I brewed a bunch of recipes that I like to make for the NHC and I was really careful, really meticulous, really stringent on my measuring, sanitation etc and now that I’m tasting them, I’m sort of disappointed. I think my regular old everyday beers where I just make beer are better. Is it possible to be too clinical? You just can’t taste the love…
My let down comes with some of the score sheets.
Some do OK and that makes us feel better.
Jeff I thought you’d score between 46 and 49 with the odd 50 thrown in for all your beers. 
I learn from every batch that I make. Even if it’s something as little as making a small process improvement, every batch of beer builds upon the next. It’s a never ending process of improvement. The key is to “never give up” and continually strive to make better beer. I made better beer this year than I did a few years ago and I will continue to strive to make better beer. 8)
I see the smiley.
Reality is that you will advance fewer beers than you think/hope. Your judgement is alway on the positive side. Gordon Strong’s observation on this is that you will on average advance/place 1/3 of your entries.
Last year I had 10 entered in the NHC, 3 advanced, one receieved a medal. That one was a bronze and a 38 IIRC. Anytime you get a medal that the NHC 2nd round, it is a good thing.
Ron sums it up very well, keep learning so you can improve your process. The Czech Pils we had tonight is better than last years. Maybe it will get through the first round this year.
Just send them to me, then. I’ll make sure they are properly evaluated. ;D
Were your expectations too high? Did you change something drastic in an attempt to “improve” your process? Or, maybe you just rushed the fermentation/conditioning to get them ready for the shipping deadline?
I don’t see how you could have made your current recipes worse just by being more precise.
Nothing like brewing for a contest to make a recipe come out dull. Although I think I always find something wrong with a beer at first and then as I progress through the batch I get used to the new combo and learn to like it.
Keep in mind this only works if you brew very good beer. If you’re brewing just okay beer and have the occasional great one, this theory won’t work. You have to brew consistently good beer. I’m sure Jeff and Gordon both do that.
One of the few times I have been mentioned in the same sentence with Gordon. Not in his league by any means.
I have brewed beers that scored in the 40’s, but that is rare. Through my judging experience, I’d say that finding a beer that scores in the 40’s in competition is rare too. Looking at the Commercial Calibration results that are presented in Zymurgy, 40’s are rare in the commercial ranks too.
Brewing a beer in the mid to upper 30’s can easily get you medals. It all depends what other beers show up that day.
Maybe you set your expectations too high. They might be fine, but you are having trouble perceiving their true taste. Hopefully you will do well in the competition, just not better than my entries. 
Even a 40 doesnt guarantee much. My Scottish/-70 scored a 40 and didn’t even medal in a competition a few weeks ago and the other beers I entered scored mid to upper 30’s also with no medals to show for it.
Sometimes I have found that I am my biggest critic of my beers. Maybe you are being a little too harsh on yourself gmac.
i am just hoping to get a score sheet back with a number on it from the one beer i entered.
maybe if i enter multiple beers and add up the scores they will get in the 30s. :-\
but in the meantime. i am happy drinking and sharing what i brew with my friends. 
You’re probably right. The one that’s got me bummed out is my California Common. I’ve entered that in two competitions and scored well in both but this time I think the cooler fermentation temps at this time of year have really made a difference. My basement was probably 60 or so and the beer just doesn’t have the ester profile that I’m used to. It was probably 65 to 68 last time I made it.
I also think I do a decent APA (it’s scored in the low 40’s before) but I didn’t get it done in time 
My English IPA is ok but the gravity ended up weaker than I wanted and then I had a keg-related mis-hap. The picnic tap blew off the end of the line and dumped about 3 gals of beer into the bottom of the freezer.
My wheat is good, can’t complain about that one.
I put my Kolsch into the cold room with a blow off hose and water and it got really cold and sucked some water up from the cup. It doesn’t seem contaminated but I was worried for a while.
I used the Kolsch yeast to make cider (last time I used American Lager). It’s taking forever to clear. Yes, I know that’s a major change.
I tried an Irish Red (first time) and it’s really, really cloudy. Fined it today but I guess I can’t say too much about it because it’s the first time I’ve done this one. I used 2 oz of roast barley and there is no perceptible roast character. I made an ESB that I’ve done lots of times and really like and added 2 oz of roast barley at sparge just for colour (which I’ve done before) and got very strong roast flavour that clearly doesn’t belong in an ESB.
I don’t think my smoked porter is smokey enough this time but it’ll be ok.
My French Saison has too much coriander despite being exactly the same amount as I used last time when it was great.
I made a CAP that is reading 1.002 FG right now (WLP800). Seems a bit lower than it should be.
Otherwise, everything went great.
“Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?”
Could also be higher levels of pectin in your apple juice. Hitting your juice with pectin enzyme when you pitch the yeast will help. I’m assuming you know the other tricks, like crash cooling and fining/filtering.
Ow. I’m skeptical of putting roast barley into just about anything other than a Stout or Irish Red. For color adjustment, go with Carafa or even caramel coloring.
If the underlying recipe is great, just specify the lower level of smoke in your ingredients and hope that you get judges who appreciate subtlety. Not every smoke beer has to smell like a forest fire.
Might have used fresher or higher grade coriander this time out. Again, if the base beer is good, consider entering it. Maybe it’s not a saison, but it might be a legitimate Belgian Specialty or SHV beer.
In that case, there’s a chance you might be able to pass it off as a German Pils, SAL or PAL, depending on how body and hop character turn out.
Thanks Thomasbarnes. There’s something not right with the cider. I’m gonna re-do for personal consumption.
I guess it really didn’t matter because as I posted in my bottle woes thread, my supplier really dropped the ball, even though they assured me repeatedly that they could get me bottles. I should have cancelled my order two weeks ago and gone elsewhere but they assured me they’d get me bottles and then didn’t so I chose not to enter this year. I guess I can use the extra year to refine some of these recipes.
Define “not right.” Is it just the cider not wanting to clear or off-flavors?
You might have some wild yeast in there that aren’t wanting to flocculate and which are throwing off-flavors. In cider, wild yeast tend to come across more as sharp and slightly vinous, perhaps with a bit of smoke.