First homebrew competition... epic fail

[Jon73]

After brewing for a little over 3 years I finally decided I should enter a competition and get some honest feedback from people not standing in my garage drinking for free

Since I moved to kegging 6 months ago I kinda forgot some basic processes when it comes to bottling. I made my normal 5 gallon batch, reserved out a gallon to bottle and kegged the rest. What I did not do was boil a solution for the corn sugar to prime the bottles. I just added it dry and stirred it in. STUPID. My wife and I tried a bottle on the same day the judging was taking place so we could taste what they were tasting. Dirt. Tasted like dirt. So of course I was not surprised to get the score sheets back with a pair of 13s for a score. I suppose you have to fail to succeed, but it still stings a little.

 

[stpug]

That's a bummer. I'd be frustrated because you know the beer was fine - it's the process that failed - and you just wanted feedback on the beer (but of course it's had to taste the beer through the dirt ). Have you considered just bottling from the keg for competitions? You shouldn't need anything fancy to do it and you can get feedback on exactly what you were drinking rather than a bottle conditioned version (they can be subtly different).

 

[adiochiro3]

Sorry to hear it. At least it wasn't an entire batch...

 

[aiptasia]

That off flavor you're tasting isn't based on priming sugar. I'm guessing you're tasting an oxidized beer, which has an earthy wet leather/wet cardboard flavor to it. If you're used to kegging your beer and force carbonating, there's no reason you can't continue to do that. You can make your own beer gun pretty easily. Check out this vid on a pretty good looking DIY beer gun:

 

[KurtB]

You can also check out this sticky in the bottling/kegging section for more tips as well...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

Bottling off the keg is simple. In my opinion, if all you are doing a few bottles to send to a competition, it is less work and less time consuming as well.

 

[Jon73]

Thanks for the feedback. I was discussing my issues with the LHBS owner and he sells a doohickey to bottling from the keg. It's only $40, but I have a trip coming up so I can't afford to get it just yet. The next local competition is in September, so I have to some to save up for it.

 

[pvtschultz]

Here's how I bottle from a keg. Carb and condition as usual, maybe a bit higher than normal. Reduce pressure to ~2 psi, and fill sanitized bottles. Cap right away. Use the rest of the money to make more beer.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/foam-free-tubing-kit-bl-ball-lock-version.html
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/fermtech-bottle-filler.html