Comps and beer quality - breaking out of the 29-33 range

Stop by my house sometime. I’ve got at least a dozen free buckets you can have. :wink: [/quote]

a one person/case thing is not reason to shy off plastic, there is something going on in your process then

You’re quite possibly correct. I am a very lazy brewer. Regardless, switching over to glass allows me the freedom to be more lazy.

Cleaning correclty is cleaning, your half assing it or your not. I don’t see how glass can make you a less sanitary/lazy brewer. Yes plastic needs to be replaced every so often especially if you really scratch the hell out of it, but if your taking the steps to clean and sanitize properly the vessel is not the issue. By glass vs plastic you could then say about the same glass vs stainless
Go buy a new bucket, brew the same beer twice right away and do a true blind tasting. I highly doubt you could tell them apart as long as you are not aging long term in plastic. Thousands of people us plastic with no adverse affects :cheers:

[quote=“Braufessor”]I don’t totally disagree with that… However, I think BCS is the place to start if you are brewing a style you don’t have experience (or success) in. Brew the recipe as it is and get feedback on it. From there, I think those recipes can be tweaked to take it in a direction that you want. . . . within reason.

But, I would say that 9 times out of 10 it is the process that will make your beer stand out - not your ingredients. Changing your ingredients in any significant way is probably more likely to make your beer worse, than better. Also, each of the recipes pretty much hits the style… So, if you are changing it, it is more than likely that you are moving away from the style which is not necessarily a good thing.[/quote]

The recipes in BCS are solid. However, the problem of judge ‘palette fatigue’ is legitimate as well. Jamil’s Cali Common seems to push the ‘maltiness’ limits of that style. However, if a judge tastes enough homebrewed (homebrewed well) examples of that recipe, his/her palette starts to evolve. Then all of the sudden, Anchor Steam is lifeless, because the judges are used to a maltier example.

And remember to make sure you are entering in the correct style, just because you brewed an IPA maybe it is better suited for a APA or brewed a Mild but it is better suited towards Southern English Brown etc. etc… Styles are a very narrow range and your judged on that and by other entrants. Enter your beer in a few different categories if you think you are on the verge or something.

Your combined score is NOT always an average of your scores either, I have had higher overall scores than the two judges gave before. Sometimes they need to go back and revisit a score