To me, it shows the general progression in homebrewing. Pilsner used to be one of the lesser entered categories, but now it was the highest entered. That says a lot about the improved skill of homebrewers.
The 146 entries was the result of many styles getting lumped together. Anything that was a “Pils” was thrown in. Had they ran the normal categories, with the respective sub-categories, Pilsner would not have ranked the highest.
They completely omitted the Bitter European Lager category, which is what my 5D German Pilsner was.
The winner was a New Zealand Pils. I am told this beer is much closer to an IPA than a Euro-Pilsner. Grassy, citrus like hop character.
No disrespect, but Hoo-boy, that is a huge leap to take, in my opinion. That Pilsner was the highest entered category can be explained away by many reasons, the least of which might be that homebrewers have improved dramatically as a lot in the last few years.
Could be a restructuring of the competition.
Could be a shift in beer drinking trends.
Could be that Pilsner now gets more inappropriate or poorly made entrants than ever before. :-\
I am basing it on my own anecdotal experience in judging, so it could be a biased view, but in all categories the quality on average has greatly improved over the last 15 years. That leads many brewers to enter only really well made beers. Pilsners are among the tougher beers to get right, with little to hide behind. Just celebrating that, is all. Cheers!
I have witnessed the same thing. Many of the judges I’ve talk to have said something similar, home brewing is increasing in quality, especially in the last 10-15 years. Brewers and their beers are just getting better.
I won’t disagree that homebrewers are getting better, but my point is that (IMO) this theory isn’t proven by the fact that there are more entries in the Pilsner category than year’s past.
Show me that scores in all categories are trending upwards as a whole, and I might get on board.
Sorry for being a PITA.
I pretty much agree with you. Lagers are simply becoming more popular. More commercial breweries are making them, liking them, and taking the cue to make them. The perceived increase in quality could simply be because there are more of them out there.
I see your point and agree that without data analysis, my point is pure conjecture. But I “think” the beers in competitions are greatly improved, which came about because (perhaps) homebrewers sought the challenge of lagers, especially lighter lagers that traditionally required greater brewer control than ales. I could be dead ass wrong, but as a lager brewer (predominantly), I think the homebrewers have less fear to make difficult beers now.
Cheers to a great hobby!
I don’t judge a lot any more, but the last couple times I did I don’t recall the beers generally being better quality than previously.
You could be right. I had a recent 45 not place, though - again, just anecdotal.
Homebrewing has gotten better in the last 10-15 years. Just look at the resources that became available to homebrewers in that time.
I built a RIMS system 12 years ago. At that time they were pieced together, there was all kinds of information meant to dissuade a person from brewing on a RIMS (thin beers, hot side aeration, scorched wort, etc.). There wasn’t a any RIM tubes available, so I pieced one together with parts from McMaster-Carr (I love that site). Controller? Gotta build it yourself. Now you can buy parts, premade controllers, whole systems ready to go from a box like the Grainfather. RIMS are very common now.
Some improvements are meant to make it easier, more convenient. Some just make better beer and easier to boot. Here’s a few that I can think of:
- more yeasts are available, both dry and liquid. The dry yeast has gotten better over the years. Huge impact on quality
- more choices in grains and other ingredients from all over the world
- more hops and better packaging. Places like Yakima Valley Hops treat the hops better than some dude in a backroom of a homebrew shop stuffing an ounce of hops in a poly bag and sealing them with a hot sealer. No nitrogen flush, no mylar packaging, no date, no hop harvest year.
- devices like the Tilt to monitor live fermentation, better temp controllers, ready to go RIMS systems with tighter temperature control
- a variety of spunding valves for both pressurized fermentation and spunding in a keg and pressurized transfers
- a variety of stainless steel fermenters, conical, “bucket”, modified Sanke kegs, etc. This allows for closed, pressurize transfers. No more auto-siphon and open air transfers not to mention spunding
- brewers are better informed. The internet has brought so much information to the average home brewer, it’s astounding. Books about nearly any subject you care to know
- a lot of different brewing software, take your pick
This is just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head. I know my brewing has improved in just the last couple of years. I have been brewing for 16-18 years and competing for 10 years. I’m convinced that the beer I won golds for 10 years ago would not do as well today. There are so many good brewers out there, it’s amazing.
So has quality of homebrew improved over the last 10-15 years? I believe it has, or a lot of these advances in homebrewing were for not.
You’re not the Lone Ranger!
We had a 42 and a 43 not place. Both beers were very good.
Getting scores over 40 is a challenge! We had beers score 38, 39, and get a Gold.
Which while unusual, is not unheard of. You could say it was exuberant judging as much as beer quality.
For sure, but it would be interesting to compare scores year over year and category by category to see if there are any trends to be spotted among major competitions.
In my case, I don’t think my brewing has gotten worse, but that everyone else has gotten better. My winningest years of competition were 16 years ago.
That’s a good assessment.
Now that a full week has passed by, has anyone gotten updates on when the score sheets (comment sheets) will be provided to the participants?
I’m beginning to lose interest at this point.
I got my score sheets today. Evidently my smoked beer was too smokey.
A judge that has never been to Schlenkerla.
I laughed out loud at the ‘smoke beer too smoky’ remark.
Disclaimer: Any comment I add is simply the way I brew beer. There are certainly other ways that can be equally effective which other brewers may contribute. This is what I’ve found that works for me using my equipment and processes so I offer this for your consideration. YMMV