September 2024 - American Pale Ales

Agentgonzo · Oct 3, 2024

Stu's Brews said:
To be fair to @pilgrimhudd the bottles were well packaged but couldn't quite account for a rogue postman. Probably the only thing that might have helped would be some fragile labels to hopefully make them think twice about lobbing things over a 6ft gate.

I always use glass myself and in several years of sending beers off for competitions, swaps, etc. and I've never had a breakage.

Yeah, I wasn't saying it was Pilgrim's fault. Just that a lot of things are out of our control. Having heard of many breakages (and received one), I don't risk it. Fortunately I don't seem to suffer as badly as others with storing in plastic. Most of my plastic bottles get drunk within 4-6 weeks of being bottled, and are normally kept in the fridge. I had a bronze medal in BLAM last year that was sent in in plastics. Would it have got silver in a bottle? We'll never know :laugh8:

pilgrimhudd · Oct 3, 2024

I'm sure it's all in my head, it just doesn't seem to taste quite as nice....

Stu's Brews · Oct 5, 2024

Will be starting the judging shortly - good luck everyone!

Stu's Brews · Oct 5, 2024

The results are in...

3rd: @Benfleet Brewery - Benfleet Haze
2nd: @nidge - American Brown Ale
1st: @pilgrimhudd - West Coast IPA

A bottle of 'Grand Union' will be making it's way to Pilgrimhudd later this week. athumb..

Well done to all three of you - feedback will be sent to you shortly.

pilgrimhudd · Oct 6, 2024

Ahh marvelous! Many thanks for a nice surprise, quite happy that I've finally managed an ipa that I and others actually quite like. I've had difficulties making a decent one in the past. Congrats to @nidge and @Benfleet Brewery too.