Brewing for BB2014

[Bill Lawrence]

Well yesterday I brewed my last beer for the Bluebonnet, an oatmeal stout. Since I have never brewed one of these (really I'm sort of screwing around here) I made a hybrid of the Great Jamil's recipe and one by Gordon Strong (which has 50% more oats than Jamil's). Hopefully this stuff will need to be spooned out of the glass but we'll see how this ends up being that it's my "virgin" try with this particular style. Anyway, I'll have 11 entries that I did myself plus one that I helped the Courgars with. With any kind of luck I won't get skunked but who knows; this competition is tough so I guess if I can get a couple beers into the second round I'll be happy. Hopefully the rest of you guys/gals are pretty close to ready to go as we need to take the trophy (which is rightfully ours by the way) again this year. If any of you new folks need help figuring out which category to enter your beers you might want to bring a sample to the brew day over at Grover's house of vice and surely some of the vets can help you out. Just because you are new at this don't be shy; there is a first time for everything and you just need to get bloodied a bit to learn (plus it's fun).

[Jimmy Orkin]

Just to build on what Bill was talking about.

For the brewers new to entering a competition: You need to enter your beer in the sub-category that best fits your final beer, not the sub-category you intended the beer to be. Sometimes your beer will end up being different from what you intended. Sometimes your beer fits between some sub-categories. In those cases you may want to enter your beer on multiple sub-categories.

Please get an experienced beer judge to help you determine the best sub-category for your beer. We can do that at Mike's brewday.

[TheMacheteMasher]

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This recipe is one that should go down in the NTHBA - Hall of Fame. Brew this and make Scott Townsend proud. The batch can be split for two entries German Wheat and Fruit Beer BJCP Category 20.

Peaches-n-Cream Hefe NHC-2010 Gold
by Scott Townsend
http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/ ... ncreamhefe
12 Gallons 1.050 0G | 1.012 FG | 9.6 IBUs

Grain Bill
10.5 lb German Wheat
8.25 lb Bohemian Pilsner
2.0 lb German Light Munich
2.0 lb Rice hulls (in mash)

Decoction Mashing Directions
Crush grains and mash in at 112°F for 20 minutes. Infuse to raise temp to 144°F and hold for 20 minutes. Pull first decoction and bring slowly to a boil. Add back, raise temp to 152°F and hold for 60 min. Pull second decoction and add back to raise temp to 159°F and hold for 30 minutes. Infuse to mash out at 168°F. Sparge to collect 13.5 gallons of wort and boil. Add first hop addition and bring to a boil. Add second hop addition with 50 minutes remaining.

90 Min: Boil
1.0 oz Hallertauer Mittelfruh 2% AA Whole hops (or 0.85 oz pellet hops) (FWH)
1.0 oz Liberty pellet hops, 4% AA (50 min)

White Labs WLP 300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast - 1.6 liter starter
Primary Fermentation: 65°F until finished
Secondary Fermentation: Keg Condition until bottling at 35°F

Keg 5 Gallons as Wheat Beer:
Force Carbonate

Keg 5 Gallons as Fruit Beer:
Peaches and Cream: Added to Keg
4.0 oz Natural Peach flavoring (at bottling)
7.0 oz Lactose(at bottling)

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[Bill Lawrence]

Jimmy is absolutely correct, for a change. Also, as long as a beer has no flavor flaws, just because you don't think it will win anything means squat. A couple of years ago I wanted to build a starter for a Belgian Tripple I wanted to make. I like to make a small beer then harvest the yeast for the big stuff so in this case I started with a Trappist Single. I though it tasted good but it was a small beer and since I would enter it as a Belgian Specialty beer (since there is no other category for Singles) I figured I'd get killed by the bigger more complex beers I knew would be entered in the category. Well, long story short as usual I didn't know dick and ended up with a metal (and that was not exactly my first rodeo). Moral of the story; just enter the beer and let the judges sort things out. At worst, you'll get a couple of score sheets which you can use to make a better beer next time (I look at these contests as nothing more the really big focus groups where you get to drink alot). At best who knows?

[TheMacheteMasher]

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I am actually ahead of schedule for a change. Abhi helped bottle some entries for BB2014 others will be pulled from the cellar. Here is the short list. This is subject to change based on my likes. I typical enter one case box of 8 entries. Since we are gunning for medals may pull the notSo entries. Those I enter for feedback. I find the judges comments worth the price of admission.

Dry Stout
NotSoEnglish IPA
NotSoOld Ale
NotSoKolsch

Saison
Biere de Garde
Lambic
Kriek
Gueuze

Cider
NotSoMead

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