SOBA National Home Brew Competition 2013

[Paul Jennings]

So what is everyone entering?

Going to send in a Vanilla Porter, Dark Mild, and possibly a Pilsner.  More for feedback than any aspirations of getting good scores.

[Greig McGill]

I'll point Phil at this thread. It'll warm his black and twisted heart! ;)

[Gareth G]

I have to agree that the entry system was a piece of cake, and also the online scores etc were awesome, so well done to Phil.

And big thanks also to all the judges!

[Gareth D.]

How did everyone get on? I got a gold and silver for each of my meads and a bronze for my totally late hopped American Barleywine (Hopped Lately?). Unfortunately I totally screwed up my 20.7 % Super Beer entry into the speciality category as I put it as a double iipa, which is what the hydrometer sample tasted like and I hadn't even cracked a bottle yet, but it came out tasting all raisiny, got 10/10 for overall impression but 4 /40 for everything else, comment was if I'd called it a double barleywine it would have been scored very differently :-(

[Paul Finney]

Bombed. I didn't get any medals, although no 0's this year either. So depending if you are feeling grumpy it was crap, or feeling optimistic it was better than last year :)

In the Monster Mash Halloween comp though I came second overall, and got most creative too so happy with that.

I think before next years NHC I need to tighten up my processes. Lots of phenols coming through it seems

[Crusader-Rob]

Nice Work Gareth, I remember you sending me that bottle of Hopped Lately? Was a lovely drop.(CRUSADER1612 here) Well done!

I bombed out as well..... highest score was 21, lowest (which I considered my best effort) was 15. too many phenols were the comments on this porter. 

I'll be working on some things over the coming months.

Theres always next year... 

[Gareth D.]

I figured that was you :-)
Yup, always next year. My other beers didn't go so well, my Northern English Brown was miles off, and my iipa was too old so didn't rate well at all.

[Julian Melville]

Ranged from a 13 (my NZ pilsner which the judges obviously didn't like very much at all) through a 22 (a big IPA where the late hops stayed hot a bit long, so it's too bitter and doesn't have enough hop flavour) to a 30 (nice simple Belgian pale ale, which is a nice drop). Lots to learn for next year, I agree with most of the comments from the judges but there's a couple that puzzled me still.

[Paul Jennings]

I also bombed.  16 for my Vanilla Porter was the high, too much vanilla not backed up by the base beer.  Completly fair judging.  12 for a NZ Lager which to be fair was fairly outside style/problematic.  2 for an infected NZ Pilsner, which I think may have just also been outside style and mistakenly thought of as infected.  Either way would have not done better than the 12.

What is the process for judging? (Excuse my ignorance) Does the whole table sample the beer and then they collectively discuss and come up with the score?

[Matthew Vincent]

Have a read of this Paul - http://nhc.soba.org.nz/blog/3

I just entered one this year, a Russian Imperial Stout. Scored a 23 which I'm happy with :)

[Gareth G]

I entered one beer, a NZ pale ale, and got 25.  I don't think its too bad for my first all grain effort, and class average was only 16.7, with only two medals for the class (bronzes).  So obviously a hard class to crack.

Got some useful comments, namely that it was lacking malt intensity, thin in the middle, and astringent (probably because it was too bitter for the style).

[Matthew Vincent]

I'm keen on seeing other score sheets - especially if you got a medal?

Here's my one -

[Robert Ahrens]

Here is mine, 35 for an American IPA