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When do you Enter your First Homebrew Competition?
Fri, 06/26/2009 - 11:54pm — Carolyn-Smagalski
How much brewing experience do you need before you enter your first Homebrew Competition? What holds people back from entering? Fear of Failure? Fear that they will be perceived as arrogant?
Why don't more people enter the Sam Adams Longshot, or the ProAm at the GABF? How about the National Homebrew Competition?
The Beer Connoisseur © 2009
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Entering when ready
Enter when you are ready. It could be your first batch, or your hundredth. The most important thing you get in return is feedback. This can help point out any flaws you may not quite be able to pinpoint, or they can help you point your recipe in the right direction. Just don't enter if you are not prepared to get back negative comments. Remember, when sending to competition, they are not just going to say "It's good, you win 2nd". Our job as judges is to pick apart the beer, both good and bad and compare it to the style you enter it into. So it is imperative that you read the style guidelines at the BJCP website prior to entering. As an example, you may have attempted to brew an IPA, but maybe it is not as hoppy as you thought it was going to be. Do you enter it in the IPA category because that is what you brewed, or the Pale Ale category because that is how it tastes and smells? Drink your beer and make a decision based on that, not particularly what you brewed it as. Another example is I had a beer at a competition that someone brewed as a dry stout, it was a not that good as a dry stout, but it was an awesome schwarzbier. But because it was entered as a dry stout, we had to judge it as such. Also, don't think that if you brew extract you will not do as well in competition as an all grain beer. Both ways make great beer. I think some people don't enter because A) they don't brew to style, and that's how they like to brew. B) they brew for themselves, and not to compete. C) Bad experience in the past with poor judging left a bad taste in their mouth about beer competition. D) Fear of failure.
I know you drank it, but did you experience the beer?
Homebrew Comps
I've been homebrewing for about 15 years and entered my first competition about 12 years ago, but I don't think experience should have anything to do with it. I could have entered my first beer and it would have been fun.Competitions, like homebrewing itself, should be one of those "if it feels good, do it" kind of things. For me, it's fun to just throw a few beers into the ring to see what happens. Sometimes I get good feedback. Sometimes I get a few ribbons. It's like a hobby within a hobby. What's really fun is to volunteer to be a steward at a comp that you have beers in. It is amazing to hear, directly, the discussion of your beer.I think the biggest reason people don't enter is fear of the unknown. I think that if you can get someone to enter one time, that person will continue to enter... but only if it's fun.
Chris Bushman
Homebrewer
Colfax, California
Entering doesn't mean
Entering doesn't mean arrogance, and so long as you can handle feedback, you shouldn't fear failure. You can enter a beer for a few reasons. One, you think it's good enough to win, or two, you want some good feedback on it. I had been brewing for less than 6 months when I entered my first competition. I enterd 5 beers, knowing full well the only one of them would really "compete" but was just hoping for some feedback on how to improve them. Sure enough, the one beer I thought would compete won a gold medal, and I got some useful feedback on the others.I've applied that feedback and brewed some great beers that probably could compete, but in the end probably won't be entered because they'll probably be long gone well before the next competition comes along. :)
recipes?
I'm still new to homebrewing, only on batch #3 total.
For those who have had some success, how about sharing some recipes with those of us starting out?
Reply
I don't think that there needs to be any defined amount of time before entering a competition. New brewers can get some excellent feedback from experienced (generally) judges/brewers.I think a lot of people do enter Longshot and IIRC, NHC had just over 5000 entries... from around 1300 brewers.
Competitions
I entered my first competition in 1993 and quit competing in 1996. I'm not sure why some people don't compete, but for me it's the fact that I won enough awards to stroke my ego sufficiently, and it just didn't hold any allure for me. I think a good portion of it was the fact that the quality of judging back then wasn't quite what it is today, and spending money to get almost nonsensical feedback from people with no judging experience or qualifications just didn't seem like a good idea.With the rather prodigious growth of the Beer Judge Certification Program (http://www.bjcp.org/), there has been a broader distribution of qualified, talented judges out there. I think that once the word gets out about the increased quality of judging, people might take a bit more interest in competing.