NHC Results

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Permalink Reply by Mike Neilson on November 18, 2010 at 5:38pm

Sounds like the judges done a mighty fine job again!! Even if your a experienced homebrewer its good to enter the comp just to reaffirm you thoughts or is a way to find out if you have cellar palate. I had nothing to enter damn it,

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Permalink Reply by Richard Jack on November 18, 2010 at 5:40pm

What was shitty about your bottling technique?

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on November 21, 2010 at 12:03pm

"What was shitty about your bottling technique?"

Bottling from the tap, no CO2 purge, no problems last year but the beers I entered then were a bit more aggressive and probably hid the slight oxidation. Next year I'll invest in a Blichmann Beergun or CPBF.

"but I'm not too surprised as I didn't brew any for the comp,"

Yeah same here, was a lazy entry for me too, should have put more effort in and brewed some beers that I knew were worthy haha.

"Heh, good shit on the bronze! That's so true, eh? You can brew something to a style, but it's all in the tasting against that style that matters! :)"

Haha yeap, to be fair it was WLP029 Kolsch so kind of a hybrid yeast, but in hindsight I would use SO5/1056 at about 16 - 17 for a better result. Also the NZ pils I entered didn't score too well, 25 -28 or something, which was also brewed with 029, again nothing on the score sheet about it not being lager-like haha.

The only criticism I have on the criticism is that it would have been kinda good for just a 'light/strong phenols', 'spicy/medicinal phenols' (or whatever) instead of just 'phenolic'. I know it was probably obvious to the judges but I sat down with a couple of the beers last night and don't know if it's something resonably strong that my palate is blind to or it's really subtle and I'm just used to it.

Great work guys, cheers for another round of NHC.

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Permalink Reply by Greig McGill on November 21, 2010 at 8:25pm

Useful feedback, thanks. Yeah, a lot of the time, we tried to be specific, but I'm sure that over the 294 beers, a few slipped through with less than perfect/specific comments. Something to aim for next year!

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on November 22, 2010 at 8:56pm

Interestingly on a BN podcast I heard John Palmer say that copper after fermentation can react with the beer to increase oxidation, and I use a copper tube from my Perlick tap to bottle - so will have to look into that further.

I started having a look at the beer guns, they're nice but I'm a bit suss if they're worth the money. The only thing they've got on sticking a broken racking can in a picnic tap is the CO2 purge and having the valve at the bottom of the gun. It would be easy enough to rig something up to purge a bottle with CO2 from an existing valve I reckon.

But then the CPBF look to be a prick to set up for short runs and look like they'd be a pain in the arse for long runs. From watching the morebeer instructional video they look kinda messy too.

I'm gonna go back to the picnic tap for the moment I think, and maybe rig something up to purge the bottles.

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Permalink Reply by jt on November 22, 2010 at 9:20pm

I read AHB a few years ago where they were getting all excited about a bulk buy of blichman guns - and from what I can tell, they turned out to be a fizzer

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Permalink Reply by MrC on November 22, 2010 at 9:43pm

For what it's worth, I bottle directly from picnic tap to bottle and didn't get any oxidation comments at all. I don't purge with CO2 although there is usually enough foam to fill the headspace. The judges picked up plenty of faults but oxidation was not one of them.

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Permalink Reply by denimglen on November 23, 2010 at 3:33pm

The judges picked up plenty of faults but oxidation was not one of them.

Maybe all the other faults masked the oxidation? :-P Haha, just having you on mate.

I'm thinking it's the initial pour where the beer first hits the bottle is where it will introduce the most O2. I would think that as soon as the beer hits the bottom of the bottle it'd release enough CO2 to blanket the beer.

I can't really think of anywhere else that I'd be picking up oxidation besides the bottling. I don't transfer my beer to secondary and when it leaves the fermenter it goes straight into a CO2 purged keg. I'm pretty careful with HSA as well. Maybe if yours were fine MC it was the copper?

Cheers for that jt, will have a look at AHB, there's mixed reviews on the US brewing sites.

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Permalink Reply by Stu McKinlay on November 23, 2010 at 4:31pm

I've bottled from a picnic tap for years, and kept bottles for 6 months or more with nobody ever having picked up any signs of oxidation. I'm guessing that that the little amount of yeast that is left in your beer (assuming it is unfiltered, which most homebrew is) must be viable and vital enough to scavenge CO2.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Neilson on November 28, 2010 at 12:23pm

Oxidation can come from everywhere in the brew not just the bottle, and is best talked about over beer as it can be pretty lengthy and boring subject. I probbably was from the bottling and the reason you dont pick up on your beer being oxidised is your beer probably dosnt get the chance to warm up and let the DO react with the beer

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Permalink Reply by martin w on November 18, 2010 at 7:03pm

mine were waiting when i got hope from work,

i knew my beers wern't great but i thought they were reasonable,nothing like the score sheets to bring me crashing back down to earth,good feedback and advice but all had some form of infection-either diacetyl,dmsor phenols, the worst thing is though that i can't taste these things! now i know their flaws though i'm going to sit down with them and the scoresheets and try and identify them!

i was bitterly dissapointed when i first read them but now iv'e decided i'm going to sort my shit out and get at least bronze next year.hopefully.:)

suggestions on how best to educate my palate appreciated!

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Permalink Reply by Christian on November 18, 2010 at 7:30pm

Looks like a nasty case of hop infection for me. Those little green buggers are everywhere!

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