Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 Styles

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mumblecrunch
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Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 Styles

Post by mumblecrunch » Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:17 am

From Facebook:
3rd Annual Big Spruce Home Brew Challenge
Big Spruce Brewing wrote: Open to all home brewers. This will be a BJCP certified event.

Registration Fee is $25 per entrant. This fee entitles each entrant to submit one entry in any or all of the 3 style categories we have selected for this years' challenge. First, Second and Third Place will be announced in each of the 3 styles, plus there will be a declared overall "best in show" winner. Entrants that place in each of the style categories will each win a swag package, and the Best in Show winner will also be given the opportunity to brew their beer at Big Spruce Brewing for release in January 2016 at the 3rd Annual Craft Beer and Local Food festival put on by Local Connections in Halifax.

Each Home Brewers' entry fee entitles the home brewer to a one of a kind Big Spruce Home Brew Challenge 2015 T-Shirt, and attendance at the post judging party at the Wooden Monkey Dartmouth location in Alderney Landing at 4pm on Saturday November 28th, 2015.

Interested brewers should do/note the following:

- Express interest via email to bigsprucebrewing@gmail.com. We will send you an entry form by return email for you to fill out and return to us by email on or before Nov 23rd, 2015.
- Submit 3 x conveniently sized bottles of your entered beer for judging purposes no later than Friday Nov 27th, 2015. We will coordinate a Halifax drop off point, or beers can be dropped off directly at Big Spruce Brewing.
- The selected beer styles for the competition, per BJCP Style Guidelines 2015, are:

1) 21B. Specialty IPA - Red IPA
2) 7B. Altbier
3) 3D. Dark Czech Lager

The Best in Show entry, plus those placing in each Style Category, will be announced at 4pm on Nov 28th, 2015 at the Wooden Monkey Dartmouth.

GOOD LUCK!
All you smarties with your temperature control and lagering experience have a leg up on the rest of us with the Altbier and the Czech Lager.

Brethren and Sistren, start your brew kettles. You have 3 months!

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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by Keith » Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:47 am

I've got my Red IPA recipe that I'll be sumitting. Angry Man's Red Eye'd IPA.

Altbier and the Dark Czech Lager I'm fawked on lol.
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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by chalmers » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:03 am

Looking forward to judging these ones! Remember it's the newest BJCP guidelines. I'll parse them and post them later today.

And it's open to any Maritimes homebrewer, by the way!

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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by LeafMan66_67 » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:56 am

Should be a great competition! Looking forward to planning at least two, if not all three!
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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by LeafMan66_67 » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:58 am

Also, I'm available to Steward that day as well, provided that's permitted if I have entries.
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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by amartin » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:59 am

Any idea if the judging will be in Halifax or Cape Breton?

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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by LeafMan66_67 » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:10 pm

amartin wrote:Any idea if the judging will be in Halifax or Cape Breton?
Sounds like it's in Dartmouth at the Wooden Monkey.
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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by jacinthebox » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:55 pm

Awesome...hoping eric will be my brewing assistant this year lol
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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by Broob » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:53 pm

So with the new guidelines under Red IPA you can specify session, standard or double. Can we enter a session Red IPA in this comp?
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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by Keith » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:10 pm

Mike and I are brewing together for this. Co brew to ensure we can tackle the categories
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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by GAM » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:29 pm

Broob wrote:So with the new guidelines under Red IPA you can specify session, standard or double. Can we enter a session Red IPA in this comp?
I would contact Jeremey directly. I don't think he monitors this.

Please report back.

S

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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by Keith » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:46 pm

Isn't he going by the 2008 style guidelines for this comp?
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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by mthibodeau » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:47 pm

Keith wrote:Isn't he going by the 2008 style guidelines for this comp?
2015 according to the first post
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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by Keith » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:52 pm

mthibodeau wrote:
Keith wrote:Isn't he going by the 2008 style guidelines for this comp?
2015 according to the first post
I should stop skimming what I read.
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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by amartin » Fri Aug 28, 2015 3:04 pm

I'm probably going to be away for judging, but I might get and entry or two in.

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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by amartin » Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:30 pm

Never mind, I'm bad at planning. I'll be back by then. Just the same though, I may enter in one of the categories anyway.

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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by chalmers » Sat Aug 29, 2015 11:47 am

This isn't quite formatting as I'd like, but here are the specific styles:









And the PDF files:
3D.CzechDarkLager-BJCP2015.pdf
7B.AltbierOverall-BJCP2015.pdf
21B.SpecialtyIPA-BJCP2015.pdf
SpecialtyIPARedIPA-BJCP2015.pdf
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

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Re: [Competition Open] Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 St

Post by chalmers » Sat Aug 29, 2015 11:57 am

- Session, Standard, and Double versions of the Red IPA will be accepted. Be sure to specify which strength it is entered under, or else it will be assumed to be Standard.

- Volunteers and judges are welcome (and needed), thanks! We'll be judging that day, Saturday, Nov 28th, and will get started that morning, probably around 10am. More details soon. And you can absolutely still enter! And volunteers will gain BJCP points (either for current members, or people interested in taking the exam in the future). To express interest, please EMAIL me, so I can keep a central list.

- Judges are welcome/encouraged to enter a beer or two (max. one per category), but you must declare which category(ies) you've entered, so you won't be judging your beer. And you won't be eligible to judge the Best of Show, just in case your beer makes it. I will be sending all of the local BJCP judges an email in the next couple of days, after competition registration. I'm just guessing, but I imagine that a judge will only be judging a single category, with the possibility of doing the Best of Show to find the best overall beer.

Any other questions? Post them here or email me.

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Re: Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 Styles

Post by spears104 » Sat Aug 29, 2015 4:31 pm

Are there any commercial examples of these styles in Nova Scotia? The only one that comes to mind is Temptation Red from Boxing Rock.
Primary -
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Re: Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 Styles

Post by Lucas » Thu Sep 03, 2015 6:40 pm

I have a question regarding the altbier fermentation schedule that may or may not be answerable, but I'm sure someone here can at least speculate. I've read that traditionally the beer is fermented at ale temps and then lagered at lower temps (maybe 5-10C) for a few weeks prior to packaging. If I were to ferment on a fairly standard ale schedule at standard ale temps, bottle condition warm for 2-3 weeks, and then put the bottles in the fridge for a few weeks before drinking would it have a similar effect to a genuine lagering period?
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Re: Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 Styles

Post by Lucas » Thu Sep 03, 2015 7:01 pm

spears104 wrote:Are there any commercial examples of these styles in Nova Scotia? The only one that comes to mind is Temptation Red from Boxing Rock.
Boxing Rock Temptation Red struck me as an example of the Red IPA style too. Can't think of any others. Bishop's Cellar and Rockhead have stocked the Sticke Alt from Les Trois Mousquetaires before - not sure if they still have it as I haven't been to either store in a while. That may not be much help to you if you are in Port Hawkesbury though. I think the Sticke Alt is essentially just a slightly stronger and maybe more bitter version of the dusseldorf alt? I can't think of any other altbiers that are available in NS. I don't know the first thing about Czech lagers so I can't help you there either.
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Re: Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 Styles

Post by amartin » Fri Sep 04, 2015 12:04 pm

Lucas wrote:I have a question regarding the altbier fermentation schedule that may or may not be answerable, but I'm sure someone here can at least speculate. I've read that traditionally the beer is fermented at ale temps and then lagered at lower temps (maybe 5-10C) for a few weeks prior to packaging. If I were to ferment on a fairly standard ale schedule at standard ale temps, bottle condition warm for 2-3 weeks, and then put the bottles in the fridge for a few weeks before drinking would it have a similar effect to a genuine lagering period?
I think part of it is so that sulfur can off gas, and it won't do that in the bottle. However, that's really only a concern with yeasts that produce sulfur. Some alt yeasts are bad for it, others not so much. There might be other reasons to lager it, I forget.

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Re: Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 Styles

Post by Lucas » Fri Sep 04, 2015 2:11 pm

amartin wrote:
Lucas wrote:I have a question regarding the altbier fermentation schedule that may or may not be answerable, but I'm sure someone here can at least speculate. I've read that traditionally the beer is fermented at ale temps and then lagered at lower temps (maybe 5-10C) for a few weeks prior to packaging. If I were to ferment on a fairly standard ale schedule at standard ale temps, bottle condition warm for 2-3 weeks, and then put the bottles in the fridge for a few weeks before drinking would it have a similar effect to a genuine lagering period?
I think part of it is so that sulfur can off gas, and it won't do that in the bottle. However, that's really only a concern with yeasts that produce sulfur. Some alt yeasts are bad for it, others not so much. There might be other reasons to lager it, I forget.
Gotcha. So maybe a longer secondary at higher temps might still allow some of the sulfur out if it is present?
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Re: Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 Styles

Post by BigSpruce » Sun Sep 06, 2015 8:57 am

Hey All - sorry I don't monitor this as often as I should. Thank you Chris for clarifying a few things. We're really excited to expand this competition this year. All 3 styles are personal favourites of mine.

I'm really hoping for as many entries as possible this year. I can't tell you how strongly I feel about the fact that more than any other group, home brewers feed the craft passion and growth in NS. I'm hoping to keep growing the competition as a way of promoting beer passion, but also as a way of giving back. That's why this year we will do a little gathering at Wooden Monkey Dartmouth after the judging and announcement of winners. All participants and judges are welcome. We'll provide some food, and if the Monkey will accommodate, I'll try and bring a keg of something special too.

We make a point of running our business without ever advertising or marketing. We turn down dozens of advertising opportunities every year. I'm not sure we'll always be able to be like that, but for now word of mouth and good beer is plenty enough to sell everything we make. I make a purposeful exception about advertising when it comes to supporting home brewing, and always will. This is why we fully sponsored the amazing Brewnoser competition this year. I just strongly feel that helping you all is less about advertising and more about giving back to a group of individuals that support our business and NSCraft more than the average craftie!

So get brewing, and I'll see you at the Wooden Monkey end of November!

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Re: Big Spruce Home Brew Comp 2015 - 3 Styles

Post by LeafMan66_67 » Sun Sep 06, 2015 9:53 am

Well said Jeremy!
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