14 Sep
2004
14 Sep
'04
1:54 p.m.
On Mon, Sep 13, 2004 at 05:48:33PM -0500, John Longballa wrote:
Ladies and Gentlemen--
For far too long (four years running!) the Quality Ale and Fermentation =
Fraternity (QUAFF) from San Diego, CA, has had a stranglehold on the =
Club of the Year competition at the American Homebrewers Association =
(AHA) national convention. For the past four years, they are the only =
club to hoist the trophy over their collective heads and receive the =
accolades that accompany the honor of being AHA Club of the Year.
.....
So--the bottom line is this:
Please look over the attached list of new Beer Judge Certification =
Program (BJCP) styles (complete style guidelines at www.bjcp.org) =
decide which styles you can commit to brewing and entering, then let me =
know which those are. Barleywines, Russian Imperial Stouts, Meads, sour =
ales, and other larger or more need-time-to-mellow beers need to be =
brewed right quick!
Then, please consider entering into a friendly agreement that all MN =
brewers will enter under one club name. At the moment, it would be MHBA =
or SPHBC, considering that those two clubs have scored well in previous =
contests, but the club name used on entries could be open for =
discussion.
....
From John's list of all the styles the following
are some of the styles
that either you need to be planning to brew soon or are
already too
late for the 2005 competition. Entries will probably be due in early
April 2005.
9E. Strong Scotch Ale
12C. Baltic Porter
13F. Russian Imperial Stout
17B. Flanders Red Ale
17C. Flanders Brown Ale/Oud Bruin
17D. Straight (Unblended) Lambic
17E. Gueuze
17F. Fruit Lambic
19A. Old Ale
19B. English Barleywine
19C. American Barleywine
21B. Christmas/Winter Specialty Spiced Beer
22C. Wood-Aged Beer
24A. Dry Mead
24B. Semi-sweet Mead
24C. Sweet Mead
25A. Cyser (Apple Melomel)
25B. Pyment (Grape Melomel)
25C. Other Fruit Melomel
26A. Metheglin
26B. Braggot
26C. Open Category Mead
I think it would be hard to have a good lambic by April if you started
now but if you don't start now you'll never have one for future years
either.
For the meads you can have a good mead by April but you don't have a
lot of time to spare.
Wood aged is pretty open but I assume a big beer.
The Flanders Red can be made by April but you want a warm
fermentation to develop the sourness.
Now is the time to plan for the cider categories because we are coming
up on apple harvest season. Same for the Cyser.
And don't forget the Upper Mississippi Mash Out is in January 2005 so
you need to have some entries for that as well.
--
Steve Piatz piatz(a)cray.com
Cray Inc. 651-605-9049
1340 Mendota Heights Road cell: 651-428-1417
Mendota Heights, MN 55120