It was Simon Svensson from Sweden who won a medal with his Wheat Wine in the Strong Ale category. The beer is apparently 4 years old and he has previously won medals with the same beer in Swedens national contest. His fellow podcast members also sent in beers but alas no medals. They all actually went to Homebrew Con so he could recieve his medal on the spot.
First and foremost, congratulations on getting ribbons on two of your beers. Secondly, thank you for sharing your judging comments. It can be difficult to take criticism of something we are passionate about but I’m pretty sure you’ve learned from it. And finally, I really appreciate your tasting notes that you give of your own beers. You’re a really good speaker and we get to learn from it.
PET bottles and a carb cap are your friends for comps. Put carb cap on, purge with CO2 from the supply for the keg, connect bottle to beer out and crack open the cap slightly to control flow of beer into bottle. Fill to the top and give the bottle a squeeze when putting the normal cap on so there is no headspace. You can leave the carb cap on and connect to gas to keep the original carbonation level.
Thanks for sharing your comments. I liked how you went through them along with a can of your entry and compared your perceptions against the judges. Congrats on your hazy coming out of the can unoxidized - really amazing. I submitted two beers to NHC for the first time this year, partly inspired by your similar 2022 video. Both of them moved on to the final round with one winning a gold in its table (only 4 entries total) and another winning silver (out of 14 entries)! Alas, same as you, the 27 entries in the final round were tough to win against. I will share a pro tip from a fellow brewer who had a beer move to the final round in a previous year, there is no rule that says you cannot rebrew between first and final round. This year there were 5-6 weeks between first round announcement and when the beer needed to be in San Diego so plenty of time to rebrew for the style of beer that needs to be judged fresh.
Glad you enjoyed the video! If you did rebrew the timeframe is pretty tight. You have only about a month between when you get your first round results and the shipping window for the final round.
Way to be able to put yourself out there for the competition, always tough to open yourself up to criticism, but the best way to grow as they clearly want to get better beer in the world...but love to see the feedback and love to see how you grow from this
More competition vids! The competition space is great for developing recipes and having a ton of fun. You should definitely look at more comps, and show how you refine recipes via comps. Great job, that comp is super tough. I had 4 advance to finals with no winners, maybe next year
Thanks for posting this. I entered beers this year with no real expectations, but ended up having two beers go through to Nationals. It was a great time, and I have gotten bit by the competition bug!
Honest video, enjoyable like last years. Would like to see a similar video of a local competition/s effort, complete with post-tasting and judges comments again.
Just like any other can filler, the tapcooler allows you to purge from the bottom up with CO2, then you push the beer into the can again bottom up, it just wont be using the counterpressure function.
Unfortunately I bottle conditioned all but one of my entries last year and they still got nailed for oxidation. The one I counterpressure filled won a medal.
I just embarked on my journey to brew some beers. Ordered myself a copy of 'how to brew' by John J Palmer and am trying to familiarize myself with the equipment I'd need to purchase, going back and forth on whether to get plastic buckets for the affordability or spend a bit more for something nicer. I'm very excited! Just wanted to stop by and let you know that your channel was the one that I'vev been enjoying and gravitating to the most! Keep up the awesome work.
Thanks for sharing your results! It is kind of a drag that packaging is so important to the competitions but it can be another aspect for us all to nerd out on. I took Gold in the American IPA category in 2021. I thought for sure that bottling off the keg (no counter pressure) and shipping from SoCal to Colorado would kill my beer, or at least hurt it pretty bad, but I guess it didn't. That year the beers were tasted approximately 2 months after I had shipped them. I bottled a few extra (and tasted them at about the same time as I figured the judges would) and the time in bottle had cleared the beer nicely, there was no oxidation, and the hops had sort of bloomed. The hazy I submitted had had all of the negative stuff happen to it though. 🙂
Well, it is certainly an aspect of brewing that I think gets easily overlooked, or forgotten once we move to kegs. Congrats on the 2021 medal! Time affects all beers differently as well, sometimes the timing is just right!
I'm done with competitions. You have no control on their storage conditions. Most likely sitting in a hot warehouse. The feedback they give are nothing like the beer I'm tasting out of the keg. I know people have solved this problem or don't care but just a waste of money for me That being said, I enjoy hearing about others results. Great video as always
I'm in the same boat with you. I can't get any brew shipped for less than $50 USD. Then add the entry fee (those vary heavily) to hear some uppidy arsehole say that my brew is "out of style" in the "anything goes" category...I'll stick to getting feedback from the local homebrew club. That way you know that they are tasting the same brew that you are. IMHO shipping does terrible things to beers.
There are definitely some aspects that are absolutely painful to deal with. I think I may eventually get out of the game but its still fun to do. I kind of enjoy the challenge.
Cans are tough on a homebrew scale. Not sure what your process but I will tell you I had the same oxidation issues with canning. I switched to SaniClean instead of StarSan. Because those bubbles traps and releases oxygen directly into the solution and you are at filling already adding oxygen directly into the beer. Also I purge for nearly 20 seconds now at 1 to 2 psi into the can before filling. That has solved a majority of my oxidation issues.
That is a very interesting observation. I use saniclean for some aspects of the brewhouse but I never thought about starsan capturing oxygen bubbles. Great point!
@@TheApartmentBrewer honestly it depends on how LODO you want to get with the brewing and canning process. I solved my oxidation issues doing the steps I mentioned but still took another step further by boiling the water before adding the SaniClean and letting it cool to safe handling temperatures to get rid of the majority of the oxygen trapped in the water itself as well. Might be unnecessary but I took it as more insurance for the canning process.
Congrats on all of your advancements! It sounds like you will have to master packaging to get a true assessment. Very interesting video. I was thinking of you when I went to Ommegang last week and had my first Quad. I remember you were very happy with the one that you brewed and I think submitted last year. I may have to revisit that vid and try making one myself! Cheers!
We have the saying in my homebrew club that homebrew competitions are just a packaging competition. At this point my process is to both purge and naturally carbonate. I'm using fermonsters with keg fittings, but you could replicate this with a keg: Clean, sanitize, purge the keg, then inject your priming sugar syrup and rehydrated CBC-1 yeast using a syringe. Rack the beer on top from the fermentor, shake the keg to distribute the yeast and sugar, put 2-3 psi on the keg, and bottle with a Blichmann beer gun and cap. Wait two weeks at room temp and done. Since switching to this process, my beers have been bomb proof. Even my 2 month old Kolsch sitting in my hot house bottled with this process shows no signs whatsoever of oxidation.
Makes a lot of sense! So I primed and bottle conditioned off a keg using a similar technique last year, I had oxidation issues with those beers unfortunately. Might need some refinement for my process still.
@@TheApartmentBrewerYou could consider purging the bottles longer before bottling. 15, maybe even 20 or 30 seconds. I also personally re-purge the headspace just prior to capping. Sucks that it didn't work for you. Oxidation is something that is definitely disproportionately difficult to manage at the homebrew level compared to the commercial level.
@@TheApartmentBrewer it is wasteful and perhaps expensive, but the fact that you can purge with CO2 and never have to openly expose it to oxygen again surely is a positive. If you counter pressure fill a regular bottle you still need to yoink the gun out and cap the bottle. PET isn't completely impermeable to oxygen, so I imagine you'd decant from the keg shortly before shipping.
First guy on the porter is Max Finnance and is one of 18 master cicerone’s in the world. He’s judged my altbier here in CT and I received a 35. He’s a stand up guy for sure and knows what he’s talking about(obviously)
Thanks for the video, My DIPA took 1st place & mini BOS bronze out of regionals but did not medal in San Diego. Tough competition! Got me thinking about how we are all shipping unrefrigerated beer across the country and how much that must play into oxidation, etc.
Ascorbic acid may be the best way to go. The caps prevent additional oxygen from getting inside the bottle, but they dont absorb anything. Cans are a complete oxygen proof seal so its kind of the same deal.
It was! On your NHC results vid from Aug 5 2022: "Apologies if a repeat comment but next time it sounds like you need to bottle in pairs, send one half of the pair off to the NHC and keep the other one (poorly, at room temps). Then when you receive your results, open the second half and see if you can 'see' what the judges are detecting."
A common theme in your critiques was fermenting 'to hot'. But you say you were well within temps, so I wonder if your thermometer is possibly off a few degrees? Also, you mentioned supplying a beer within the BJCP guidelines. I would also recommend committing to a style. For example, your Porter seemed an in between US and UK version. Yet, scored well. One wonders if you committed to the more American style you would have scored better or vice versa if you committed to a more English version and submitting as an english porter. But, great video and congrats on your ribbons!
That is a very interesting point. I'll have to double-check the calibration again. As far as the porter being in between styles, I did that because that's what I wanted to make. I was kind of curious how it would do in the comp though. If I had tailored it more to one or the other styles then I would have probably gotten a higher score.
You might want to consider a small addition of Ascorbic Acid (basically Vitamin C) at the packaging stage mate, this will scavenge any let over bits of O2 in the beer. Breweries over here in the UK use it quite a bit.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Some folk swear by a small addition of Sodium Metabisulphite (Campden tablet) in the beer achieves a similar outcome - about 0.3 grams per 19L (UK 5 gallons) at kegging. I think Brulosophy did a thing on it.
I can't speak to the storage at NHC, but I can say that Seattle regionals were refrigerated as soon as they showed up and kept there except for sorting and serving :) But I've definitely had the same feelings before, I've lost a few beers I was really proud of to oxidation. Translating from keg to competition is a huge pain and I have a tapcooler now, but I think even that hasn't been perfect...
@@TheApartmentBrewer Also, grain of salt for the knockout party. I had the same experience with the beers there, other folks have mentioned that it's common for the knockout party to be a bunch of cooked/oxidized beers because they don't waste on refrigeration after the judging finishes. The beers probably sit in a hot truck Wednesday/Thursday/Friday/Saturday before they're brought back out for the knockout so that's why most of them are duds, but they ARE held in cold storage up until judging. Shipping to get them there is a weak link, though, and some probably get cooked in transit.
still sucks for us, though, because we really don't get a feel for what the competition was like if we're drinking a bunch of cooked beers at knockout.
I am not sure if my process would have any advantage, but I find it relevant to your conversation. I don't compete, have never competed, and presently am not brewing due to health reasons. My packaging process has never involved priming with the common practice of priming sugar. I have always used the Krausen/Gyle process for packaging. I am not implying it would be superior to any practice you employed, but rather that there is no cold crash in the process until consumption(i.e. refrigeration). That variable alone lends itself to keeping better for longer in my opinion, but doesn't necessarily translate into advantage as the variables of sending, storing, etc. that happens with competing might be more than can be anticipated. 6 months is an eternity in the life of a beer around here. I am just curious about your thoughts on how the Krausen /Gyle storage process might help you in your quest to realize a return on your time invested. Competition or marketing would not ever the intended destination for any thing that I have brewed or will brew. I applaud you for having the stones it takes to put your art out there to be scrutinized by people who might not have as much invested in the craft as you do. You clearly have a dedication to the craft that some of us would find unmatchable. Cheers Apartment.
I appreciate the kind words! I know some German breweries still krausen to carbonate, maybe there is something to it that makes a difference in longevity. Cheers!
@@TheApartmentBrewer When I started brewing it was stressed that temperature control was imperative to elicit the desired sugar chain lengths. It seemed to be a waste of money to invest so much on precision electric brewing equipment, to just completely disregard the integrity of the ingredients in the finished product. Cheers buddy.
Good video, maybe I will take the plunge next year and enter some of my brews. I have seen a video where someone was bottling/canning for a competition and filled up a 5 gallon bucket with CO2 and then filled the bottles in the bottom of that so that even the surrounding environment didn't have any oxygen.
I entered a local competition with what i thought was an oxidized beer and another beer with a metallic taste. Turns out they both got gold medals and one got 2nd overall
@TheApartmentBrewer yeah I guess I can understand that. Would be nice if they had a way to at least chill them down for tasting but I guess like you say if it's in a hotel it's not super practical
Congrats on the Porter medal! I have mixed feelings about entering competitions because of the judging inconsitencies. I am sure that they all do their best, but sometimes you get feedback that is based on inaccurate assessments whicj can be anti-constructive, especially for new brewers. Maybe they butyric acid thing was due to tainted tastebuds from a prior sample.
I like how honest you are about your brews. I always tell my friends or who ever, to be honest because that is the only way we get better. Question... Why are you drinking them warm? Is that how they do it at the competition? I have never entered into one of theirs and that seems weird that they would drink beers at room temp. Especially with a lager or any other beer that is supposed to be crispy and cold. Just wondering, if I want to pay money for someone to taste my beer when it should have been drank/drunk months before they get to it. If that is the case the only category I would enter would be the Stouts. Prost!
It's seems that it's most likely your beer will be shipped warm and depending on the location could be served and stored warm. I've heard of judges receiving the beers warm as well. I don't think it happens all the time but its a good way to get some of these flaws to come out more
I guess I understand that side of it, with the flaws. I know I have made beer that is good to drink and then after awhile you're like is this the same beer! I just to need to enter to see what happens!@@TheApartmentBrewer
props for trying something new with the cans, bummer it didn't work out. i've heard it said more than once that canning at home is a fools errand, seems that may be true haha
I'm not a fan of having to package beer but with the set-ups i've worked with, bottling was easily done by 1 person, where canning took 3 people to do. More surface area is exposed during canning where a CPBF has CO2 in the headspace of the bottle. Just my 2 cents.
Its a different experience depending on who you talk to. There is a headspace difference, but personally I like the fact that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to ship and wont break.
I wonder if it is worth trying to use aluminum bottles? I don't know if they are available empty for purchase anywhere. When filling cans can you overflow them, or do you have to have X amount of head space to seal it? Thank you for the video again.
Filling the cans is a matter of getting the right flow rate into the can after purging it with CO2 so that it foams and bubbles up with a little headspace, but you want that foam to overflow the headspace and keep any oxygen from coming in.
The American competition scene is huge. The Australian competition is tiny in comparison, but the approach is kinda similar. We have state/territory-based competitions based on bjcp guidelines, and the top 3 beers from each category in each state qualify for the National Championship. Some states have more participation than others. I’ve entered a couple of times. Found feedback from state judges was very patchy in terms of accuracy, descriptions, and generally not very useful. Last year I had a number of beers in the National round and found the scoresheets far more useful. There was a 2 month gap between state and national competitions though which can be a problem. Entrants are permitted to rebrew their beers for submission to the National comp, which is a little quirky I think but probably ok
You should join a homebrewing club! That really helped up my game. You get good feedback from the members and you can find out about smaller local competitions happening around you
Getting as much feedback (honest feedback, not just "It's good") is very important to grow. Also I would recommend rebrewing a certain style until you start really understanding it very well. Practice makes perfect!
I was at a local homebrew meeting a few months ago and the guest speaker who is a bjcp judge mentioned that you should enter the beer according to the style it most likely fits into. You might try and brew a porter but enter it as a brown ale, the judges won't know and it might earn you a medal because it fits into the brown category perfectly. I'm curious why you entered your table beer as a pale ale. Anyway, I hope my feedback helps. Cheers.
This is absolutely true. I entered the table beer as a BPA because it was still the closest category. There isn't a category for low alcohol/table beer yet.
I wonder if word is getting out you have an up and coming beer youtube channel with a respectable amount of followers and the judges are being tougher on you. I am subscribed and I know one thing, if you had a beer you were proud of and had it for sale, I would buy it due to your channel and your personality. I don't even brew beer, but I am fascinated with the science involved. I appreciate the taste of beer and know the differences due to your channel.
Thanks for sharing. Just curious about something. I’d like to try this for the first time next year and was wondering since that’s the case, would it be best to focus on one style of beer? Thanks for any feedback.
So you can't submit multiple entries to the same style but you can submit multiple entries to the same category. I.e. you can't submit 5 Irish Red Ales, but you could submit an irish ale, a scottish ale, etc. That can increase you chance of medaling.
I was thinking that if I did it just keep it simple my first time out. Do one that I feel I can do well instead of multiple entires. Just to get a feel for things. Not sure how good I feel about trying to do multiple entries but I guess what’s the worst that can really happen?
You can opt to have the judge rouse the beer when pouring it, so they would swirl the can/bottle and then pour. Good for hefewiezens and other hazy styles if the haze dropped out. Evidently, a contributor to hop burn though.
The "I think you're just tasting roast, my guy" made me laugh. Never seen an annoyed Steve before
It was Simon Svensson from Sweden who won a medal with his Wheat Wine in the Strong Ale category. The beer is apparently 4 years old and he has previously won medals with the same beer in Swedens national contest. His fellow podcast members also sent in beers but alas no medals. They all actually went to Homebrew Con so he could recieve his medal on the spot.
Yes! I remember now. Thats a great achievement!
First and foremost, congratulations on getting ribbons on two of your beers. Secondly, thank you for sharing your judging comments. It can be difficult to take criticism of something we are passionate about but I’m pretty sure you’ve learned from it. And finally, I really appreciate your tasting notes that you give of your own beers. You’re a really good speaker and we get to learn from it.
Thank you so much! I'm glad videos like this are useful!
Awesome vid, as I told you I'm not into the competition side but you can't deny the chance to get some feedback to help you improve!
That's very true, it still can be fun though!
PET bottles and a carb cap are your friends for comps. Put carb cap on, purge with CO2 from the supply for the keg, connect bottle to beer out and crack open the cap slightly to control flow of beer into bottle. Fill to the top and give the bottle a squeeze when putting the normal cap on so there is no headspace.
You can leave the carb cap on and connect to gas to keep the original carbonation level.
Might have to try it some time, I didn't see any PET bottles at the competition though.
@@TheApartmentBrewer they’re pretty common at comps over here in the UK.
Thanks for sharing your comments. I liked how you went through them along with a can of your entry and compared your perceptions against the judges. Congrats on your hazy coming out of the can unoxidized - really amazing. I submitted two beers to NHC for the first time this year, partly inspired by your similar 2022 video. Both of them moved on to the final round with one winning a gold in its table (only 4 entries total) and another winning silver (out of 14 entries)! Alas, same as you, the 27 entries in the final round were tough to win against. I will share a pro tip from a fellow brewer who had a beer move to the final round in a previous year, there is no rule that says you cannot rebrew between first and final round. This year there were 5-6 weeks between first round announcement and when the beer needed to be in San Diego so plenty of time to rebrew for the style of beer that needs to be judged fresh.
Glad you enjoyed the video! If you did rebrew the timeframe is pretty tight. You have only about a month between when you get your first round results and the shipping window for the final round.
Way to be able to put yourself out there for the competition, always tough to open yourself up to criticism, but the best way to grow as they clearly want to get better beer in the world...but love to see the feedback and love to see how you grow from this
Thank you!
As a competitive homebrewer, this was the video I hoped you'd do someday! Thanks for sharing.
Glad it was useful for you!
More competition vids! The competition space is great for developing recipes and having a ton of fun. You should definitely look at more comps, and show how you refine recipes via comps. Great job, that comp is super tough. I had 4 advance to finals with no winners, maybe next year
I need to do some local stuff!
Very interesting video as always, love how you take any slight criticisms in your stride and usually agree with the judges. Cheers from the UK.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for posting this. I entered beers this year with no real expectations, but ended up having two beers go through to Nationals. It was a great time, and I have gotten bit by the competition bug!
Congratulations!
Honest video, enjoyable like last years. Would like to see a similar video of a local competition/s effort, complete with post-tasting and judges comments again.
Would love to hear more about how you canned with a CPBF! awesome content as always👍
Just like any other can filler, the tapcooler allows you to purge from the bottom up with CO2, then you push the beer into the can again bottom up, it just wont be using the counterpressure function.
oh good! congratulations! I'm the Chinese guy you met on this year's homebrew con.
Oh nice! We had great conversation, thanks for saying hi!
Do you think bottle conditioning would have solved your problems?
Unfortunately I bottle conditioned all but one of my entries last year and they still got nailed for oxidation. The one I counterpressure filled won a medal.
I just embarked on my journey to brew some beers. Ordered myself a copy of 'how to brew' by John J Palmer and am trying to familiarize myself with the equipment I'd need to purchase, going back and forth on whether to get plastic buckets for the affordability or spend a bit more for something nicer. I'm very excited!
Just wanted to stop by and let you know that your channel was the one that I'vev been enjoying and gravitating to the most! Keep up the awesome work.
Welcome to the hobby! I really hope you enjoy your journey!
Thanks for sharing your results! It is kind of a drag that packaging is so important to the competitions but it can be another aspect for us all to nerd out on. I took Gold in the American IPA category in 2021. I thought for sure that bottling off the keg (no counter pressure) and shipping from SoCal to Colorado would kill my beer, or at least hurt it pretty bad, but I guess it didn't. That year the beers were tasted approximately 2 months after I had shipped them. I bottled a few extra (and tasted them at about the same time as I figured the judges would) and the time in bottle had cleared the beer nicely, there was no oxidation, and the hops had sort of bloomed. The hazy I submitted had had all of the negative stuff happen to it though. 🙂
Well, it is certainly an aspect of brewing that I think gets easily overlooked, or forgotten once we move to kegs. Congrats on the 2021 medal! Time affects all beers differently as well, sometimes the timing is just right!
Nice insights. Very neet seeing a score sheet and how a judge will fill one out.
I'm done with competitions. You have no control on their storage conditions. Most likely sitting in a hot warehouse. The feedback they give are nothing like the beer I'm tasting out of the keg. I know people have solved this problem or don't care but just a waste of money for me
That being said, I enjoy hearing about others results. Great video as always
I'm in the same boat with you. I can't get any brew shipped for less than $50 USD. Then add the entry fee (those vary heavily) to hear some uppidy arsehole say that my brew is "out of style" in the "anything goes" category...I'll stick to getting feedback from the local homebrew club. That way you know that they are tasting the same brew that you are. IMHO shipping does terrible things to beers.
There are definitely some aspects that are absolutely painful to deal with. I think I may eventually get out of the game but its still fun to do. I kind of enjoy the challenge.
@TheApartmentBrewer and I definitely enjoy hearing about your trials and tribulations when it comes to competitions. Good content
Cans are tough on a homebrew scale. Not sure what your process but I will tell you I had the same oxidation issues with canning. I switched to SaniClean instead of StarSan. Because those bubbles traps and releases oxygen directly into the solution and you are at filling already adding oxygen directly into the beer. Also I purge for nearly 20 seconds now at 1 to 2 psi into the can before filling. That has solved a majority of my oxidation issues.
That is a very interesting observation. I use saniclean for some aspects of the brewhouse but I never thought about starsan capturing oxygen bubbles. Great point!
@@TheApartmentBrewer honestly it depends on how LODO you want to get with the brewing and canning process. I solved my oxidation issues doing the steps I mentioned but still took another step further by boiling the water before adding the SaniClean and letting it cool to safe handling temperatures to get rid of the majority of the oxygen trapped in the water itself as well. Might be unnecessary but I took it as more insurance for the canning process.
30:46 - Kitty!
There has be ONE beer that I would've been comfortable submitting to a competition, but it was simply too good to share.
That's often how it works!
Surprised and pleased to see Cairngorm glassware.
Thanks a lot for sharing. Very interesting.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Gotta re-brew the beers that advance to finals, makes it fresher and you can utilize your feedback from regionals
That's one method for sure, but with the channel I've got no time for that
Well done sir, thanks for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Could you please comment on those 2 packaging ideas: 1) PET bottles 2) Mylar bags.
Bags would not be accepted at the competition and I'm not sure if plastic bottles are either. I saw neither at the final round
I love how their comments are "be better at brewing and your beer won't suck". Bahahaha!
Some are less helpful than others lol
Congrats on all of your advancements! It sounds like you will have to master packaging to get a true assessment. Very interesting video. I was thinking of you when I went to Ommegang last week and had my first Quad. I remember you were very happy with the one that you brewed and I think submitted last year. I may have to revisit that vid and try making one myself! Cheers!
Thanks Gerard! Ommegang is a magical place and 3 philosophers was a gateway beer for me haha. Glad you got a chance to try their beer!
@@TheApartmentBrewer 3 Philosophers is the one that I had and liked the most. It was sooo good!! That was a good spot on More Beer too. Cheers!
Great video as always! I was looking to enter this year but the shipping costs from Scotland were insane!
I can't imagine!
We have the saying in my homebrew club that homebrew competitions are just a packaging competition.
At this point my process is to both purge and naturally carbonate. I'm using fermonsters with keg fittings, but you could replicate this with a keg:
Clean, sanitize, purge the keg, then inject your priming sugar syrup and rehydrated CBC-1 yeast using a syringe. Rack the beer on top from the fermentor, shake the keg to distribute the yeast and sugar, put 2-3 psi on the keg, and bottle with a Blichmann beer gun and cap. Wait two weeks at room temp and done.
Since switching to this process, my beers have been bomb proof. Even my 2 month old Kolsch sitting in my hot house bottled with this process shows no signs whatsoever of oxidation.
Makes a lot of sense! So I primed and bottle conditioned off a keg using a similar technique last year, I had oxidation issues with those beers unfortunately. Might need some refinement for my process still.
@@TheApartmentBrewerYou could consider purging the bottles longer before bottling. 15, maybe even 20 or 30 seconds. I also personally re-purge the headspace just prior to capping. Sucks that it didn't work for you. Oxidation is something that is definitely disproportionately difficult to manage at the homebrew level compared to the commercial level.
@@JohnL9013 that might have to become standard practice. That and ascorbic acid
Brilliant video! Sorry to see you had oxidation issues but great to see you learn from and explain the mistakes!
Thanks for watching!
If it weren't for kegs I wouldn't do this hobby. Packaging is an art.
Well said!
That guy is named Simon Svensson and have a podcast called Homebrew halleluja. And he is from Sweden indeed
Great job and love the comparisons.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Have you considered PET bottles with a carbonation cap? Fill from keg, pretty cheap way to counter pressure fill.
Thought about it, but I didn't see any that made it to the final round in that configuration
@@TheApartmentBrewer it is wasteful and perhaps expensive, but the fact that you can purge with CO2 and never have to openly expose it to oxygen again surely is a positive. If you counter pressure fill a regular bottle you still need to yoink the gun out and cap the bottle. PET isn't completely impermeable to oxygen, so I imagine you'd decant from the keg shortly before shipping.
great job love the vids
Cans, you were optimistic, but cool to see the home tech.
First guy on the porter is Max Finnance and is one of 18 master cicerone’s in the world. He’s judged my altbier here in CT and I received a 35. He’s a stand up guy for sure and knows what he’s talking about(obviously)
That's awesome! Glad he had the opportunity to try my beer!
Mmm….beer!!! I need to submit some of my beers, cheers 🍻
You should do it!
Thanks for the video, My DIPA took 1st place & mini BOS bronze out of regionals but did not medal in San Diego. Tough competition! Got me thinking about how we are all shipping unrefrigerated beer across the country and how much that must play into oxidation, etc.
Congrats on the first round awards! The mistreatment of the beer is absolutely the hardest thing to work around.
I know that for bottling beer, there are caps that inhibit oxidation. Is there anything comparable for canning?
And what about ascorbic acid at packaging? I've also heard campden tablet could help if filled from a keg...
Ascorbic acid may be the best way to go. The caps prevent additional oxygen from getting inside the bottle, but they dont absorb anything. Cans are a complete oxygen proof seal so its kind of the same deal.
I think it was me who suggested tasting the submitted beer with the results!
It was! On your NHC results vid from Aug 5 2022: "Apologies if a repeat comment but next time it sounds like you need to bottle in pairs, send one half of the pair off to the NHC and keep the other one (poorly, at room temps). Then when you receive your results, open the second half and see if you can 'see' what the judges are detecting."
Thank you for the suggestion, it definitely made a huge difference in how I interpreted judge feedback!
Great to see a Cairngorm Brewery glass in the US! Congrats on the medal. Cheers, Sam (Isle of Mull, Scotland)
It was a great place to visit when I was in Scotland!
A common theme in your critiques was fermenting 'to hot'. But you say you were well within temps, so I wonder if your thermometer is possibly off a few degrees?
Also, you mentioned supplying a beer within the BJCP guidelines. I would also recommend committing to a style. For example, your Porter seemed an in between US and UK version. Yet, scored well. One wonders if you committed to the more American style you would have scored better or vice versa if you committed to a more English version and submitting as an english porter.
But, great video and congrats on your ribbons!
That is a very interesting point. I'll have to double-check the calibration again. As far as the porter being in between styles, I did that because that's what I wanted to make. I was kind of curious how it would do in the comp though. If I had tailored it more to one or the other styles then I would have probably gotten a higher score.
@@TheApartmentBrewer btw, I just watched a brulospohy video about 'brewing insurance' and he mentions a couple of additions that may combat oxidation.
You might want to consider a small addition of Ascorbic Acid (basically Vitamin C) at the packaging stage mate, this will scavenge any let over bits of O2 in the beer. Breweries over here in the UK use it quite a bit.
I think that might have to be standard practice moving forward.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Some folk swear by a small addition of Sodium Metabisulphite (Campden tablet) in the beer achieves a similar outcome - about 0.3 grams per 19L (UK 5 gallons) at kegging. I think Brulosophy did a thing on it.
I can't speak to the storage at NHC, but I can say that Seattle regionals were refrigerated as soon as they showed up and kept there except for sorting and serving :) But I've definitely had the same feelings before, I've lost a few beers I was really proud of to oxidation. Translating from keg to competition is a huge pain and I have a tapcooler now, but I think even that hasn't been perfect...
Yeah I think the expectation is that the beer might be treated poorly but glad to know some sites are taking good care of it!
@@TheApartmentBrewer Also, grain of salt for the knockout party. I had the same experience with the beers there, other folks have mentioned that it's common for the knockout party to be a bunch of cooked/oxidized beers because they don't waste on refrigeration after the judging finishes. The beers probably sit in a hot truck Wednesday/Thursday/Friday/Saturday before they're brought back out for the knockout so that's why most of them are duds, but they ARE held in cold storage up until judging. Shipping to get them there is a weak link, though, and some probably get cooked in transit.
still sucks for us, though, because we really don't get a feel for what the competition was like if we're drinking a bunch of cooked beers at knockout.
@@Daniel-zq3wq that's good to know as well, and explains a lot!
I am not sure if my process would have any advantage, but I find it relevant to your conversation. I don't compete, have never competed, and presently am not brewing due to health reasons. My packaging process has never involved priming with the common practice of priming sugar. I have always used the Krausen/Gyle process for packaging. I am not implying it would be superior to any practice you employed, but rather that there is no cold crash in the process until consumption(i.e. refrigeration). That variable alone lends itself to keeping better for longer in my opinion, but doesn't necessarily translate into advantage as the variables of sending, storing, etc. that happens with competing might be more than can be anticipated. 6 months is an eternity in the life of a beer around here. I am just curious about your thoughts on how the Krausen /Gyle storage process might help you in your quest to realize a return on your time invested. Competition or marketing would not ever the intended destination for any thing that I have brewed or will brew. I applaud you for having the stones it takes to put your art out there to be scrutinized by people who might not have as much invested in the craft as you do. You clearly have a dedication to the craft that some of us would find unmatchable. Cheers Apartment.
I appreciate the kind words! I know some German breweries still krausen to carbonate, maybe there is something to it that makes a difference in longevity. Cheers!
@@TheApartmentBrewer When I started brewing it was stressed that temperature control was imperative to elicit the desired sugar chain lengths. It seemed to be a waste of money to invest so much on precision electric brewing equipment, to just completely disregard the integrity of the ingredients in the finished product. Cheers buddy.
Good video, maybe I will take the plunge next year and enter some of my brews. I have seen a video where someone was bottling/canning for a competition and filled up a 5 gallon bucket with CO2 and then filled the bottles in the bottom of that so that even the surrounding environment didn't have any oxygen.
Do it! It is worth it for the experience
I entered a local competition with what i thought was an oxidized beer and another beer with a metallic taste. Turns out they both got gold medals and one got 2nd overall
Well thats a great turn of events!
Packaging is so important. It’s so frustrating, lol.
It is what will make or break the submission for the beer!
It really seems kind of silly that they taste the beer warm. Who has ever drank a warm beer and been like “wow that’s delicious!”
Its not really intentional, its more of the nature of how the beer is stored for a competition of this scale that takes place in a hotel.
@TheApartmentBrewer yeah I guess I can understand that. Would be nice if they had a way to at least chill them down for tasting but I guess like you say if it's in a hotel it's not super practical
Congrats on the Porter medal! I have mixed feelings about entering competitions because of the judging inconsitencies. I am sure that they all do their best, but sometimes you get feedback that is based on inaccurate assessments whicj can be anti-constructive, especially for new brewers. Maybe they butyric acid thing was due to tainted tastebuds from a prior sample.
Also, your comments on cans vs bottles is valuable info. Thanks!
Thank you! I think there is definitely a huge subjective side to this of course.
I like how honest you are about your brews. I always tell my friends or who ever, to be honest because that is the only way we get better. Question... Why are you drinking them warm? Is that how they do it at the competition? I have never entered into one of theirs and that seems weird that they would drink beers at room temp. Especially with a lager or any other beer that is supposed to be crispy and cold. Just wondering, if I want to pay money for someone to taste my beer when it should have been drank/drunk months before they get to it. If that is the case the only category I would enter would be the Stouts. Prost!
It's seems that it's most likely your beer will be shipped warm and depending on the location could be served and stored warm. I've heard of judges receiving the beers warm as well. I don't think it happens all the time but its a good way to get some of these flaws to come out more
I guess I understand that side of it, with the flaws. I know I have made beer that is good to drink and then after awhile you're like is this the same beer! I just to need to enter to see what happens!@@TheApartmentBrewer
props for trying something new with the cans, bummer it didn't work out. i've heard it said more than once that canning at home is a fools errand, seems that may be true haha
I'm not a fan of having to package beer but with the set-ups i've worked with, bottling was easily done by 1 person, where canning took 3 people to do. More surface area is exposed during canning where a CPBF has CO2 in the headspace of the bottle.
Just my 2 cents.
Its a different experience depending on who you talk to. There is a headspace difference, but personally I like the fact that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to ship and wont break.
Nice NHC Bronce! 🏅
I wonder if it is worth trying to use aluminum bottles? I don't know if they are available empty for purchase anywhere. When filling cans can you overflow them, or do you have to have X amount of head space to seal it? Thank you for the video again.
Filling the cans is a matter of getting the right flow rate into the can after purging it with CO2 so that it foams and bubbles up with a little headspace, but you want that foam to overflow the headspace and keep any oxygen from coming in.
The American competition scene is huge. The Australian competition is tiny in comparison, but the approach is kinda similar. We have state/territory-based competitions based on bjcp guidelines, and the top 3 beers from each category in each state qualify for the National Championship.
Some states have more participation than others.
I’ve entered a couple of times. Found feedback from state judges was very patchy in terms of accuracy, descriptions, and generally not very useful. Last year I had a number of beers in the National round and found the scoresheets far more useful. There was a 2 month gap between state and national competitions though which can be a problem. Entrants are permitted to rebrew their beers for submission to the National comp, which is a little quirky I think but probably ok
Appreciate the upload! I’m looking forward to submitting one day. What do you recommend for a new brewer to practice before submitting to the NHC?
You should join a homebrewing club! That really helped up my game. You get good feedback from the members and you can find out about smaller local competitions happening around you
Getting as much feedback (honest feedback, not just "It's good") is very important to grow. Also I would recommend rebrewing a certain style until you start really understanding it very well. Practice makes perfect!
Another great video. Shame the packaging caused issues - very frustrating when you know the judges didn't get to experience your beers at their best
Yeah it is unfortunate, but you live and learn!
I was at a local homebrew meeting a few months ago and the guest speaker who is a bjcp judge mentioned that you should enter the beer according to the style it most likely fits into. You might try and brew a porter but enter it as a brown ale, the judges won't know and it might earn you a medal because it fits into the brown category perfectly. I'm curious why you entered your table beer as a pale ale. Anyway, I hope my feedback helps. Cheers.
This is absolutely true. I entered the table beer as a BPA because it was still the closest category. There isn't a category for low alcohol/table beer yet.
I wonder if word is getting out you have an up and coming beer youtube channel with a respectable amount of followers and the judges are being tougher on you. I am subscribed and I know one thing, if you had a beer you were proud of and had it for sale, I would buy it due to your channel and your personality. I don't even brew beer, but I am fascinated with the science involved. I appreciate the taste of beer and know the differences due to your channel.
Judges are not usually aware of the identity of people who submit entries. The system is designed to preserve anonymity
@@davidhall158 Thanks for clearing that up
Thankfully, competitions are anonymous for that reason! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Thanks for sharing. Just curious about something. I’d like to try this for the first time next year and was wondering since that’s the case, would it be best to focus on one style of beer? Thanks for any feedback.
So you can't submit multiple entries to the same style but you can submit multiple entries to the same category. I.e. you can't submit 5 Irish Red Ales, but you could submit an irish ale, a scottish ale, etc. That can increase you chance of medaling.
I was thinking that if I did it just keep it simple my first time out. Do one that I feel I can do well instead of multiple entires. Just to get a feel for things. Not sure how good I feel about trying to do multiple entries but I guess what’s the worst that can really happen?
What does "rousing" mean? Could you please explain?
You can opt to have the judge rouse the beer when pouring it, so they would swirl the can/bottle and then pour. Good for hefewiezens and other hazy styles if the haze dropped out. Evidently, a contributor to hop burn though.
@@TheApartmentBrewer Okay I get it now. Thanks!
Random question: Is that a Seiko GMT?
✅️
Can I get a watch check from you Steve! Looks like a Seiko GMT but I could be wrong. Let me know.
You are correct sir! SSK003
@@TheApartmentBrewer Whoop! Looks sharp on the wrist.
Why are you drinking your beers room temp rather than bringing them out from an iced cooler or something? Gotta enjoy your hard work!
Because that is the way they are stored and served at the competition. Helps frame the judges feedback better.
Delicate beer is beer.😂 non delicate beers.... Lets hink....
Time to dust off the old bag of ascorbic acid my good man!
That might be the move!
'Promosm'