With NHC coming up and it being my only 3rd comp entry ever. I am trying to get a feel for what other peoples views on the subject are.
What is your prefered method
- Bottle Conditioning
- Forced Carbonation
- Depends on style
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voters
The beers I am entering deserve to be bottle conditioned.
Can you explain this a little more? What beer styles are you planning on entering?
Certain beers I always bottle condition. Saisons over 6%, big Belgians, imperial stout, barleywine, and anything else I don’t think I need kegs of.
I know there is plenty of evidence to the contrary, I think bottle conditions adds something to beers.
This time I am entering a saison and maybe an imperial stout.
I always force carbonate my entries. Mostly because it’s easiest for me to do it that way. I used to bottle condition my comp entries but I often got hit on appearance and flavor from suspended yeast. Remember you never know what kind of handling your bottles will receive…
In my opinion, those were crappy judges.
Or crappy handling pouring before the judge got it. I’m just a rookie but I imagine it’s difficult to tell a glass that was poured sloppy vs the beer just being turbid
Times I have judged, the other judge and I opened and poured all the beers.
No, those were crappy stewards. Give me a cloudy lager and its gonna get scored as a cloudy lager. Unless I pour, I judge on what I get.
A judge should check the bottle for sediment if they get a cloudy beer that shouldn’t be. The real issue is the flavor. Drinking yeast in the beer does effect the flavor. A judge could give you leeway on the appearance but might now be able to separate out the yeast flavors from the beer.
I guess what I’m getting at is there is a risk here. Personally I do like bottle conditioned beer more. But it has to be poured and handled correctly.
Ya if that’s the case and it’s not all shook up, you’re right. I would think a judge should know not to dump the dregs into the cup then hammer the brewer for turbidity.
I always look for sediment first, but more importantly I pour the first beer first as a demo so that the flight attendant knows how to pour the rest of the flight.
I’ve found it to be more of a problem in mini-BOS on the re-pour. In that case it’s not that the judge is bad, but just that the beer doesn’t present the same. It’s hard to take another judge’s word that “this beer was way better earlier” when what is in front of you is anything but impressive.
on a side note, I’ll reiterate that going to two bottles for the first round of NHC last year is the best change that has been made in years. Getting a fresh second bottle was awesome.
to the OP, I prefer to force carb if possible, but the longer/warmer the wait between when the beer is filled and when it is judged is, the more my bottle conditioned beers tend to dominate. It’s hard to get all that O2 out of there filling off the keg.
that said though, I believe timing your brewing so that your beers are coming into peak form for a certain competition makes a bigger difference than packaging.
2 NHC medals here. One was bottle conditioned, one was not. Hope this helps. ;D
+1000
thanks Jeff, very helpfull.
0 NHC medals, but I did stay in a holiday inn ex…
anyway.
I find I have issues getting really big beers to carbonate in the bottle lately. and then when they do and are perfectly clear glowing gems in the glass and then a slug of yeast goes and clouds them up… grrrr.
So this year I’m carbing all my beers in kegs and I’ll bottle what I need from the keg. I am going to bottle some sour beer because I won’t drink that as fast so it can take as long as it wants to carb.
I think you take your chances entering a bottle conditioned beer that is intended to be bright. Not to say that pours shouldn’t be handled with care but it’s not that easy to pour multiple tastings from a single bottle of BC beer and have them all come out clear.
I don’t have a counter-pressure bottle filler, so since I don’t know how the beers will be handled, and homebrew judges generally expect some sediment, I bottle-condition anything I’m entering in competition. 6 gal post-boil nets me a full keg and 3-6 bottles anyway, so they’re really just the “extra” beers that get entered.
I only bottle condition. I thought about kegging but space constraints kept me from it initially. Now I am happy Bottling since I can keep a wider variety on hand. Also I think bottle conditioning tastes better
I’d recommend force carbonation because you’re sure that the brew carbonated and at the level you wanted it to. Judges don’t give extra points for bottle conditioned over forced carbonation. They are supposed to judge the brew to the carbonation level and head retention stated in the style guidelines.