Victory!

VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahh yes, it is freaking sweet. I received my scores from the first round regional judging for the National Homebrew Competition and one of my brews placed 1st! So on to the national competition, for that beer at least.

The scoring guide is as follows:

45 - 50: Outstanding
38 - 44: Excellent
30 - 37: Very Good
21 - 29: Good
14 - 20: Fair
0 - 13: F'ing Terrible, just kidding, Problematic

Here were my results:

-Old Woodie Ale entered in category 22C (wood aged beer), received a final score of 39 and 1st place in the region

-Tripel Sunrise entered in category 18C (Belgian Tripel), received a final score of 33.5

-Marzbock entered in category 5A (Maibock), received a final score of 28

All in all, I was pleased with the overall results. Though, I was shocked that Old Woodie was rated the best of the three and the Marzbock was rated the lowest of three. I would have thought it to be the opposite. Regardless, I'll take victory where I can. The next 2 rounds of competition take place in Minnesota this summer.

I also did some brewing and bottling this weekend. If you haven't read in my posts, I've fallen in love with Flemish ales, in particular, Duchesse de Bourgogne. So I thought I'd try my hand at one of these delicious brews. The real kicker is that they take 18 MONTHS to brew. All those bugs take awhile to do their job souring the beer.

Recipe the recipe I decided on was...

Partial Mash for 75 mins at 154 degrees:
-2 lbs Crystal 40L
-1 lb Honey Malt
-2 lbs Flaked Maize
-2 oz. of Black Patent

Then a 90 minute boil consisting of the partial mash and ...
-5 lbs of DME (2 lbs. of Pilsner, and 3 lbs. of Amber)
- .5 lbs of sugar

Hops
-1 oz. of East Kent Goldings at 90 mins
-1 oz. of Fuggles (isn't that fun to say) at 10 mins

The primary yeast is US-05 and most importantly the secondary yeast was the Wyeast Roselare Blend. The description of the Roselare Blend from the Wyeast website:

"A blend of lambic cultures including lactic bacteria. Produces beers with a complex, earthy profile and distinct pie cherry sourness from a Brettanomyces culture. Aging for up to 18 months is required ..."

The only ingredient I'm wavering on is adding maybe a quarter ounce of medium roast french oak for the long haul, but it might be too over bearing to have in with the beer for 18 months. Not sure, so I'll keep mulling it over. Another funny thing about this beer is that in 10 months I have to brew an identical batch and let it age for 8 months and then blend the two batches before bottling. I'm sure it will be worth it in the end.

I shot some footage from the brew day, and one clip from bottling the imperial wit:



-HolzBrew