Well I'm still bummed that none of my entries even placed in the Upper Mississippi Mashout. That means it's time to enter another contest. As mentioned previously, I plan to concentrate on the competitions in the Midwest Homebrewer of the Year circuit. The next competition on the circuit is the Great Northern Brew-Ha-Ha. Unfortunately, the deadline for entries is January 30th, and I don't think I'll have everything ready to ship today, which is probably already too late to send without incurring rush shipping charges. So that one is off the list for me.
The MHBOY rules state that you must enter 4 competitions and 10 different categories throughout the year, which should be no problem. The next one is the Babble Brew Off, and you have until February 19th to get entries in. Conviently held in the Chicago 'burbs, I can just drop off my entries. (If you haven't figured it out yet, this blog is based in Chicago, specifically in the Noble Square Neighborhood).
I think I'll enter my Superbowl Stout, J&H Birthday Lager, and possibly Tottenham Mild, depending on how it's scoresheets from UMMO look.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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Good luck! Keep us posted on the results.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that homebrew competitions are 50% brewing skill and 50% luck. My proof? I've had five different beers place in competitions, but NONE have managed to win in a second competition (and they weren't all third-place wins in small competitions). The scientists in me says that, for the results to really mean something, they should be repeatable and so far the haven't been, at least not for me. Don't get me wrong... I still enter competitions from time to time because the feedback can be useful and, hey, it's fun to win ribbons. But I take the losses--and the wins--with a grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteRuss, I do agree that there is an element of luck, but my competition experience has differed from yours somewhat. My beers that win one contest usually win multiple contests. The problem is that these are usually really good beers and it's hard to save them.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how many scientists do you have in you? Let them out!! :-)
ReplyDeleteHmm... Maybe there's just something about my beers that makes them self-destruct after winning something. Oh, and of course I realized right after I posted the comment that I had accidentally pluralized "scientist." Of course maybe it's just a nod to my background in meteorology, as it requires you to be part physicist, part mathematician, part engineer, part computer scientist and part chemist. That's a lot of scientists, right?
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