Sour Baby Won Gold

As I mentioned before, Sour Baby, our sour project won the Gold Medal for Belgian Specialty at this year's Peach State Brew Off.  I am very proud because Belgian Specialty is a catch-all category and very difficult to win.

We actually entered two versions of this beer into the PSBO, one plain and one dry hopped with Amarillo.

We entered the plain version under the saison category which turned out to be a mistake. Sour Baby isn't hoppy enough, too malty and has sour characteristics that just don't fit as a saison. The judges said it was a good beer, but missed the style guidelines. It scored a 24/50. Its a problem when you enter a beer that doesn't conform to an exact style. It may be a good beer, but it won't do well.

We got the Amarillo version right by entering it into the Belgian Specialty category. It scored a 39.5 / 50 and took the Gold!

Here are the Judges' comments:

Judge 1:
Very interesting beer. Very complex but balanced. Brett character really complements rest of the beer. Hops are assertive but not overwhelming. Might try a bit warmer fermentation temperature to produce more esters. Increasing dry hops would be OK as well. Nice.

Judge 2:
Very complex beer. I am a sucker for Brett! A lot going on in this beer but overall well balanced. Excellent job! Send me your recipe.