After a short delay I got my results back from my favorite homebrew competition, the Upper Mississippi Mashout. Last year I won a gold medal, this year none of my beers placed. What did the judges have to say?
Beers Entered
I entered 2 beers into 3 categories. Gustatory Daily Dubbel was entered as a Belgian Dubbel while the MCAB Brown South was entered as both a Southern English Brown and as a Mild. I entered it into two categories because the two categories are very close and I wanted to see how the beer fared under both sets of guidelines.
The bottles of MCAB Brown South were filled at the same time as the bottles that I sent to this year's MCAB, a competition where it won a silver medal in the English Brown Ale category.
Judging Notes, Reactions
Gustatory Daily Dubbel
"Nice beer...needs more malt complexity...finished sweet."
"[Needs] additional malt complexity...one-dimensional"
Final score: 31.5/50
My thoughts: Perfectly in line with what I thought of the beer. It's ok, but too thin in character. I entered it not because I thought it was great, but mostly because I have too damn many bottles of it. I was happy to pay UMMO to drink 2 of them.
MCAB Brown South (entered as Mild)
"Slightly overcarbonated...roasty character overpowering."
"A good beer...roast too pronounced."
Final score: 31/50
My thoughts: Considering that I didn't brew it as a mild the notes about its roastiness are understandable, although I don't feel that it's especially over-roasty. The score reflects that even though the beer was out of style, it was still well made.
MCAB Brown South (entered as English Southern Brown)
"Oxidation and astringency...a bit old. High carbonation."
"Plastic. May have some age. Sanitize."
"Nice Southern Brown...notes of oxidation."
Final score: 25.6/50
My thoughts: All three judges hit me for oxidation, so I can only assume that they got a bottle that was either sealed poorly or had some other problem. If all my bottles had the same problem then I would assume that the beer entered as a Mild would have similar notes, which it does not. I know the beer is solid, so I need to chalk this score up to bad packaging on my part.