Judged a homebrew contest sponsored by the St Louis Brews this weekend. Its a tough job but someone has to do it. Entered three beers, and managed a second place on a Flanders red.
Most importantly though, I won the grand prize in the raffle. It was a Brewhemoth conical fermentor with all the bells and whistles. We’re talking a 22gal stainless steel conical (easily ferments a half barrel/15.5gal), tri-clamp version, with the internal cooling coil and the pressurizing attachment. They even included the tri-clamp valves and hardware so it is completely ready to go.
I was totally stunned when they read my number. I’ve been a small-batch brewer but this system will let you brew 5gal just fine so it will see a lot of use. I’m already ordering some extra hardware to explore closed-system pressurized fermentation, something I only learned about when I started looking at Brewhemoth threads on another forum. I’ve also got a plan for temperature control with the chiller unit.
In any case, thanks to Josh and Dale for donating such a fantastic prize. Enjoyed judging a round with Josh on Saturday, not knowing he was one of the guys running Brewhemoth. The company is based in St Louis and the guys are award-winning homebrewers. Go check out their website and be prepared to be jealous.
Congrats, that’s a great prize just for showing up and judging. I’ve had a pair of them since earlier this year and haven’t even put anything besides water int hem. I’m almost to the point in my project of putting some beer in them though
This one won’t sit empty for long, I’ve got plenty of malt and I’ll start with an ale and the basement is already cool so I have great ambient temps.
Thanks Denny, I may pressure-ferment a BVIP this winter. The BVIP that won the specialty beer category (see my post on Specialty Judging) was just excellent.
I’ll definitely do a 15gal batch at some point this year just for fun. I could probably do two mashes/boils with my system and come up with that amount. I’ll have to get help drinking the beer but I have a feeling there would be volunteers who would bring a keg by for a fill. I have 400+ lb of malt in the basement so that won’t be a problem either.
No, if you have entries you can’t judge that style category. There are 23 categories though so its usually not a problem unless you enter a whole lot of beers. The only problem is if you enter categories you really enjoy, then you can’t be assigned to judge those. They will usually ask you what you want to judge, and sometimes you get one of those.
I entered in light lagers, amber lagers, and sours. I judged German wheats, Belgian and French ales, and Specialty beers. I liked the weizens, I have experience brewing those. I also have experience with the Belgians but I’m not that big of a fan of the phenolic character anymore. The Specialty category was all over the place. I think the worst are the dark beers, 10 stouts and your palate is toast.
I woke up early and decided to fill the Brewhemoth with hot water and PBW. Its full to the brim, 22gal. I opened the dump valve and the racking valve to get cleaner through them, that amount of head really makes the water shoot out with some force.
Now I just have to hope the water heater recovers before my wife wakes up and wants to shower.
You certainly hope never.
One time I was a BOS judge and was served my own beer. The organizer goofed up. I chose to withdraw my beer from BOS judging. It seemed less disruptive to remove the beer than recuse myself mid-judging. I was given the choice.
All things considered, I would have rather had the pile of goodies that came with winning BOS than the BOS experience points. But the time for that decision was before the BOS judging started, not midstream.
Actually I remember that incident, too, but I thought that the best of show judging points earned you the very first BJCP National rank in the state. That was probably worth it.
I drained the PBW and have it soaking with Starsan now, so its ready to go. I ordered some additional tri-clamp fittings and the stuff to make a spunding valve, hopefully things will be in by the weekend. My Chicago trip got postponed so I have the weekend to play.
I’m considering setting up a chiller with a small wine fridge I’m not using. Its Peltier cooled, I would drill holes in the top for the plastic hoses and put my coolant reservoir in the fridge and pump with a small pond pump. Not sur ethis would give me lager temps, although duirng the winter the basement is cool (60F tops) anyway.
