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Written by Jeff
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Wednesday, 20 January 2010 11:26 |
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The final four of the Iron Brewer competition was last night. The brewers proved why they were the last men standing as the four beers in the final did not disappoint. On one side of the bracket we had Tim Hayes vs Jim Leabig in the black pepper category. Tim did a belgian blonde ale and went up against Jims black pepper rye IPA. Both beers were done very well. The blonde had a lot of pepper in the nose and right up front while the Rye IPA had quite a bit of spice on the back end that seemed to increase the more you drank. The voters spoke and while they really liked the IPA, they thought the black pepper blended a little better on the blonde and Tim moved on to the finals in a closely contested battle. On the other side of the bracket we had Kent Critchell's terregon blonde up against Bryan Clausers terregon saison. After much debate as to what the actual flavor of terregon was, the best definition we had was a 'minty, green tea'. Kents research (re: email blast) paid off as his blonde won and he moved on to the finals. The final mystery ingredient was given out to the last 2 men standing. They were given 5 pounds of russset potatoes, 1 box of rice, and 4 sweet potatoes. There was also a couple of restrictions given for the championship round. 1) only 60% of the total fermentables were allowed to come from malted barley. The rest has to come from the potatoes and rice. 2) No spices could be used for flavoring. 3) no pumpkin beers (not letting them get off that easy with the sweet potatoes. The competitors have one month to complete their beers. Check back after the February meeting (Feb 16) to see the results of the finals! Good luck to both brewers. May the best beer win. |
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Last Updated on Monday, 08 February 2010 11:54 |
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Written by Jeff
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Thursday, 31 December 2009 13:00 |
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Ok, so better late than never right? It's been a couple weeks but round 2 of the GBS Iron Brewer Competition is completed. VERY mixed reviews this month. Only 4 competitions going this time around. Two of them were very popular. Two of them....not so much. You had to have a "refined" taste to really appreciate the peppermint and anise beers. Personally, I really liked all 4 of them. Everyone loved both of the coconut beers. Jim Leabig won that one in what turned out to be a very, very close race. His coconut stout barely squeaked out a win over Andrew Walls coconut cream. Both beers were quite outstanding and the peoples comments confirmed that. No one could make up their mind on those two and all competitors said how great those beers were. The other very popular choice was the Agave Nectar. Tim Hayes won that category with his Agave Amber Wheat. It was a really good amber wheat with just a touch of sweetness. Neither his beer, nor Dave Blues Agave Wheat tasted of tequila the way some expected them to, but both beers were very tasty. The other 2 flights got a little different reviews. As it turns out, not a lot of club members are fans of anise. Now I will eat all the black jelly beans and could eat black licorice by the pound so I really liked the beers. So voted for "the lesser of two evils" while others were able to appreciate the beers that were there. Either way, Bryan Clausers English Ale took that one by beating Bob Loves anise entry by a very close margin. The 4th and final match up paired Kent Critchell stout vs Todd's porter. This was also a very close race. The general consensus was that both beers may have had a bit too much peppermint but both received rave reviews. We have moved on to the final four. The match ups this month pair Tim Hayes and Jim Leabig using black pepper as their mystery ingredient. On the other side of the bracket we have Bryan Clauser vs Kent Critchell using terregon. I can't wait to see what we get from them at the January meeting. So come on out and join us. Third Tuesday of every month at the O'Fallon brewery staring at 7pm. |
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Written by Jeff
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Wednesday, 18 November 2009 09:32 |
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Round 1 of the Garage Brewers Society Iron Brewer competition brought out a record crowd to the November meeting. Everyone was looking forward to trying the 16 mystery ingredient beers. Was it possible that someone could make a good beer using Fruity Pebbles? Iced Oatmeal Cookies? Tangerines? Piloncello? Turns out the answer was yes, for most of the ingredients at least. 16 brewers entered their beers and the rest of the club judged them in a head to head tournament. The 8 "mystery" ingredients were, tangerines, iced oatmeal cookies, honey smacks, fruity pebbles, frosted shredded wheat, piloncello (mexican brown sugar), maple syrup, and peaches and cream instant oatmeal. The competitors did not know what they were going to get. Once they got it, they had to concoct a recipe featuring that ingredient. They could use it anyway they wanted, from adding it to the mash to dry hopping with it. Most of the beers turned out really good. As with anything, there were a few exceptions but most of the beers turned out to be pretty good session beers. One beer really stood out. Tim Hayes Iced Oatmeal Amber was the surprise of the tournament. I could not begin to count the number of times I heard "wow, you can really taste the icing". You can see pictures of Tim mashing the cookies in the Iron Brewer thread in our forum. http://tinyurl.com/yhmxthm The other winners for each round were as follows; Dave Blue won with his tangerine brown. Andrew Wall took the honey smacks category with a wheat. Jim Leabigs Amarillo Dry Hopped Fruity Pebbles Wheat advanced him to the next round. Bryan Clauser won with Frosted Shredded wheat. Bob Love's pilocello amber and Kent Critchell's Peaches and Cream Cream both advanced. And Todd Richardsons Maple Brown also moved on. With the match ups for Round 2 determined, it was time to hand out the ingredients for the next round. Dave Blue and Tim Hayes will be using a blue agave sweetener. Andrew Wall and Jim Leabig will be going head to head with coconut extract. Bryan Clauser and Bob Love have anise extract and Todd and Kent will be facing off with peppermint extract. Good luck to all those competing. I look forward to trying the next round of beers and hopefully we'll have just as many judges as last time. |
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 November 2009 09:33 |
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