Brewing Up an Award

During my time as a home brewer I have always taken the stance of brewing what I like. This means not worrying about style guidelines all that much. I have always used the styles and books on brewing for a basic guideline but that's where it ends. It's always appreciated when someone enjoys your beers but in the end it only matters if you are happy with it. So over the years this has been who I am as a brewer, not uncommon among brewers. Last year I entered my first homebrew competition and entered a few beers. This was going to be a learning experience for me since I had no clue what to expect. However I wanted feedback and without being in a club this was a good choice. The competition was the Best Florida Beer Championships. Two of my beers fared pretty well and advanced to the second round. This is where they gig you on teqnical flaws up to and including categorizing the beer properly. My hefeweizen was gigged for not having enough banana. My rustic rye saison gigged for having Brettanomyces and entered under saison and not Belgian specialty. No worries it's a learning experience and it was my first competition. It was great reading that my saison was one of the best Saisons one of the judge had ever tasted! 

As the days, weeks and months go on I forgot about competitions. I brewed here and there having a little one in the house meant a little less brewing so make it count when you can. One of the beers was inspired from the book Brew Like Monk and the first beer I drank to celebrate my daughters birth, Orval. Orval is known to be one of the best beers in the world and a category all to its own. It's best described as a Belgian Pale with Brettanomyces. I designed the beer around a recipe found in Brew Like a Monk and tweaked it to be my own. The addition of Brettanomyces strains was an area I veered of into my own world. I opted to use three commercially available strains. These being brett bruxellensis, brett lambicus and brett claussenii. I named the beer 'Esque, meaning in the style of (Orval) but not a clone. 

As time went on I forgot completely about completions  then one day I saw on social media that entries were ready for submission in the same state wide competition I entered last year. As luck would have it I had a few beers I was proud of and wanted to enter, 'Esque being one of them. The anticipation for this event had me on the edge of my seat for weeks. I wasn't really thinking I would place but really wanted the feedback. Then one fine day I looked on Facebook and saw the medal list was posted online. Out of morbid curiosity I looked and HOLY SHIT, there my name was next to a gold medal for category 16 Belgian and French Ale. 'Esque brought home a gold!!!! I was thrilled and couldn't wait for the score cards to come in.  

As time went on I got more curios about Best of Show and started stalking the BFBC website. Eventually they announced the winners and low and behold my name was up there as First Runner Up! Somehow my beer managed to score 2nd place overall out of 713 entires in 28 categories from all across Florida. I have been walking on air ever since. 

Recipe: 'Esque

Style: Belgian Specialty

OG: 1.060

FG: 1.006

ABV: 7%

IBU's: 31.6

SRM: 10.6

Batch Size 5.5 gallons

Mash: 154*F

9 pounds Pilsner Malt 76.19%

1.5 pounds Caravienne Malt 12.7%

1 pound Candi Syrup D-45 8.47%

5 ounces Table Sugar 2.65%

80 minutes 1 ounce Pearle

15 minutes 1/2 ounce Styrian Goldings

Dry hop 15 Days 2 ounces Sterling

WLP 510 Bastonge Belgian Ale

50% brett b

25% brett l

25% brett c