Comments on: Judging the Sam Adams Longshot homebrew contest finals in Boston

By: Alex Drobshoff

Alex Drobshoff — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:38:29 +0000

Thanks Michael and I apologize for not qualifying my numbers but they are for the last two years of the Western region only.
Sorry,
-Alex

By: Michael Fairbrother

Michael Fairbrother — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:11:45 +0000

Correction… Boston region had 575 entries.

By: Alex Drobshoff

Alex Drobshoff — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:41:19 +0000

Here are some numbers on the Longshot entries in the IPA category including American, English and Double IPAs. Last year there were (14) or 9% of the total entries. This year IPAs were 7.5% of the total entries so not a huge impact but down a little.

By: Alex Drobshoff

Alex Drobshoff — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:42:23 +0000

There was no hop shortage when I started working on my Traditional Bock recipe two years ago so that wasn’t the reason for me picking that style. People continue to brew hoppy beers despite the limited availability of hops and their beers continue to win in other contests like Nate Smith’s (Club DOZE) wonderful DIPA that has won the Best of Show at several contests in Northern California. I don’t have the entry numbers to compare the last couple of years vs. this year for say IPA’s and DIPA’s but as Mr. Brand said it would be interesting.

By: William Brand

William Brand — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:48:20 +0000

To Julie… I think you’re right about the hops. I wonder what the breakdown was in submissions — how many double ipas and big imperial beers were entered. The only thing I can say is all four we tasted were excellent, well made, basically no flaws.

By: William Brand

William Brand — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:27:56 +0000

Yes, the four beers we judged were the three best of shows from San Francisco, Chicago and Boston, plus the runner u p from Boston. Don’;t know which came from where though. They were all excellent.

By: Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:40:57 +0000

I was a judge this year in Boston, the styles I judged were Witbier and Helles. did you and the crew judge the beer from the best of show from all the regions?
I didn’t stick around sunday for the best of show. the Sam Adams staff and accomidations were top notch. I can’t wait untill next year.

By: Julie at Good Brewer

Julie at Good Brewer — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 05:08:04 +0000

I certainly hope that the winner was the West Coast finalist, who is a friend and customer of ours!! Exciting!!

As far as the hop shortage, I think it probably had more effect on the entries themselves, since most brew shops are hard pressed to supply hops in any significant quantity to home brewers, and the price for what they do have is 3x – 4x the price compared to this time last year.

By: William Brand

William Brand — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:29:43 +0000

Good question Mario. But they said the entries ranged across a wide spectrum,. They had no control over the winners; they were all chosen in blind tastings by homebrew judges in San Francisco, Chicago and Boston. Each competition was handled by local homebrew clubs. They did wonders. Just assembling the beers, getting them to the tasting location, getting judges, arranging flights of tastings. Whew,

I salute homebrew clubs. They’re the soul of American beer.

By: Mario (Brewed for Thought)

Mario (Brewed for Thought) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:28:36 +0000

Interesting that the finalists are from styles that are fairly easy to brew given the hop shortages. Did the bad experience obtaining hops for the Pliny clone have any influence on the final 4?