Championship Results

We recently were invited to enter the Master's Championship of Amateur Brewing based on our gold medal at the Happy Holidays 2010 competition in St. Louis for our New World Stout. This competition hosted winners in each category from select national competitions, sort of a "best of the best" event. We were pleasantly surprised to be eligible to enter, especially since this beer was not planned as a competition beer at all. What I mean by that is that we didn't even try to follow the BJCP category guidelines, which are the standard to which each beer in a competition is judged. This is done to take much of the subjectivity of tasting out of the judging process. Because it was the closest match in color, gravity, and flavor profile, we entered this beer in category 13E - American Stout. However, we were not completely within the style as we used English hop and malt varieties to make up our beer. Hence the name New World Stout, a beer with English hop and malt character, but American style boldness.

As I said, we did not actually place in the competition, however upon receiving our score sheets I noticed that we were awarded an Honorable Mention. This was thrilling for us because it means that out of the 30 or so other stouts we were competing with, all gold medalists, ours was still considered to be among the very best. In fact, upon reading the feedback that we were given, I found that the judges did not have anything negative to say about the beer other than they would have liked a more "American" hop aroma and flavor profile. This makes sense because we did not use a single American hop in the beer. One of the judges even commented that he would drink our stout any day of the week.

Although it is a little disappointing that we did not technically place in this competition, it's a comfort to know that our beer was so well received and that it's really only the specificity of the style guidelines that kept us from placing. They went so far as to say the whole beer was well made with no off-flavors or problems, just simply lacking the citrus quality of American hops. If we ever choose to brew this beer again specifically for competitions, we can simply replace the hops we used with American varieties, and I'm sure we'll have a winner. I doubt we will ever do that though, we brew our beer for flavor and this beer is pretty much exactly what we want it to be. Good work New World Stout, you've done us proud.

- Adam