I found out late that this weekend was a local brew contest, so I managed to get my wife to take a couple bottles of caribou slobber over to enter at the last minute. This was my first brew and a friend suggested I compete to get the feedback. I called them and registered the caribou slobber as a northern british brown, which I figured was the closest applicable category.
Today I picked up my score sheets and was surprised to learn I placed fourth and nearly landed in the money out of 19 entrants! I’m really excited. The judges were BJCP certified and gave good feedback. I scored a 37/50 total. One judges overall impression: “A good NE Brown perhaps more hop character to separate out more from a southern. But well done overall, pour me a pint please.” “Lingering maltiness, slightly sweet malt character, some toffee notes up front, hops low but balance malt nicely.”
I definitely want to iterate on this feedback and try to build a version of the recipe with more hop character. It could be that I don’t really need to change much, but adjust how I’m doing the boil a bit. What are some methods I could use to slightly elevate the hop characteristics?
Overall, I’m really excited and it was suggested that I enter a beer in the upcoming Cascade Brewer’s Guild April competition. I have a simcoe single malt / single hop ale I think I will enter into that competition that I just put into bottles a week ago and is drinking nicely so far.
Anyway, I’m super excited. This hobby KICKS ASS. I have a ton of books now and am doing research and taking notes. Tomorrow I plan to brew an IPA. I also want to research Boulevard’s Tank 7 and see if I can come up with a recipe to reproduce something in that style.
