The results for the Boston Homebrew Competition came out on Sunday and I was surprised and happy to see that my Blonde Ale had won second prize in the Light Hybrid Beer category.
I was surprised that the blonde placed because I felt it had a few things going against it.
1. I rushed it. I let primary fermentation go for only 10 days so I could get it into bottles and have fresh beer for Thanksgiving. I didn’t take a gravity reading. I just racked it and bottled it.
2. The carbonation is low. I am not sure why that is but it probably has something to do with the rushed nature of the bottling process.
3. I used my homegrown hops, which were unproven. The blonde was the experiment.
So it goes to show you never know what’s going to place in a competition. Just brew as best you can and submit as many as you can.
I thought my rauchbier had a better chance of placing but no awards for that one. I’m curious to see the sheet.
UPDATE:
Here’s a photo of the sheets and the awards. The Rauchbier actually got a better score.
JW
Congratulations John! BHC was a good comp – I was wondering if you guys entered anything.
-JW
John
Thanks JW.
Yeah, I think I will submit beers to two competitions on an annual basis. One will be this one and the other one will be the NERHBC in the Fall.
chris
Congratulations.
I have a quick question. I have an ESB that has a faint ring around the neck of every bottle. I panicked and thought INFECTION so opened a bottle after 1 week conditioning . It tastes fine, its undercarbonated obviously but certainly not sour. Any ideas what the ring might be? Early infection?
Mike
It would sound like an early infection to me. Not all infections go sour either FYI. So how it goes, but you may start drinking them up once they are carbed so as to not lose some bottles to a contamination that either tastes bad or simply super carbonates the beer.