2025 Greg Noonan Memorial Homebrew Comp

 

Double 🥉 🥉 in VT, so it's off the list! MCB v1.3 and Phantasm of the Opera showed well out of the 201 entries. MCB v1.3 garnered a 35 overall with notes that I agree on and am surprised it medaled at all. A touch too much roast this batch so use higher mash temps and back off roasted grain a skosh more. The real mind-blower is Phantasm of the Opera at 39! This must've been a stacked category for it to get a bronze. Appearance, aroma and mouthfeel are all 20 pts total in scoring and the aroma is 12 alone. Well, the phantasm powder had pumped aroma scores across the board. One judge had several entries that received a couple gold, bronze and HM with a BOS of 3 and gave it a 40. The other 40 came from the brewmaster at Soulmate Brewing, Hideki Arao. He started The Beer Project in Mexico City and has won 17 medals in the last 12 months, so I've really taken his notes to heart. Thanks for a smooth run and well-communicated comp. 

Brew Batch #202 Broken to the Fist

We've become huge fans of the old and perfecting them. With a solid Weiss, Czech and NZ pils, Steam style and Vienna under our belts to brew and release with near perfection we venture into the land of even lighter international lagers with a Japanese rice lager. The only problem is that this malt bill is basically 50% pils 50% flaked rice so not a lot of fermentables but it's only supposed to be about 4.5%. Named for the hunting falcons of the old samurai age, we're hoping at OG 1.030+0.00 @72F on a huge pitch of CBB 1st gen WL830 lager yeast it gets down enough to about 4% to not break you to the fist.