Aaaargh! version 2

Events & Comps
1

Well Jim, I’m going to echo your Aaaargh! but for different reasons

This is the first time I have entered a competition.  I got the email saying I got all 3 spots I asked for.  Nice!  Down at the bottom of the email there is the friendly line: “See National Homebrew Competition information on the AHA website for additional competition details.”

If I noticed it at all, I thought I had months before I needed to do anything.  Until I saw your post about your shipment getting ruined.  “What the heck is Jim doing shipping his beer in!?  This is the first of March!”  I thought…

So crap.  I have only one (an American Barleywine) of the 3 beers brewed, but it is not bottled nor carbed yet.  Guess I’m out.

2

bummer! It snuck on my a bit this year too. I have a brew in the fermenter now, just pitched yeast that was supposed to be my fourth entry. Luckily I had some stuff in the cellar to replace it. Not sure what I was thinking, it’s more or less the same time every year.

3

You can always change your entry to another style if you have something else ready.

4

I pulled a keg from my cellar last Friday to chill for bottling.  I was shocked that it was super low and was getting worried that I didn’t have enough beer for all the bottles I need (of course, we only need two right now).

It took my a couple days, and some organizing, but I finally realized that the keg I grabbed was the wrong keg.  I still have almost 5 gallons of the beer I want to submit, thankfully.

So, my ARRGH! was averted.  But I still have to bottle and ship.

5

I take it you didn’t get the Chicago region?

6

I’m driving mine into Chicago… In theory… Once I decide what I have and can enter… It’s kind of a cluster this year for me.  Totally unprepared :-/

7

I did.  But I’m exceedingly parochial and Aurora is quite a ways away.

Worst case, I’ll drive them out.  But I don’t know when I could/would do that.

8

Yeah, with Easter falling the way it does this year, it seems like the window is really long for some locations.  It is hard to think about bottling and sending a beer to a competition 6-8 weeks before it is even going to get judged (depending on your region)… It really sneaks up.

9

Next year Steve! And come judge with us too!

10

On a similar line, I went downstairs this morning to counterpressure fill a couple bottles for Bockfest. here in Cincinnati. I couldn’t find my keg! After some frantic searching I found the beer still in the secondary. Hopefully it’s carbed by tomorrow afternoon so I can still drop them off in time (comp is Saturday, drop off deadline is 5 tomorrow).