Advice from the SOBA NHC Champions

[Stu McKinlay]

Surprised nobody has asked this yet - or have they asked and I missed it?

Last year I was delighted to see a dry yeast user pick up "Brewer of the Year", I've always been a proponent of getting all your sh!t together before you start playing around with yeast (the most difficult part of brewing good beer).

This year the "Brewer of the Year" (and a couple of other major prizes) were swept away by another dry yeast user who - SHOCK HORROR - also uses malt extract.

This goes some way to proving that the 'liquid yeast, all-grain mecca' is not always what it is cracked up to be.


To everyone out there who picked up best in class awards, or one of the major awards - what is the secret to your brewing success? What are you still working on? And where are you headed next (soon, and further down the track)?

Cheers
Stu

ps. Well done everyone.

[Greig McGill]

Best in Class for my mild and my ordinary bitter, silver medals for kolsch, and my ordinary, and bronze for my spiced old ale (which might have done better had I specified it as a porter as the base beer).

All in all, the competition was a bit of a shock for me. I love my "Saxbys Ordinary Bitter", I really do. I brew it constantly, and tweak it in minor ways depending on my mood. That said, the sample I entered in the competition was old, over-carbonated, and had some acetyl aldehyde issues so I still can't understand the silver medal/BiC. I'm happy though, and prefer to think of it as reward for making a great ordinary, and just forgetting that the bottled version wasn't "all that" in my opinion.

The Floored Mild was best in class also, but didn't medal, which probably just meant the overall standard in that category was pretty low. This beer was an accident. It was made from leftover malts to a mild recipe I came up with on the spot. During milling, I managed to knock everything over and grain went everywhere! Yes, it was Floored. ;) Anyway, I was pretty happy with it, compared to many of the milds I tried from the Midlands, and many Black-Country English friends thought so too. I don't care if it didn't medal, I won't be changing the recipe! :) Guess I just won't enter it again, I'll brew more to the BJCP style next year.

Anyway, I'd like to echo Kempicus' opinions on some things and violently disagree with him on others! ;) He probably gets final say, since results speak louder than words, and he sure got some results.

Beer education: Yep, taste EVERYTHING. Learn what you like and what you don't like. Even if you can't always write about what you taste (people always hassle me to put more ratings on ratebeer - I don't really enjoy rating beers) you will remember them, and build up a huge flavour bank which will serve you well when brewing. To me, that's the biggest thing there is. Sense of taste, and knowledge of what you're tasting.

Instincts: Hell yes. While I love my brewing software (Beersmith) and wouldn't go back to not using it, it can't write recipes for you. It's no good just "dialling it in" to a given style, that won't ensure it will taste great, just that it will meet the technical requirements. You need to learn to "feel" if that little bit of Munich malt will make a difference, or if moving that hop addition five minutes later will make the kind of difference you're looking for. Use the force. ;)

Sanitation: This is the bit where I'm going to have to ask Mr. Kemp to step outside. If you'd met his old man, you'd know where he got it from! ;) I'm sorry, but I'm a firm believer in sanitation. I'm not as rigorous as many, and I often brew my beers for quick consumption, so am a little more lax on the post-ferment sanitation, but pre-ferment? I'm a nutter. Everything gets sanitised. I find it easier (if not necessarily correct, or a recommendation) to think like a bacterium. I generally think "how much effort is it to destroy this wort?". If the effort is medium-high, I don't stress. That may not make a lot of sense, but it's hard to explain. An example is sanitising with bleach, then rinsing with tap water. Sure there are bugs in the water, but some of the residual bleach being rinsed away will make it a pretty hostile environment for beasties and I trust my well-rehydrated yeast to beat them! If you think about the science of it, and the fact that your fresh cooled wort is as inviting as an agar plate, you'll panic and never brew anything. Just relax and do the best you can. It's a tricky one, I know, but I've never had an infection.

I also disagree with James on temperature control. While I agree that a constant temperature is good for the yeast, and the higher end promotes some good esters in high octane beers, I mainly brew lower gravity beers, and for these, I find it best to start low (18ish) and let it ramp up naturally, not much higher than around 21-22 degrees. I find this gives a nice ester profile, without dominating the beer and allowing the malt and hops to really shine through.

Yeast: I believe in using the correct yeast for the style. I think you can get a lot of mileage out of dry yeast (always rehydrating it works for me), but for specific stlyes, like a Kolsch, I think you need to go down the liquid path. I tried a lot of Kolsch in Cologne recently, and I was pretty happy with how mine tasted in comparison. I can't see that happening with dry yeast. It's such a unique flavour profile, and a lot of that comes from the yeast.

Primary only: I don't do secondary ferments for ales. Lagers/Hybrids, sure. And I sometimes do a secondary more as a bright-tank type thing for really hoppy or hazy beers to allow them to drop bright over time. In general though, I think it takes a long time and a lot of yeast for autolysis to become an issue for a homebrewer, so a racking just seems like a chance to introduce oxidation, and bugs. That's a religious war, but that's my opinion on it.

Not sure what else to say really. Happy to answer questions.

[Kempicus]

hahahaha i love it when we disagree ;0)
ok ok sanitation, at no point should anyone do what i do, i'm only slack with bottles everything else is clean as a whistle....i figure at that alc % and with the amount of hops i use nothing will survive! ;0)

Yep you're spot on about temps too, i brew strong so have no problem with over dominance i also like diacetyl in my mid range pale ales so i brew a bit higher on purpose but if i was to go all grain i'd probably brew a shit load of low alc bitters and milds then i'd be a bit more stringent on temps.

Basically i was trying to recount what i do for the beer i brew....plus i like to 'poke the bear' to see what sort of reaction i get from really fastidious people ;0)

Happy to answer questions too by the way

oops didn't realise i should have said what i got sorry....

My imperial stout won a gold medal, best in class and best beer of the comp
Old ale got a gold medal and best in class
Wee heavy got a Silver medal

Go the extract brewers!!! :0)

[denimglen]

Master of Old Ales aye?

Could you take a look at my recipe pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?

Cheers :-)

[Kempicus]

just made a couple of comments, just my opinion :0)

[Stu McKinlay]

I tasted the Imperial Stout a few days ago, it was awesome. 6/5 for appearance - my arm started shaking from the gravitational pull!!!
It made my 10% 107ibu Imperial Stout Porter taste like a baby's bottle...

[Kempicus]

you say the nicest things! :0)

[Barry]

I've been holding of posting something on-topic here... my entries this year, bar one, were abject failures especially after the heady heights of last year.
I entered 6 beers, all bottled from the keg into Emersons 500ml bottles. I bottled 3 of each, 2 to send and 1 to drink at time of judging as quality assurance.
My American brown ale got a 41.75pt gold medal. The rest got between 16 and 25 points. I guess that's why I'm so down on it, it's not that I didn't get amongst the prizes, rather beers that were drinking pretty good from my fridge (if I do say so...) scored incredibly low, scores that would suggest they were extremely faulty.

All my beers were all grain, I had an all out brewing spree as soon as the competition was announced. So a couple of my beers ended up being in the bottle a bit long, as the date was moved. Shame.

I'm a batch sparger and no-chiller. Batch sparge because it's simple, no-chill out of necessity - I'm on tank water. I'm not a true "leave it in the cube for a month" no-chiller - I go from kettle to fermenter, leave overnight, bung it in the fridge the next morning, pitch that night.

I use dry yeast. I really only brew English and American ales, S04 and S05 are more than adequate for the beers I brew. However with the price of dry yeasts steadily rising, I might need to re-consider that stance and work out a yeast propogation program. In any case I'm keen to try some of the variety of English strains for my session ales, see what differences there are.
I control my fermenting temperatures in a fridge with a fridgemate. For English and American ales, that's a must.
After primary fermentation is complete - 10-14 days, I'll do a diacetal rest for at least 2 days (move from fridge to ambient, which in the winter admittedly doesn't do much). Then I'll fine with gelatin (gently pour into the top of the primary), leave for at least a day, then keg. Sometimes I'll crash chill, sometimes not. I've found that gelatin works better over 20degrees. I'm quite proud of my beer clarity, something I reckon is very important if you want the great unwashed to even try your "homebrew". My beer generally presents bright as a button.

I use a picnic tap to fill bottles from the keg. I slightly overcarbonate by dropping the temperature in the keg fridge to around 2degrees. After sanitising the bottles the go into the freezer upside-down with tin foil over their mouths. Turn the gas off, then burp the keg, then wind the gas back up to as low pressure as you can. Fill, then swirl the bottle to get some foam out the spout, then cap over foam.

I thought I only had one beer that was truly bad - a porter which I subsequently re-brewed (I entered both anyway).
When I tasted them they were all fine, my brother the chef agreed. We both thought the American Brown would struggle the most - after so long in the bottle it had lost a fair bit of hop character. The rest we thought were tasting pretty good.
I got marked down for diacetal, acetalaldehyde, phenols, you name it. The descriptions were baffling at times, one of my sheets was descriptively word for word with one of Greigs beers, his scored 10pts higher. I've nothing but praise and respect for the judges, so many beers in such short order is a fine effort appreciated by all of us, but identical comments for 2 beers with 10pts difference in score is plainly unhelpful.
My mild ale got pinged for DMS - a mild! Like I said, baffling.
The biggest issue was none of the sheets said "terribly phenolic", "diacetal up the wazoo", "green apples out your ear", "couldn't bear another sip", "had to tip this shit down the drain", etc. With scores in the low 20's, they were pretty clearly drinking awfully.

I was astonished to see an extract brewer get the glory. Obviously Kempicus's beers are complex enough and well brewed enough to overcome any downsides from extract. I'd still pick a well brewed grain beer to beat a well brewed extract beer in a head to head, if I didn't believe that I wouldn't insist on all grain brewing would I? I have to admit to being a little miffed though, it's not like an extract beer could be pinged for DMS after all. That, however is just a case of sour grapes. 5/5 for appearance James.

Barry.

[JoKing]

"terribly phenolic", "diacetal up the wazoo", "green apples out your ear", "couldn't bear another sip", "had to tip this shit down the drain"

I can't believe that you would get comments like that! I don't know what to say - other than how extremely rude and disrespectful! That would be enough to put me off brewing! What are you supposed to take from comments like that? There is nothing constructive you can take from: "I had to tip this shit down the sink"! Comments like that should be repremanded: I mean the scores should speak for themselves... you don't need to rub the brewers face in it!

Just my rant! Keep up the good fight Barry! Brew on man!

[Steve Baker]

I read this to say that the judges comments didn't say any of those nasty things, but the scores implied them

[JoKing]

Woops - you are right! Sorry judges!!!

[jt]

Oh Barry that's terrible !
The only thing you don't mention is sanitation - no changes since last year ?
I'm traditionally a bit haphazzard with sanitation and get comments like yours all the time - whilst enjoying the beers myself in relative ignorance (a state of bliss for many of us)
There weren't any scores on the sheets that I got back, but I'd expect that they were abysmal

Hope that makes you feel better - if not, you could always ask Santa for a few tins of Black Rock Extract ?

Festive cheers & beers to all, jt

[Kempicus]

Nope an extract beer probably wouldn't get DMS unless i got a bacterial infection, each type of brewing has its own challenges.
To be honest i'm sick and tired of feeling bad for brewing with extract in fact the AG sentiment has so irritated me i'm actually refusing to move to it partly out of shear bloody mindedness.
I picked the beers to brew very carefully, used a ridiculous amount of specialty malt for complexity and actually entered my beers in the advanced section to prove a point.
Of the three beers that medalled, Greig has a bottle of Imp in his cellar and has tasted it before, he has also tasted my old ale. Stu has also tasted it although the bottle he got was undercarbonated he has also got the last bottle of the old ale that i brewed, perhaps you could ask them for a taste or their opinion?
The wee heavy i brewed got a silver, i like it although it has it's flaws but only in a matter of opinion.

The other two that scored lower both got 31 points and in my opinion were justified not medalling, the barleywine has deteriorated since the comp which i'm disappointed in but that's the way it goes some times....i still give it 5/5 for appearance though!