The Bar Towel

Do you have a breakdown of the # of entries per category?

I'd be curious about this, too. Both the original break down and the merged categories break down if possible.

Kama Stoutra!! Congrats to all the winning brewers and my fellow SOB's!

Every category had at least 5 entries, with the largest (IPAs) having 28. APAs were next up with around 23. Specialty (cat. 23) had something like 40 entries in it, which is why we performed a split into three where it made sense. Most categories were around 10 entires per. Smallest were Amber Hybrids, Scottish/Irish and Wood Aged, which I believe all had 5.

I'd do a count, but I'm a busy man running round TBW events and loking after a newborn! If I get time I'll do it later this week!

German Wheat and Rye Beer

Gold: Patrick Hirlehey – First Blood

Congratulations Patrick! I was lucky enough to sample this (or a variation) brew a few months ago and thought it was outstanding.

Streets wrote:

German Wheat and Rye Beer

Gold: Patrick Hirlehey – First Blood

Congratulations Patrick! I was lucky enough to sample this (or a variation) brew a few months ago and thought it was outstanding.

i had some of this one as well and agree that it was an excellent brew

congrats to all who medaled

oh yeah, I know I said it on twitter but managed to miss it here. Congrats to everyone. Great to see so many great brewers around. Win or lose, it's so much more rewarding to know that you had some stiff competition.

The real question is whether we'll have a repeat (since Kyle has a gold medal brew again this year) or if he'll be unseated. I'm betting the best in show judging ain't gonna be easy.

matt7215 wrote:

Streets wrote:

German Wheat and Rye Beer

Gold: Patrick Hirlehey – First Blood

Congratulations Patrick! I was lucky enough to sample this (or a variation) brew a few months ago and thought it was outstanding.

i had some of this one as well and agree that it was an excellent brew

congrats to all who medaled

Thanks guys, I've had quite a few of Matt's beers and not surprised to his name up there in the Sours category, you are the "Sour Patch Kid", Matt!

Congrats to everyone who medaled, a lot of names I recognize from this board and the SOB's. Big thanks, also to Rob and the TBW team for your tireless drinking and evaluating!

grub wrote:oh yeah, I know I said it on twitter but managed to miss it here. Congrats to everyone. Great to see so many great brewers around. Win or lose, it's so much more rewarding to know that you had some stiff competition.

The real question is whether we'll have a repeat (since Kyle has a gold medal brew again this year) or if he'll be unseated. I'm betting the best in show judging ain't gonna be easy.

.

Maybe next year we can call the shot ahead of time as to what categories individuals are targetting. That way we can plan to provide some entries

Who determines best of show?

iguenard wrote:Who determines best of show?

Best in show will be determined by the brewers (or their reps) who are offering the big prizes. I believe it will be a panel of 5. It will be a damn tough call. So many styles, and I don't think there's a weak link amongst them. In one way I envy them getting to try such a diverse range of great beer, but in another way it's a jugement call I'm glad I don't have to make! Best of luck to all the remaining competitors - whoever scoops the big prizes deserves it!

Any word on what the four styles the participating brewers want to make?

iguenard wrote:Maybe next year we can call the shot ahead of time as to what categories individuals are targetting. That way we can plan to provide some entries

haha, it's more fun when it's a mystery. we didn't decide what we were entering until the week of the deadline (long after we should have brewed something for the "bartowel category competition"). besides, we don't always follow the style guidelines, so half of the categories we put ours in were a "best guess". others got collapsed down. we ended up having to battle ourselves, with multiple entries for a couple categories (3 in "strong speciality", 2 in "strong ale").

Bonesey wrote:Any word on what the four styles the participating brewers want to make?

Totally up to them, and largely based off what impresses them when they do the judging. There are so many pilot systems these days that I think our brewers would be game for anything!

Also, we've got some killer runner up packages, including gift cards for Canadian Homebrew Supplies and a helluva lot of hops from Bob Latimer at Hops Direct, including some sexy newer ones like Galaxy and Calypso.

i can't remember from last year... do we get actual medals for this one (including for the non-golds)?

Yeah, whatever happened to the Bartowel side competition? Was it agreed to base it on Witbier?

If so, I'll put my Wit Dream silver forward, even though it was entered in the spiced wheat category. Gotta grab whatever glory I can.