FREAK BROTHERS! BEST OF SHOW! BEST IN IOWA!

THE RESULTS ARE IN AND, THE FREAK BROTHERS ARE #1 !!!

Last night "E" and I went to the Iowa State Fair Grounds to find out the results of the Iowa State Fair Homebrew Competition and, we won "Best of Show"! I was blown away! I know "E" was pretty freaked out too.

Our winning beer was a Brown Porter. I don't want to sound braggadocios but, I was not shocked as much as I was totally excited and proud. I knew all along we would do well. After all, we have over 30 years of combined experience and, "E" finished runner-up, at this competition, a few years ago. I was positive we would win and/or place in some of the categories we entered. I even felt like we had a shot at "Best of Show". I guess I was right. Believe it or not, this was my first competition. I guess I just never got around to doing it. Now that I have had a taste of success (and lots of tastes of homebrew), I only want to do more. If it were not for "E", I would still be sitting around, drinkin' homebrew, with nothing to show for it but a hang over and a beer gut. He He! Congrats "E"! We may need to build a trophy room!

177 Beers Were Entered and, Here are the Results!

Brown Porter*
1st Place Porter and "Best of Show"
(silver)**

Robust Porter
2nd Place Porter
(silver)

American Stout
3rd Place Stout
(silver)

Scottish Export 80
3rd Place Scottish Ales
(bronze)

American Pale Ale
5th Place American Pale
(silver)

American Wheat Beer
5th Place Light Hybrid
(bronze)

Ordinary Bitter
6th Place Bitter
(no ribbon)

India Pale Ale***
6th Place I.P.A.****
(bronze)

We are very proud of our results but, there were a few funny things that happened. As you know, some beer styles are very similar to others. Many times, in beer competitions, things are grouped together in strange ways. This is done when there are not enough beers in a category to justify judging that category.

*First of all, our "Best of Show Porter" had an identity crisis at its inception. When we formulated the recipe, it was intended to be a Brown Ale that pushed the specific gravity limits of BJCP style guidelines. When we tapped the first keg (or even before that), it was obvious that this beer was not a Brown Ale. It was a Porter. We even joked about entering this beer in more than one category. We talked about entering it as a Porter and as a Stout. There is such a fine line between the two styles that we thought it would do well as both. We went with Porter.

**Even though we won "Best of Show" with this beer, it did not get a Gold ribbon. It got a silver. It came up a half of a point short. It was judged for best of show because it got first in that category. Had a different set of judges done the initial tasting, it probably would have been a gold. Who knows?

***There were so many I.P.A.'s that they had to judge them in 2 different groups. We were 6th in our group but, had they judged them all in one group, we would have been 12th. I am not sure why they did it that way. All but 1 were American. The other one was obviously English. Even though we were 12th over all, it may have scored higher in the other flight. The beers in the first flight scored much higher than those in our flight.

****As you may have noticed, I was bragging about our I.P.A. in an earlier blog post. We thought this was the best beer that had ever been created by God or man. As it turned out, it was the worst one of all that we entered (Actually, our Bitter scored 2 points lower than our IPA but, it placed 6th out of 9 Bitters). We were told that our IPA did not have enough IBU's. It was very hoppy in it's early days but, it mellowed out after 6 months in the bottle. Oh Well! If anyone knows the extreme limits, when it comes to hops, it's "E". I'm sure he will come up with an obscene recipe that will push it to the limit. Maybe 100+ IBU's! I foresee next years judges choking on the most insanely hoppy beer on the planet. You asked for it, you're gonna get it! Hold on to your nuts boys!