World Cup of Beer: Results

The results are in.

For my first competition, I entered American India Pale Ale – 14 B into the 2010 World Cup of Beer.

Here are the winners for all categories:

Ribbon Winners

Congratulations to Jason Engelund from the Bay Area Mashers who took first place with his American IPA.

There were 29 entries in the 14B category (much less than anticipated).  Though there were more total entries than ever with just over 600.

My Preliminary score: 32.5 out of 50
My Final score: 34 out 50

Highest score: 43
Lowest score: 14.5

You can view my two score sheets here:

• Prelim Round
• Final Round

My Thoughts:

Entering this competition was easy and I highly encourage any home brewer to do the same.  The World Cup of Beer was professionally run, and I received my results in the mail during the advertised time frame.  Unfortunately, I was unable to make the awards ceremony, since I was in New Mexico.  See my previous post.  My main objective for entering was to be able to have my home brew judged by a BJCP certified judge in order to get an outside opinion.  In the end, I was very surprised by two opinions that both judges shared: Style was more like an English IPA, and that it had diacetyl in both the aroma and flavor.  Below I will go into more detail:

• Aroma - The consensus was that the aroma was heavy on the caramel and light (to none) on the citrus/pine which is to be expected in the style.  They also both noted that Diacetyl was present.
• Appearance – I nailed the clarity, but fell short (no pun intended) on the head retention.
• Flavor - Though well balanced, not hoppy enough for an American IPA; closer to an earthy English IPA.  Again Diacetyl in flavor.
• Mouthfeel – Slickness from Diacetyl and poor carbonation.
• Overall Impression – Aside from the Diacetyl a very clean beer, but more of a English IPA.

What to do next time:

Surprisingly, a lot of my mistakes can be fixed by time.  I think  I partly fell victim to trying to push the brewing schedule right up to the last moment in order to capture the aroma and flavor before it falls off, which typically can happen in an IPA.  As it turns out, even after I did that, I missed the aroma and flavor completely, and gained diacetyl issues.  Lesson to be learned here is that you should always allow enough time for your beer to finish and carbonate before you submit it (common sense right?).  More specifically:

What is this Diacetyl?  You can find the long winded answer here: Brewing Techniques – Diacetyl: Formation, Reduction, and Control.  In short, Diacetyl is a compound in beer that gives a buttery flavor and can be caused by one of the following: Bacterial Infection, Poor Fermentation, Improper Wort Amino Acid and Nutrient Levels, and/or Oxidation.

Diacetyl
I’m almost confident I can cross off Bacterial Infection, as my sanitation methods seem sound, and I think I can cross of Improper Wort Amino Acid and Nutrient Levels off, because of two things: (1) I used Yeast nutrients in my starter and (2) I used zero adjuncts in my recipe (If sufficient amounts of proteins are to be available in the fermentation, they must come from wort; this in turn depends on the amount of malted grains used. High-quality malt used with reasonable mashing systems will yield wort that is rich in all the relevant amino acids). That leaves Poor Fermentation and Oxidation. Going into this was a last minute decision and I knew I would be pressed for time. I do believe that I cut the fermentation short, in order to give time for the Dry Hop, filtering, kegging, carbonation, and bottling. I did do a Diacetyl Rest (raising the temperature for 2 days at the end of fermentation), but I think it was far too early in the fermentation process. Finally I can think of two places where oxidation could have been an issue. In brewing, oxygen can be your friend as well as your enemy. I’ve always wondered whether I need to oxygenate my wort before pitching the yeast. For this batch, I only had the wort drop from the kettle down splashing into the carboy. I think I’ll have to pick up an oxygen stone and an oxygen tank for future batches. Also, I feel like the beer in the bottle had more diacetyl flavor than the beer from the keg. I’m wondering if oxygen did get in the bottle, and began to break down the finished beer as described in Brewing Techniques (Mechanical abuse of packaged beer can promote this; headspace air is the oxidizing agent. Elevated temperatures augment the effect. I have seen cases in which wort constituents (melanoidins and tannins), oxidized on the hot side in wort production, were passed on to the final beer, only to play the role of oxidizer there).

English IPA
I have no idea what is going on here.  The only thing I can think of is that the Diacetyl problem is causing too great of an off-flavor, preventing the citrus/pine hop flavor from coming through, because I heavily hopped with Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial, and Amarillo.  Maybe the butter flavor makes it more sweet?  I guess I’ll find out once I remove the Diacetyl.  There’s also the fact that the BJCP guidelines allow for a small amount of Diacetyl in English IPAs as well as a strong bready/caramel flavor, whereas there should be no diacetyl in an American IPA.

Head Retention
The head retention problem can be solved by having the proper carbonation.  I rushed this part as well.  I could also add a small amount of carafoam grain to the recipe.