BetterBeerBlog

For as many times as I’ve written about my homebrews, I have never review any of my beers on this site. Part of me thinks that I can’t be objective. I don’t necessarily think that I’ll rate myself undeservedly high, it’s the opposite, in fact. I think I just might be more strict when judging my own beers that that of others. That being said, I had it all lined up where I’d review both my Märzen and my Altbier but something happened on the way to the homebrew store. Well, not on the way, more like, at the homebrew store.

I was purchasing ingredients for next home brew when Rich, the owner of Beer and Winemakers of America, told me about the upcoming Bay Area Brew Off (BABO) homebrew competition held by the Draught Board homebrew club. On a whim, I dropped off my two entries.

It seemed to take forever but the BABO winners were finally posted on the Draught Board website. Draught Board President Roger St. Denis sent an email out to all the participant earlier in the week but I hesitated posting how well I did until Draught Board updated their website as well.

Now that they’re up, I can proudly say that my Märzen took 3rd place in the Amber Lager category while my Altbier took 1st in the Amber Hybrids category!!! Now I can add “Award Winning Homebrewer” to my short list of achievements, ha, ha, ha! Then again, I probably shouldn’t toot my horn too much as not only did my Märzen had an average score of 21 points (Misses the mark on style and/or minor flaws), there were (it would seem) only 4 entrants into the category. My Altbier fared better scoring an average of 30.2 points (Generally within style parameters, some minor flaws) with also 4 entrants in the category. It was an ugly win but a win nonetheless.

Jon from Beer Obsessed once emailed me to say that should I place, I would be bitten by the homebrew competition bug. I would be lying if i didn’t say I am more inclined to enter more of my beers into competition. On one hand, I would’ve been happy just to place but for one of my beers to take 1st in a category is pretty good. On the other, when you start at the top, it’s a long way down. Granted, I didn’t win BOS (Best of Show) but it’s a good feeling nonetheless.

It validates to me that I am a decent homebrewer. It also raises a valid question, do I brew for myself (as I have been) or do I brew for competitions? One would think that both are the same thing but in reality, it’s not, it’s a completely different mindset. For now I think I’ll continue to brew for myself and as competitions come up, I’ll send in whatever I have on tap at the time.

Tomorrow is the start of the Alameda County Fair. The fair runs from June 20th through July 6th making the duration of the event a little over two weeks. I’m almost ashamed to say that this will be my very first county fair. For whatever reason I never visited the Santa Clara County Fair and, for the foreseeable future, it doesn’t seem like I ever will as the fair has gone the way of the dinosaur and the Champ Car race.

Looking at their website, the Alameda County Fair promises to have a variety of activities and entertainment. There will be horse racing, concerts, parades, fireworks and distractions for the kids. My main interest for the fair and the sole reason I’m even writing a post about it is because of the homebrew competition.

The Bay Area Brew Off (BABO) is sponsored by the folks from the Draught Board Home Brew Club based in San Leandro. Their membership is mainly made up of East Bay folks but isn’t restricted to just East Bay folks. BABO is in it’s 21st year and I entered in two of my beers, a märzen and an altbier on a whim. I’ve been chomping at the bit to see how well I did but the results won’t be up until tomorrow. Hopefully I did well and entered the correct bottles for the correct categories. I should consider labeling my beers in the future.