The Ottawa Homebrew Society (OHBS) is hosting a competition in July, and looking for judges now! If you are interested (BJCP preferred, but open to all), sign up at their site here OHBS - First Annual National Homebrew Challenge
Also, for anyone that wants to submit beer, the entry registration starts on June 1st.
La Société Homebrew d’Ottawa (OHBS) organise une compétition en juillet et recherche des juges dès maintenant ! Si vous êtes intéressé (BJCP de préférence, mais ouvert à tous), inscrivez-vous sur leur site ici [OHBS - First Annual National Homebrew Challenge] (BAP - Beer Awards Platform).
De plus, pour tous ceux qui veulent soumettre de la bière, l’inscription commence le 1er juin.
Comme à l’habitude, si vous voulez que le club envoie vos bouteilles, faites-les parvenir à un des points de chute et payer la confirmation d’expédition une fois que vous savez combien d’inscriptions vous allez soumettre.
I am leaving on vacation early in July but there is a big window to ship to Ottawa. I plan to ship on June 25th so I will need all bottles at the collection points for June 23rd at the latest. June 22 for Kahnawake
Je me porte volontaire pour l’expédition au concours. Je pars en vacances début juillet donc je prévois expédier le 25 juin. J’aurais besoin de toutes les bouteilles au plus tard dimanche le 23 juin. Le 22 chez Kahnawake
Assurer de payer la confirmation d’expédition et d’apporter vos bouteilles aux points de chute en fin de semaine si vous voulez profiter de l’expédition en groupe. Merci!
Make sure you pay your entries and get them in this weekend if you want to take advantage of the group shipping. Thanks!
We are 11th place in the BOTY standings for clubs. Tied with the Cottage Country Brewers and I do not even know where that is?
I definitely wish there were more to it for me than the few rules that I follow.
I love to brew sours because they keep and age so remarkably well and because I really (really!) like to be hands-off as much as possible.
I mostly start with a phenol off-flavour positive dry yeast (WB-06, BW-20,…), mash high to leave some long-chain sugars in the wort that’ll provide sustenance for the bugs down the road, often use a few weeks of open fermentation before moving the wort to a carboy (orange caps for more air exchange) with oak cubes from a previous sour fermentation and then let whatever will happen just happen in the fermenter. And I mean I don’t even look at those carboys for months (because I don’t want to jinx it, and sometimes because I simply forget that they’re there). When I finally do remember, I’ll taste-test them to see where they’re trending so I can decide if they need a fruiting, more acidity (blend in some of the enamel stripper batch from last year), more body (add some from a rather boring but fresher batch). After more time, and once I’m reasonably happy with the beer, I bottle with Champagne yeast, box it up, and forget about it again for a while. I taste it the next year and assign it to the style it comes closest to in my mind. I’ve entered the same beers in competition up to 4 years in a row at this point to see how they would do, and the extra time makes all the difference.
To be even more hands off, I started a Solera project in a 225-litre Chardonnay barrel for a Flanders Red (hopefully), and it’s just that terrifying thing crouching in a dark corner. I’m so reluctant to taste it and potentially find out that I made 60 gallons of cough syrup, but then I think, let’s just give it another 2 or 3 years, right? In any case, I’m not moving house again before that thing is done.
Also, it seems like the number of wild and sour entries in competition seems to be terribly low, so I dare anyone to drop their dry hop, let their wort go beautifully sideways, and we’ll clean up next year on the circuit!
Thanks Frank for the brewing info you provided us! I wasn’t a sour beer afficianado in the past, but the more I brew and taste, the more I enjoy this part of brewing! After using oak barrels (5-gallon barrel, see my other posts for Canadian oak barrels of that size!) for a few clean beers, i’m now using these barrels for ‘lambic’ fermentation (clean fermentation in stainless with Belgian yeast from Escarpment…no turbid mash or spontaneous fermentation yet lol), followed by fermentation in wood with Escarpment Belgian Sour mix to produce ‘Lambic’ I will be doing the same for the next three years, the goal being able to blend an ‘authentic’ Gueuze, and see where that goes (as well as also making it a ‘blending’ Solera project)! That’s all thanks to you guys from this club, pushing limits and trying, producing great homebrewed products. That’s what being Montrealers is all about!
