10th annual Palmetto State Brewers' Open

FedEx received a 19.7 lb. box of beery goodness to ship down to Columbia, SC yesterday. It should arrive sometime today. You see, Saturday December 6th is the 10th annual Palmetto State Brewers' Open, a homebrew competition. The deadline for receipt is this coming Monday November 24th.

Judged homebrewing competitions look at beers as they fall under strict style guidelines. There are 28 BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) style categories with plenty of subcategories included. Waver or stray at all from the set guideline and your beer score suffers.

Some beers, i.e. my Chocolate-Vanilla Stout are by all accounts an "American Stout", but the BJCP flavor descriptions in this kind of stout do not include any actual cocoa or vanilla notes, so it has to be entered in a catch-all "Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer" category. Even if it's a tasty beer worthy of accolades, as an American Stout it would absolutely tank because it doesn't follow the rigid style guidelines. Similarly, the Honey Molasses Porter is in essence a "Robust Porter", but the addition of neither spice nor herb nor vegetable with the honey and molasses thrusts it into the "Specialty Beer" BJCP category for a proper scoring. It's a porter! But there are no sweet honey and molasses characteristics in a porter.

Some argue the guidelines limit creativity. The guidelines are too structured and rigid for an experimental hobby (and for some, a profession) like brewing. I waffle. The guidelines give you a good base for classic styles. Different brewers aiming to meet the same goals set forth for a particular beer; who can successfully make a consistent stylistic classic? But as homebrewers, and more often than not brewers themselves in this era of "extreme brewing", we often just "throw whatever in the kettle" and see what comes out: a nomad beer, not having a proper "home" within the hierarchy of the Beer Judge Certification Program. So as a result, even with the rigidity, I'm sincerely hoping for good style scores. But more importantly, I'm looking for unbiased honest feedback on the aromas and flavors I'm trying to achieve. Sure, maybe the beer doesn't fit into a particular rigid style, but did you enjoy it anyway? How did it make you feel?

I entered 7 beers, 2 bottles each:

a) Carolinian Slightly Smoked Porter
Category 22B - Other Smoked Beer

b) Gordon Lightfoot Porter
Category 12B - Robust Porter

c) Joe Jackson Tripel
Category 18C - Belgian Tripel

d) Maple Pumpkin Ale
Category 21A - Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer

e) Chocolate-Vanilla Stout
Category 21A - Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer

f) Razzmatazz Raspbeery Wheat
Category 20 - Fruit Beer

g) Honey Molasses Porter
Category 23 - Specialty Beer

Sadly, these were the last bottles in Gordonian inventory of the smoked porter, Edmund Fitzgerald clone, honey molasses porter, and tripel. Hopefully they'll go out with a bang. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned.