A Homebrewer's Thoughts Following the 2016 Big Red Ball Homebrew Competition

What a fantastic evening last night! I attended the 3rd Annual Big Red Ball Homebrew Competition as a brewer on Team Dogtown Foamenters with fellow neighborhood brewer and CAF member, Josh Wooding. The event is jointly put on by the Little Rock Kickball Association (LRKA) and Stone's Throw Brewing Co to benefit the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas. Great cause, great people, and plenty of amazing homebrews to try!

This homebrew competition has two parts: (1) People's Choice winner with 2nd and 3rd place winners also recognized, and (2) Pro-Am winner selected by a panel of judges to have a 3 barrel batch brewed on site at Stone's Throw Brewing Co. as the official beer of the year for LRKA. To be the official beer of the year for kickball, the desired beer is one that would be consumed before, during, or after the game as a tasty, alcoholic thirst quencher even on hot days. The 2014 winner was my teammate and buddy, Josh Wooding, who won with his Atomic Catsicle Pale Ale. The 2015 winner was another buddy, Josh Davis, who won with his Kornfed Cream Ale. And this year's 2016 winner was a new buddy, John Herron, who won with his T-Bone Wheat.

Because this was a competition, it's as easy to be fiercely competitive as it is to be extremely self-critical. This is no different than any other competition, but probably far more resembles cooking competitions (sans the actual brewing because it can take anywhere from 7 to 21 days to go from ingredient to glass). Last year, I brewed a Honey Rye Pale Ale (named "Rye You No Fall"), which was a great beer and I received wonderful feedback from the judges and ticket holders alike. I did not place with either competition. This year, I elected to go with a Red Ale. I selected this style of beer because I was trying to emulate the experience I've had with Core's Arkansas Red Ale. This is a fantastic malty beer with great mouthfeel and caramelly roastiness. It's also neither too light, nor too heavy. Whenever I go and watch an Arkansas Travelers baseball game at Dickey Stephens Park in Little Rock, AR, this is the beer I go looking for. Mmm, but I digress. My beer was made with a mix of base grains Maris Otter and Munich malts, some crystal malts for color and roastiness, bitter/flavor hopped with Fuggle and East Kent Goldings, and fermented with a British-style yeast. It was a simple, classic red ale, no frills, red ale. So true to style that I had a strong feeling that this would beer would not even place. How funny is that? And just as I suspected, I didn't place this year for either competition.

Did I make a bad beer? Absolutely not! When two of the co-owners of Stone's Throw Brewing Co., Theron Cash and Ian Beard, as well as Leap of Faith owner and brewer, Joe Mains, for example, keep coming back to fill their glass, you know it's a good beer. If anything went wrong, my beer didn't seem fully attenuated from fermentation, even though it sat in the carboy for more than three weeks with two satchets of dry yeast. My final ABV was exactly 5.0%, when it was supposed to be higher on the BJCP 2008 category range.

Meanwhile, let me tell you about my Dogtown Foamenter teammate's beer, Interstate Pale Ale. I brewed this beer with Josh out of his garage. We were trying out a different equipment setup and so many things went wrong, the first of which was the mash temperature of the grains in a mash tun cooler. We were severely under target, which would have meant higher fermentability and a thinner beer. Another thing that went wrong is that the boiloff rate was too high that we ended up with less wort than predicted. The third thing that happened is that the yeast smack pack he had barely swelled that I suggested that he add a dry yeast satchet for extra insurance. Fortunately, fermentation was uneventful. However, Josh wasn't happy with his product, and this was before dry-hopping and cold crashing for packaging. If anything more wrong couldn't have happened, it did. Josh's keezer froze his beer, not once, but twice. But then something amazing happen, as is usually the case with beer. Josh delivered and produced a beer that just kept getting better and better with each and every tap pull. What could have been a disaster ended up being a beer people kept coming back to, even more so than mine (or at least that was my perception). I couldn't be more proud of my buddy, who was trying his best to win his second Big Red Ball Homebrew Competition. Ha!

In sum, what did I learn last night and during the month of preparation?

1. You can be critical of your own beer as much as you want, but give it a chance. Other people might love it and it'll make you feel a hell of a lot better!

2. Most of the time, you may think a batch is botched, but can still end up being great beer! And that saying holds true here, "Relax and have a homebrew" or RAHAHB.

3. Perhaps it's worth mentioning that you really shouldn't start changing up your brewing equipment for a competition beer because of unknowns. Not that there's anything wrong with this and that great beers can't be made. But if it is a great beer, you might not know what all your variables are to be able to reproduce it!

4. You're more likely to win the Big Red Ball Homebrew Competition Pro-Am if your name start with a 'J." See the pattern with Josh, Josh, and John?

5. You're more likely to win the Big Red Ball Homebrew Competition Pro-Am if your beer has a crazy name! Atomic Catsicle? Kornfed? T-Bone Wheat?

6. You're more likely to win the Big Red Ball Homebrew Competition Pro-Am if your beer has a light color and non-traditional hops. Yellow! Not amber, red, brown, or black. Hops? What do you know about Galaxy, Motueka, and Bravo?

7. You're more likely to win the Big Red Ball Homebrew Competition People's Choice with good beer and a twist. This year's People's Choice winner was the Four on the Floor Vanilla Porter made with cacao nibs and vanilla bean soaked in Jamaican rum for 2 months.

8. Most important of all... homebrewing just doesn't discriminate. Those who placed or won tonight are all at different stages of their homebrewing journey, each with widely different setups. Some were seasoned brewers, and others were fairly new. And, this isn't just a hobby for men. Women are brewers and craft beer drinkers too! A great example??? Becky McCallister placed with her "butterbeer," a cider with Old English yeast and homemade vanilla syrup.

As for me and Team Dogtown Foamenters, we will keep on keepin' on in this awesome hobby!

Happy Fermenting!

Sam