

Entry Shipping:
AHA COC
c/o Doug Newberry
1215 Burnham Ln.
Batavia, IL 60510

Hosted by the Urban Knaves of Grain (UKG) club of Batavia, IL, this competition covers BJCP category 4.

For more information, contact Doug Newberry at [email protected]."

Good luck in the competition.

[Bill Lawrence]

Well, here are the styles for the Brewer Royale for 2012 according to the AHA website:

Dark Lager
Stout
Scotish/Irish ale
Porter
Light hybrid ale
Olde ale

If you have not started your dark lager yet, you are perhaps already behind the 8 ball. The other problematic beer is the olde ale, this stuff needs to age so it needs to be brewed pretty soon so as to be competition ready by the end of the year. The remaining styles can be put together pretty quickly so will be much less of an issue. Except for the Olde ale, I regularly brew the remaining styles anyhow so I just need to watch the timing. This is probably the best style list I have seen in a couple of years so as noted I intend to "go for it" this coming year. As for the Olde ale, I have for some time wanted to try a double mash and this style is a good one to try this techniqe on since I can't get the high gravity with my system employing the normal techniques (plus I can think of a couple of other things to do with this beer which should make it very interesting, we will see what I come up with).

[TheMacheteMasher]

Bill, I did the double mash thing and really liked the process. Seemed like the best way to brew for exact gravity.

What gravity are you shooting for with the Olde Ale?

Decided to stretch out and enter competition this year as well. I am hoping to put out some great beers.

Good luck (to all)!!

Of course I am challenging long time brewmeisters but what better way to get in the game!

.

[Bill Lawrence]

I guess if I'm going to do an olde ale, I would go for the upper end of the gravity range, say 1.090+. That way, I could bottle the stuff in 12 oz bottles and savor it over a couple of years in a monogramed snifter (what else would you expect?). Incidently, it's not so much about winning with me (although it's nice), it more about the opportunity for "trash talk" along the way. By the way, what's up with stirring your mash with a sword, do you generally brew in a bad neighorhood or something?

[BrotherhoodBrew]

Incidently, it's not so much about winning with me (although it's nice), it more about the opportunity for "trash talk" along the way.

If Bill knows one thing it is definitely how to trash talk, well that and how to make awesome beer.