Do you love chili? How about beer?  Well the Garage Brewers Society has an event just for you. On Saturday, January 24th at 2PM the GBS will be hosting their Third Annual Chili Cook-Off at O’Fallon Brewery. Come and eat a boatload of great chili and drink some great homebrew. If you fancy yourself the ultimate chili cook, this is your chance to show off your skill.  Bring your chili up to the Cookoff by 1:30 the day of the comp and it’ll be judged by Missouri Chili Champion Sheldon Hartsfield.  (Special note, I found out that this competition is open only to GBS members only.  Sorry for the mix up.)

Not only will there be a Chili competition but there will be a Homebrew competition as well. (Special note, I found out that this competition is open only to GBS members only.  Sorry for the mix up.)  They’ll be judging categories 7A North German Alt, 10B American Amber, and Category 9 Scottish and Irish Ales.  The winner out of those three categories will not only have his name put on a plaque at O’Fallon for eternity, but Dave Johnson of O’Fallon and Buffalo will brew their beer for sale at Buffalo Brewing Company.

More details can be found on the GBS website.

If you’re looking at wanting to start judging beers or if you just want to have a greater understanding of the process of making and tasting beer, the Beer Judge Certification Program offers a great amount of information on the art of brewing. The St. Louis Brews homebrewing club will be offering a class to prepare you for the BJCP exam next January. If you have any questions about the classes, please contact Bob Beckmann “bbeckmann@missourienterprise.org” 314-608-7590, or Dan Stauder “president@sltbrews.org” 314-517-1121. Here’s the information about the classes:

BJCP Exam Class – This class is for anyone who is interested in studying and preparing for the BJCP exam. The class is open to anyone of any skill level (member of the Brews or not), as long as you have an interest in beer and would like to take the exam.

The class is taught by the students. As a student, you will be assigned a beer topic or two which you will research and present to the rest of the class. This will be something like “hops” or “mashing” or “recipe development”, etc.

Each student will also be assigned one or two beer styles. Again, the student will need to research that style in depth and present the information to the rest of the class. Included in this presentation will be samples of classic commercial examples which the class will taste and comment on.

More…If you take this class, it is assumed that you will be present to “teach” your topics, and it is assumed that you will take the exam.

Each class meeting will be supervised by someone who is an experienced brewer with substantial knowledge in the areas of discussion and who has already passed the BJCP exam. continue reading…

I mentioned in last Friday’s Round-Up that I was participating in a couple of firsts in my short homebrewing career. I was entering my beer for the first time into a competition and I was judging in a homebrew competition for the first time ever. I was a little nervous leading up to the competition. I mean, who am I to judge someone else’s beer? But I was reassured that it’s good practice and all judges had to start somewhere.

First a little background on how a homebrew competition works. Each brewer enters their beer into the competition based on Beer Judge Certification Program’s (BJCP) style guidelines. (The BJCP is kind of a controversial entity for some in the beer world, but that’s another topic all together.) The judges then use the style guideline to determine if the beer submitted fits into the category. Beers are awarded points via five different components: Aroma (12 points), Appearance (3 points), Taste (20 points), Mouth Feel (5 points) and Overall Impression (10 points.) Here’s the score sheet for my Southern English Brown to give you a look at the judging process.

continue reading…

I know this is a bit of a repeat post, but I want to make sure to get the word out. If you’re interested in getting some feedback on some of your beers, a homebrewing competition is the best place to get it. Lucky for you there is a local competition coming up soon.

The Happy Holiday Homebrew Competition is the St. Louis Brews annual homebrew competition. It is a fully sanctioned AHA and BJCP event. This year it will be held on December 8, 2007.

The location of the competition & banquet is the Annunciation Church in Webster Groves, located at 12 West Glendale Road, just South of Hwy. 44 on Elm Avenue. Here is a link to a map. We are proud to be the final qualifying event for the Tenth Annual Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing.

2 bottles per entry
Fee is $6.00 per entry

Please register on the web with a valid email address. The registration page will have all the details of where to send the entries. Local dropoff will be at the local homebrew shops.

Scoresheets will be scanned and emailed back to the brewer by the next day. Currently this is the only competition that I know that scans and emails scoresheets for quick feedback to the brewer.

At this point I believe I’m entering a Belgian Wit, Robust Porter, Vanilla Robust Porter and a Scottish 80. With the exception of the Belgian Wit, these are all brand new styles for me to brew. This is a perfect opportunity to see how close I came to the style.