Wow. Competition Scoring is Crazy. (Finally Finished!)

There's no old ale left. Or, at least, not enough to enter into any additional competitions. Think there may be 6oz or so in a bottle buried in my chest freezer...

What follows is a complete history of all competitions entered with the old ale. I started keeping track because I couldn't understand the huge scoring swing between competitions 1 and 2. Competition 2 excluded, scores have been pretty consistent.

The old ale was originally brewed in December of 2007 and the beer held up pretty well throughout. I think it peaked in late 2008.

History of competition entries for the Old Ale.

Comp 1:

Score 42 (1st in class)


Comp 2 (2008 NHC 1st Round):

Score 27


Comp 3:

Score 36 (2nd in class)


Comp 4:

Score 41 (1st in class)


Comp 5 (CA State Homebrewing Competition):

Score 42 (Best of Show)


Comp 6 (2009 NHC 1st Round):

Score 44

Comp 7 (2009 CA State Fair):

Score 27 & 28 (?) (2nd in class)

Comp 8 (2009 LongShot):

Score 36.5 (2nd in class)

Darkest Night RRIS

I plan on brewing a RRIS (Ridiculous Russian Imperial Stout). Something along the lines of 15-17% ABV with over 125 IBUs. I've never done something like this before and don't even know what the end result will be (or should be). Process wise I don't know if I can ferment a beer that big and have it turn out drinkable. I've scaled up the Dark Day RIS recipe and have been researching a number of different things including "reiterated" mashing. This will be educational to say the least. More to come in the coming weeks...

2009 CA State Fair Homebrew Competition

And we were also lucky enough to win three more awards at the 2009 CA State Fair Homebrew Competition. A 1st and two 2nd place awards for our RIS, Old Ale and Cream Ale (v 2.0) respectively.

2009 Sam Adams LongShot Competiton

Raz's Fine Ales is pleased to announce that our Traditional Bock placed first in the 2009 Sam Adams LongShot Competition (Western Region). Very exciting!

What A Messed Up Brew Day

Thanks to Todd for helping me get through the day.

In order of occurrence:

My inventory schedule had not been updated and I didn’t have enough pilsner malt that the recipe called for.

Substituted in Maris Otter and forgot to set aside additional grain, Munich malt, accounting for 25% of the total grain bill.

Overshot, temperature wise, the water in the mash tun. On the plus side, I had a chance to review my recipe and noticed I forgot the Munich malt.

I had a thick mash, not sure exactly why (other than the obvious use of too little water), and this caused problems circulating the wort.

The digitial controller I use to monitor mash tun temperature was not matching up with the temperature probe in the mash tun. Temperatures were also not increasing when adding water prior to draining into the kettle. Or rather, temperatures were not registering as increasing. Never did achieve a mash out at 168 (as read by both the controller and probe).

Drained mash tun until boil volume reached. Took 40-45 minutes. Preboil gravity missed by 20 points. Just left it alone. (I didn’t add DME but in retrospect probably should have). I did nothing different, compared to what I normally do, and am stumped as to why this happened…

I attempted, for the first time, the use of a whirlpool in conjunction with an immersion chiller. Disconnects running out of the boil kettle and the pump immediately clogged with hop debris when trying to circulate boiling wort. Not sure how I’m going to attempt a fix here. Hop bag?

After boil was complete, went to plug in the submersible pump (used to circulate ice water through the immersion chiller) and water being picked up by the pump immediately blasted out of the side of the pump rather than push it through the chiller. A small plastic piece near a screw was somehow broken off where the pump’s top and bottom halves seal together resulting in a total loss of pressure. After 15 minutes of applying duct tape, managed to get some water circulating and barely achieved a decent yeast pitching temperature.

Because the kettle and pump disconnects were clogged, rather than transferring the wort to the conical fermenter using the pump, I simply dumped everything in. It will all settle out but what a pain in the ass.

Ugh.

Is there any way this will turn out to be a decent brew? We'll wait and see...