1st ever brewers choice homebrew competition

[nico soze]

I will admit that my opinion has changed during this conversation. The system is working great for many people. I should more accurately state that I believe there is a large segment of the brewing community that is under served by it however. And I think I can feed that niche with something along the lines of this.

[nico soze]

And BTW I do think baseball sucks and I do have a better idea for a sport

ok i just re read my original post. i wrote it after finalizing plans with ootp, and having a few, and being excited, and then trying to shamelessly self promote a la donald trump. did you really take all that seriously? i wish i had read it again before arguing. most of that first post is just plain silly, meant to be tongue-in-cheek humor.

[StarRaptor]

Just make sure everyone knows going it that they won't be getting feedback, especially since it's been modified to being semi blind.

[nico soze]

that's only true of the first round. The second round will have a modified version of a bjcp scoresheet, with overall impression weighted heavily. I gotta admit I'm making this up as I go. This first time is a learning experience for me. I don't know what I'm doing and Dan is helping out a lot with planning.

[bwarbiany]

Several guys here, Brad N, John W, Jon W, Brian C to name a few go to great lengths to accurately reproduce styles of beer that have hundreds of years of tradition behind them and millions in equipment, yet they can consistently produce nearly identical beers at home

Likewise, there are a lot of people who brew primarily clone beers. I haven't brewed a clone since the 2006 Vertical Epic, and although I'm considering another one (Pliny), I generally don't brew clone beers. But there are a lot of brewers out there that absolutely love the process of brewing, and their expression of it is to be able to brew just as well as the professionals who created something originally.

Not that I've got anything against them, but rather I get so much enjoyment out of making recipes that I can rarely even imagine not crafting my own. The O'Fest I just brewed was a recipe I made several years ago when I was *considering* getting into lagers, and only got around to actually brewing it now. I'll often create a recipe for a beer I'm planning on brewing 3 months before I have time to fit it into my brew schedule -- just because I love mucking around with recipes.

I liken it to music. There are great symphony orchestras who are faithfully reproducing (and often putting their own *sound* into it while still following the original) the great works of the ages. Or, there are the modern versions, the people who write mainstream rock, or alternative, or pop. Those are much like the traditional "to style" brewers of the world. They can be great at it, or they can suck at it [and a good portion of the guys from this club are pretty damn good]. Then you have the "performers" -- by which I mean the amazingly talented singers & bands who may employ the work of a songwriter and a musician to arrange a piece for them, they choose among those arrangements for something they think they can really make shine, and their piece is simply to perform it as best they can. That's your typical "clone" brewer. Then you've got your "extreme" artists -- your Dr. Demento / Weird Al types, or like They Might Be Giants, or in some senses people like Lady Gaga. These are the folks that find their expression in deliberately breaking molds and doing something as unique as they can possibly make it. This is the kind of place I think Nick or Chad (Brewfoo) wants to fit*. Finally, you've got the more offbeat singer/songwriter types -- the misfits who may never be amazingly successful because they don't fit into any pre-checked boxes, but enjoy making whatever it is "their own". Very little of it is extreme, yet much of it may not fall directly into a "Pop", "Rock", or "Country" bin. This is more where I like to fit [or at least hope that's where I fit].

There's room for all of us.

* PS - Nick, if you show up to your competition wearing a meat dress, you're out of the club!

[bwarbiany]

that's only true of the first round. The second round will have a modified version of a bjcp scoresheet, with overall impression weighted heavily. I gotta admit I'm making this up as I go. This first time is a learning experience for me. I don't know what I'm doing and Dan is helping out a lot with planning.

You might want to consider having little notepads for the 1st-round judges as well -- if people who taste a beer have any specific thoughts (or questions for the brewer), which might be quite likely given that you'll probably be expecting more "specialty" beers, they can make notes and find the person who brewed that beer to discuss it.

[BrewMasterBrad]

Several guys here, Brad N, John W, Jon W, Brian C to name a few go to great lengths to accurately reproduce styles of beer that have hundreds of years of tradition behind them and millions in equipment, yet they can consistently produce nearly identical beers at home; and they are consistently recognized by the BJCP for doing so. (as they should be)

And to add to this, I am not trying to clone a particular beer. I am trying to brew to a particular style so my beer can be enjoyed as an American Pale Ale, a Robust Porter, etc. I believe that trying to brew to style and have your beer reviewed or judged against similar beers help to make me a better brewer. It helps me to hone and perfect my methods so that I can produce the same beer again and again if I design a particular recipe that happens to strike gold. I will admit that I am a traditionalist and I don't like spiced beers or beers that add anything other than the four basic ingredients. Some might say this is limiting, but with all the different varieties of malts and hops, I still have a passion for brewing after brewing 191 batches. I suppose it comes down to personal philosophy. In everything I do, I strive to do to the best of my abilities. If I ever brew the perfect beer, I may stop brewing at the point since there will be nowhere left to improve (of course, that day will never come). This is one of the reasons that I don't have any tattoos since I would never be satisfied with what I have, so I would continue to get them until I either get the perfect one or I run out of skin. Brewing is art, science, a creative release, subjective, and a passion. Obviously, most of the people on this board are passionate, otherwise there would be no such thing as Brewcommune. I enjoy these debates, too, as I believe they keep the creative juices of the collective flowing.