Competition Corner – January 2012
Well, final results of the 2011 Homebrewer of the Year Award are in and our resident Competition Coordinator Carl Townsend walked away with the pewter tankard, presented at the holiday party. His total of 46 points and 19 ribbons puts him in an elite group with past greats such as Jeff Koehler, Chris Simental, Craig Corley, Robert Garton and Tim Bardet. Craig was in the runner-up spot, followed by Timothy Golden. The entire point tally is listed below.
The final contest of the brewing season was the club-only competition for “Hail to Hefeweizen” BJCP Cat. 15. Craig Corley’s Dunkelweisen was beat out for the 3rd place spot by Yeastside’s Josh Jensen, who prevailed with his Hubris Hefeweizen, which if you recall was 2nd Runner Up BOS at PBC.
Before I forget, I’d like to thank all 13 brewers who contributed to the holiday party. Our host Neil Saund provided a club record nine kegs to the event! WE had a wonderful array of beers to suit just about any taste. Keep in mind that your donations of beer make this one of the best clubs in the country, and were one of the reasons that Neil pulled in the elusive Member of the Year trophy.
So, what comes next? It’s time to start brewing for the 2012 competition year! First up in 2012 is the club-Only Competition for Dark Lagers, BJCP category #4, which includes Munich Dunkel and Schwarzbier. We will judge these are the January club meeting. If you have any of these bring three 12 oz. bottles and make sure you let Carl know they are there. If you can’t attend, please drop your entries off at the Culver City shop by January 19th, and send Carl an e-mail at CompetitionCoordinator@PacificGravity.com to let him know they are there. If possible, please also fill out an entry form, which you can download from http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/0326/entry_recipe.pdf. The club picks up the entry fee, so it is free to you. If your entry is selected, we’ll ship the two remaining bottles to the national judging site. If you lose, you can take back the two extra bottles.
The website now has the styles of the month for all of 2012, posted at http://pacificgravity.org/monthly-stylesclub-only-comps/ In most cases, we’ve lined up the club-only entries with the monthly style. However, due to some scheduling logistics, the COC judging will be a month earlier. Some of the dates are subject to change, based on AHA changes to the COC schedule. In general, the monthly style is more broadly defined than the COC, so keep that in mind when you are brewing your next beer and plan accordingly. In January, for example, the style of the month is all lager beers, not just Dark Lagers. All Style of the Month beers are eligible for the Keg of the Night Award, which gets you a gift certificate to the Culver City Homebrew Supply Shop.
We will stick with the same seven main competitions for 2012. Of these, the three used by Anchor Brewing are the California State Fair, Mayfair and the California State Homebrew Competition. If you have a limited amount of beer to enter, try hitting these three and who knows, maybe we can win California Homebrew Club of the Year two years in a row!! The winter season is a good time to get those beers going with clean-fermenting cool weather. And if 13 competitions aren’t enough for you, you can find many more at http://www.bjcp.org/apps/comp_schedule/competition_schedule.php.
2012 Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule
January COC – Dark Lagers, BJCP Cat #4
February COC – Stouts, BJCP Cat #13
February America’s Finest City
April AHA Nationals
April Mayfaire
April COC Scottish and Irish Ale, BJCP Cat #9
May California State Fair
July Los Angeles County Fair
July COC – Porter BJCP, Cat #12
August COC – Light Hybrid BJCP, Cat #6
September Pacific Brewers Cup
October California State Homebrew Competition
October COC– Old Ale BJCP, Cat #19
Final Brewer of the Year tally for 2011
| Brewer | Points | Ribbons |
| Carl Townsend |
46 |
19 |
| Craig Corley |
27 |
12 |
| Timothy Golden |
11 |
4 |
| Kristofor Barnes/John Rockwell |
9 |
3 |
| Jeff Koehler |
7 |
3 |
| Neil Saund |
7 |
5 |
| Dave Maucelli |
6 |
3 |
| Brett Wilson |
4 |
2 |
| Josh Jensen |
4 |
2 |
| Diego Benitez |
3 |
1 |
| Luis DiStefano |
3 |
1 |
| Matthew Rick |
3 |
1 |
| Victor Macias |
3 |
1 |
| Kyle Suta |
3 |
2 |
| Heath Haynes |
2 |
1 |
| Toby Kinsley & Brian Holter |
2 |
1 |
| Zach Bradshaw |
2 |
1 |
| Dan Hakes |
1 |
0 |
| Gregg Smith |
1 |
0 |
| Christopher Lindsey |
1 |
1 |
| Mark Takahashi |
1 |
1 |
| Nathan Martell |
1 |
1 |
| Pete Morris |
1 |
1 |
