For those of you who had entries go to second round how long did you work on your recipe to get it to this point? Anyone get lucky and have a first brew go through?
For the three I got through:
Dortmunder - 20+ batches?? One that does well on a regular basis for me in comps. 3rd time it has advanced to Finals..... no medal yet though.
Blonde - My go-to "house beer" 20-30+ batches. First time I have entered it in NHC..... but, it was 4 for 4 in good sized comps I had entered it in over the last year or two.
Czech Dark Lager - 1st batch ever.... New 2015 style, looked interesting. Kind of blended a successful Bo-Pils I had brewed with a very tasty "black lager" I had brewed a couple times.
The two that did not make it through for me:
Helles (scored 34)---Brewed it 20+ times. To be honest, this one was getting a little old. Hindsight, should have sent my Brittish Ordinary Bitter in its place.
Scottish Heavy (Mini BOS, Scored 39, but did not advance) - Brewed this 10+ times probably...... It has advanced to finals in the past one year.
*For competition beers, I generally start with recipe's from Brewing Classic Styles of from NHC winning recipes. I brew it "as is" once, and then start changing it and tweaking it to my system, my taste, my water, etc.