The Results Are In!

Last week I had a couple of homebrew club events. The first being our monthly BJCP style session at The Old Toad, this month featuring...

Category 12: Porter

An awesome beer in an awesome-r bottle!

The Porter category is broken down into 3 sub categories, and Thomas, one of our BJCP gurus did an awesome job of sourcing some great examples of each.

12-A: Brown Porter

• Old-Style Porter by St. James Brewery
• Taddy Porter by Samuel Smith
• Entire Butt English Porter by Salopian Brewery
• London Porter by Meantime Brewing

12-B: Robust Porter

• Porter by Sierra Nevada
• Bully! Porter by Boulevard Brewing
• New World Porter by Avery Brewing
• Bad Elmers Porter by Upland Brewing

12-C: Baltic Porter

• Baltika #6 Porter by Baltika
• Porteris by Aldaris
• Gonzo Imperial Porter by Flying Dog

After all those great porters, it was time to get some sleep because we had our UNYHA meeting the next day and I was ready to get my scoresheets from our annual competition!

I'd entered two beers in the UNYHA competition, both in category 16. 16-A Witbier and 16-B Belgian Pale Ale, and they both did pretty good. I was hoping for a little higher score, but I was pretty happy for my first time entering a competition.

Cover sheet for my judging notes

Both of my beers scored a 26 out of a perfect possible score of 50, which puts them in the range of "Good" beers. I was hoping to push a little closer to 30, but theres always next year! Most of the feedback I got on the beers was pretty good. They both were a little stale and oxidized, most likely due to the fact that these brews were about 4 months old at the time of the competition. They both also lacked a little head retention, which is something I've noticed about them and need to tweak my recipes.   Overall though, the judges seemed to think these beers were going in the right direction, just a few more tweaks needed. As a comparison, I think the beer that won my category scored a 32 or a 32.5, so I wasn't too far behind! Not too bad for a first effort!

With my scoresheets in tow, and some sanitizer that I picked up for helping steward the competition, it was time to head home, and to Columbus, Ohio for my annual concert weekend with my Brother-in-Law Andrew. We skipped the beers at the concert ($8 Bud Lights...no thanks!) but picked up some more Ohio beers at the carry-out by his house. It was a great beer week and I brought a few great beers back to Rochester with me!

Cheers!

Snowstorms and Belgian Strong Ale

Yesterday, Rochester got hit pretty good by an early February snowstorm. We got just shy of 12" of snow here at the house, but luckily there were some tasty beers to keep my spirits up. Last night we had our monthly BJCP Style Session at The Old Toad. (They also happened to have one of my favorite beers in the world, Abita Turbodog...on Cask!)

The style in question for the evening was BJCP Category 18 - Belgian Strong Ale

Probably my absolute favorite category of beers. I love everything about them; I Love Belgium, and I Love Belgian Beer!

The category is split into 5 sections, and we had two samples from each section. Our BJCP leaders put together a great spread of beers to try, and luckily these beers are getting easier to find here in the U.S.

Last night we sampled:

18A-Belgian Blonde Ale
Affligem Blonde
Maredsous Blonde

18B-Belgian Dubbel
La Trappe Dubbel
Chimay Premiere (Red)

18C-Belgian Tripel
Westmalle Tripel
Unibroue La Fin du Monde

18D-Belgian Golden Strong Ale
Duvel
Piraat

18E-Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Rochefort 10
St. Bernardus Abt 12




These beers are all quite unique in a way that only Belgian ales are. Fruity esters, spiciness, dark candies, sweet, but not filling, and a very restrained alcohol presence, despite some of these beers getting up past 10% ABV.

After the tasting I'm even more excited about my brewing this year. I should be trying my Dubbel out this weekend, and I've got a Belgian Pale Ale and Wit fermenting. My next brew is going to be category 18A-Belgian Blonde Ale.

Have you all had the chance to try out any good Belgian Strong Ales? What's your favorite? If you've never had the chance to try any, they are worth picking up and sharing with friends, or keeping to yourself! (Just watch out for that ABV!)

Cheers!

BJCP Category 17 - Sour Ale

Very few things could get me out of the house when the weather drops below 0, but one of those things is beer. Last night my homebrew club UNYHA had a BJCP (Beer Judges Certification Program) style session, and the beer in the crosshairs is a very unique, creative, mis-understood, and often times delicious, sour ales.

The category is split into 6 categories:
17A-Berliner Weisse
17B-Flanders Red
17C-Flanders Brown
17D-Straight Unblended Lambic
17E-Geuze
17F-Fruit Lambic

Thomas, one of our beer judges and leaders of the BJCP teaching program put together an amazing collection of beers for us to try, many of which I'd never had before. Think of these beers as refreshing, sour, but not too much. Imagine a very dry white wine with different fruit and body complexity.

Trying all of these sour beers got me thinking, it might be time for me to try my hand at making one of these beers and seeing how it goes. Stay tuned for an update on that, and all of my brewing. It's been far too long since I've put fire to my brew kettle.

Special thanks to The Old Toad for being such amazing hosts. This is one of my favorite pubs in Rochester, so if you are ever in the area, let me know and we can go in for a pint!

Cheers!