Christchurch Home Brew club - Lager Comp

Hello all,

here are the details of our Lager comp which is to be held on Friday 13th Sept (Hence the Frite Nite name)

Details are:

This comp is all about lagers!

Any of the BJCP lager styles is fine to enter, but it should have been brewed with a lager yeast and had a period of cold ageing i.e. lagering. As always, entries need to specify the style that they most closely resemble.

We'll have a little change to judging this time, with the usual brewers' choice for the favourite beer on the night, and the official judge (TBA) awarding a prize for the best malt-driven lager. Hopefully this means we won't have a dozen hoppy pilsners on the night?

For you lager virgins out there, here are a couple of pieces of advice:
-Remember that lagers don't hide fermentation flaws/clashing malts and hops as well as ales. Keep your recipe simple and get a clean fermentation.
-Start with a lot of yeast. Two packs of dry, or a big starter of a liquid culture. Pitching a large amount of yeast cold will give you a cleaner fermentation that needs less conditioning. Pitching less yeast warm and cooling to fermentation temp does work, but usually takes more time to clean up, so it can be a false economy.
-Some basic lager reading: http://www.byo.com/lagering/item/9-10-keys-to-great-lager

As usual, the competition entry should be brewed by you, and you should have enough that 10 or more can taste it (usually one 500ml bottle is enough, but we had 13 people to the last comp so bring two 500ml bottles to be safe)

Bring along an extra two bottles of your entry brew to be added to the prizes for the judged beers.

We will work on getting a judge. As we have a bit more time we can start asking around now so we are settled before the night

Finney / Douglas