I got an email last night from the competition organizer, Ed Fech, so I reached out to find out if he knew more. This is what I got back:
It was mostly 1 or 2 bottles out of the 3 submitted, in which case it’s mostly going to be non-BOS eligible beers. They’ll still get feedback from judges or at least from the head judge for their category. Just one had all 3 beers lost. Also, my sorting team took confusing notes so in some cases I think I’ve got quantities right but one guy said he was counting the bottles that were still good and another guy said he was counting how many were damaged. I think I know who wrote what but the 1s and 2s might be the other way around.
For the list:
Bruno Trudel had 1 beer lost from his APA submission
Normand Cyr had 1 beer lost from his Oatmeal Stout
Simon Ouellet had 1 shattered from his Trappist Singles and it looks like his Saisons were lost entirely. I’ll be double checking that on Saturday, the notes don’t make sense but I didn’t have a tag to scan so I’ll have to check the crates to be sure on the saison. Looks like his belgian dark strongs also had some leakage but were salvageable.
Remi Trudel lost 1 of his Cali commons
Looks like Simon took the brunt of it, I’m guessing his carb levels were bang on for belgians which probably didn’t help them stay in the bottle when they froze. So 1 beer can’t be judged, the rest of the ones on the list won’t be able to go to BOS, except for Simon’s belgian dark strong if the beer is still in good shape and just a bit is missing."
I am very sorry for this loss and apologize to anyone whose beers were damaged. I took on the responsibility of packing the beers for a safe journey, and they didn’t make it, so I take full blame. I now know I should have put more insulation or looked into heated transport. I will do that in the future.
To end on a positive note: from what I can tell, most of our beers made it to Calgary intact in the middle of winter and should be ready for judging soon. Best of luck to all, and I hope the feedback we get back is helpful!
Also, to clarify Ed’s statement about the BOS (Best of Show).
For these competitions, they typically judge the first bottles in the round where your beers are compared to other beers of the same or similar style, then save one bottle of each entry in case your beer is the winner of the subcategory. The winners of the subcategories are then compared next to each other with the freshly opened final bottles to determine the Best of Show.
What I’m interpreting from his statement is that they’ll judge the beers they can in the first round and get us feedback on those (with the potential to win the subcategory). However, if all 3 of your bottles didn’t survive, your entry won’t move on to the Best of Show round, because they won’t have any unopened beer left to judge.
Again, I am sorry for anyone who lost their chance at BOS because of my shipping error, but there is still chance for great feedback and medals to be won!
It was unfortunate that the middle of the country is going through a much colder period that we are. We’re talking of -40C overnight, so no amount of insulation would have saved them from freezing solid.
It might be wise to consider what time of year these competitions occur and take the weather into consideration!
Actually, if no mini-BOS is required (depending on the number of entries in specific categories) two bottles will suffice since the second bottle of a gold winning beer will be available for BOS. When I used to run annual competitions in Montreal, we used to only request two bottles.
I am a little disappointed that one of my bottles did not reach the destination intact. Yet, since it is my first competition, I am mainly looking for unbiased opinion on my brews, and this will still be possible!
Thanks for organizing all this. Without your efforts, none of my beers would have reached Calgary!
Ian Charette-Brousseau, Argent, Amber &dark lagers
Rémi Trudel, Or, Hybrid beer
Kurt Houghton, Or, Irish/Scottish ale
Frank Schweidawind, Bronze, category?
Is anyone interested in doing a “debrief meeting”? As in we have an online meeting to go through the process of the competition (e.g. what you thought about the beer you submitted, what actually happened from bottling through to judging, the feedback you got, what you can learn, etc.)?
I’ll admit I did not do as well as I had hoped (no BOS, damnit), but as I was reading my scoresheets and drinking one of the submitted beers, I was able to learn a couple things and I thought it could be helpful if I/we went through that process as a group. I’d be willing to put my ego aside for a moment and talk/drink through my beers for a little more insight if people are interested.
Anyone interested?
For reference, my scores:
Helles Bock : 27 (my perceived: 33)
Pale Ale : 34 (my perceived: 46/ the pale ale I want on tap now)
Je serais intéressé. Je voulais partager ma recette et la review des juges avec @IanCB concernant notre Munich Dunkel. Question d’avoir une meilleur idée de ce qu’on faire pour l’améliorer
