I don’t understand why a beer gun would prevent diacetyl.
I’m very competitive when brewing for competitions, but I also enter beers when I’m not confident they are winners. Its the only way to TRULY know if your recipe needs a tweak or an overhaul.
If a beer is clean and (at least) loosely fits into the style, and you think a few tweaks will make it great, enter it. Its a great way to get truly objective feedback. Also, it can flush out any flaws in your competition packaging procedure. Its good to work out the kinks before bottling up that spot-on batch.
[quote]I don’t understand why a beer gun would prevent diacetyl.
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While I am interested in the answer, this sounds like an equipment purchase justification I might make to SWMBO. Whatever works 
While I am interested in the answer, this sounds like an equipment purchase justification I might make to SWMBO. Whatever works
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Beer guns are neat little devices, that’s for sure. But I’ve never hooked up C02 to mine. (maybe that’s why one judge noted a bit of oxidation, ;D)
I haven’t gotten my score yet, but I sent in an APA that gotten some great scores this past few months and placing 2nd and 3rd in a couple comps. However, in those competitions, I was able to submit my beer a couple of days before judging. I submitted my APA to the Denver region and it sat in the bottle for almost a month. I bottled 4 total, and on judging day I opened the three remaining bottles and they were not even close as good as they usually are. Lost most of its hop aroma and flavor, wasn’t bad, just not nearly as good. Not expecting much in terms of score, but maybe the beer gun could help out next go around. I just used a picnic tap and small racking tube like I’ve always done, but then again, when I’ve bottled before they were empty within a couple of days.
Oxidation can cause diacetyl to reform.
I’ll say this: if you are not purging with a beer gun you are definitely going to oxidize the beer. Just the way that they sprays out at the bottom is a poor design if it comes in contact with o2. It’s fine for filling growler sans Co2 but I wouldn’t be storing any beer long term with BG. You’d be better off with a want attached to tap and filling from bottom.
First off, I’m not a BG fan and will never own one, but I can’t see how a wand with a cobra tap would oxidize beer any less than a BG. The BG fills from the bottom and with probably less turbulence, since the valve is quick opening and on the bottom.
Precursor exposed to air = diacetyl. Beergun has the CO2 purge feature. It was a Pilsner, nothing to hide behind.
Edit: toured Bells at an AHA rally in 2008. Their bottling line does a double purge with CO2 before filling.
As a fairly active judge who lives out in the sticks, I’d love to see a small stipend that would at least cover gas. I could see a higher fee being used to both raise revenue and lower entry numbers. Not sure how expensive you’d have to make an entry to accomplish the latter. After all we’ve demonstrated we have some disposable income just through our brewing hobby.
I don’t live in the sticks, but did drive the 300 miles to Indianapolis. Saw family in Indiana, got judging points, said high to some judges I know, and got to talk with Martin for a while.
Money for gas would be nice, but not necessary.
I passed on NHC in Chicago to judge for a friend in StL. Shorter drive too. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to travel for judging whether theres a stipend or not. But it does add up when you do it five or more times a year. I could also see the stipend tied to BJCP rank. We all like to see a National judge tasting our babies.
Not me. Less-experienced judges like my beers a lot more.
I just don’t think I can be in favor of stipends for judges. I could see a raffle and gifts for judges, but stipends just sound like added complications for competition organizers.
Scores are relative. Some flights score higher than others. I had a beer score a 38 that didn’t place or advance in a relatively small competition once. I had another beer that scored a 32.5 in a mid-sized category (porters) and took first. I have known judges who won’t score anything lower than 30 if it isn’t godawful and others who seem morally opposed to giving a 40. That’s why I care more about the comments made on my scoresheets than the numbered score. Although I do get unreasonably angry when a judge writes something like “use less crystal malt” in a beer that has no crystal malt. And don’t get me started on the phantom diacetyl that some judges seem to detect…
I haven’t received my scoresheets yet, but it seemed like the Northern California region was an severely understaffed this time around. I will be surprised if I get them all back anytime soon. Several other competitions occurring around the same time had to be part of the problem, but the fact that the only drop point (and location of the judging) was an hour southeast of San Francisco and 30-45 minutes southeast of Oakland made it very inconvenient to engage in the competition. I am sure there must have been reasons to put the comp out in the boonies, but for the life of me I can’t understand how nobody just vetoed that idea off the bat. I know it kept me from volunteering to steward or anything, and I am sure the same is true for a lot of guys in my club.
I agree. At the comp I helped judge here in Michigan a few months ago, there were prizes. Every judge left with something. It might have only been a t-shirt and a mug but it was something. You could have won a stainless steel pot, 40 qt I believe.
Ah, makes sense. I’ve been using the wand in the picnic tap for all my bottles recently and haven’t had any issues. I only use it for beers that won’t be aging for more than a month or two. I tried doing a CO2 purge once and didn’t notice any difference. The big thing to remember is cap on foam. The foam seems to clear the head space of most of the oxygen. I did it once without cap on foam and within 3 weeks, very noticeable oxidation notes.
I think you would already know if your beer advanced by the scoresheet. Look at the “Place Awarded” box on the cover page. If there is a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd there, then you advanced…
If not, better luck next time!
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Well, in the “place awarded” box was nothing but empty space. So I didn’t advance with those scores. Bummer. I’ll be stewarding the afternoon session of the final round. Hope I get to taste some of the Ambers that DID advance.
I guess I’ve got a year to fine tune that recipe for next year. I just tapped a session IPA that’s pretty tasty. If you’re coming to Seattle, look for it at the WAHA booth.
There are always lots of things that can happen to your beer by the time it gets to the judges, and of course judges can just be off that day, or fatigued, or skewed by a really good or bad sample before yours. We all know this and accept that competitions and judging are not perfect.
However, as a judge and as an entrant, I particularly like that a whole bunch of pale ales or stouts or pilsners all get judged together. Good judges can easily pick out the flaws in this format, anything slightly off will stand out, which as a brewer/taster you don’t always notice when sampling your beer on its own. I have personally entered some really good beers that don’t win in the Canadian Qualifier - I am sometimes able to taste the medal winning beers against mine after the judging session is over, and it is usually quite obvious that mine is indeed inferior.
This is also why I like doing themed tasting events, usually with a mix of commercial beers and homebrews. Recently did a large RIS tasting, doing a lambic/flanders red tasting tomorrow night. It gives you an excellent opportunity to see the variety/creativity within a style, and also brings the flaws to the forefront, and is a great way to sperate the men from the boys so to speak when you taste a whole bunch of “world class examples.”
those boxes aren’t always filled out
One of the things I do as Competition Organizer for the San Francisco region is go back through all of the flight summary sheets and mini best of show sheets and make sure that the checkbox for “advanced to Mini B.O.S. is checked” on every scoresheet. Yes it’s a lot of extra work, but it can certainly tell the brewer their beer achieved a higher calling than just their score 
– Jon Koerber