What we learned from our first competition

3/21/2022

No matter what anyone says, putting your beer out to be judged by the public is both exhilarating and nerve-wracking! Anyone who brews understands the amount of work, blood, sweat, and tears that go into creating something from the heart. We are proud that each of the 5 beers we represented at The Craft LB Homebrew Invitational were our own recipes. We designed each from scratch and created beers we enjoy to drink. Based on the fact that we went through almost 5 full kegs of beer (about 22 gallons) on Saturday, we presented our beers as we wanted them to be presented--crisp, clean, and crushable! We can't lie, watching people you have never met drink your beer and smile was something special. Seeing them come back and sample other beers or drink the same beer 5 separate times is indescribable. Mike and I liken the experience to the rush you get playing Division I caliber sports or leaving the stage after your band plays. It was AWESOME! If you are on the fence about putting your beers into a competition, DO IT! The feedback you get, the confidence you gain, and the truly remarkable people you meet is worth every second of the hard work (and money...22 gallons of beer isn't free to brew!). Both Mike and I have to say the absolute support we felt from other brewers was fantastic and the cherry on top! We watched brewers share equipment, pour other beers when a brewer needed that emergency restroom break, and help unfreeze jockey box lines. Everyone wanted each brewer's beer to be the best version of it it could be. We realized that the world can seem cruel around us, but homebrewers are an amazing community of supportive people! We wished we had more time to just hang out and get to know people more!

With that being said, we wanted this blog to focus on how we prepared for the event, what equipment we found helpful, and what we would do differently.

PREPARING FOR THE EVENT

So, here’s a list of our advice from the first event:

Be prepared. The advice we would give to any brewer entering their first event is the same advice our dads have been giving us our entire lives–prepare for the worst and you’ll never be disappointed.
Bring a supply kit. Mike and I brought a small tool kit with just about everything you can imagine in it–electrical tape, teflon tape, faucet wrench, extra picnic taps, connectors, flat head screwdrivers, Star Sans, and so on.
Have a backup plan. Ironically, we both reminded ourselves to bring extra gaskets for CO2 lines, but we somehow missed them! One of our CO2 tanks was leaking because we didn’t have a plastic gasket in it! Well, we plan B’d it! I kept setting up our booth and prepping everything while Mike ran an errand to Steinfillers. Worst case scenario, we would still push our beers with the leak until Mike arrived. No stress. Why? We had plenty of CO2.
Have fun and don’t sweat the small stuff. Enjoy your day! You can never get your first competition day back, so enjoy ever moment.
Bring a water jug. No one wants to drink an IPA after drinking a dark beer. Showcase your beer by having people sample the beer fresh and as it was intended. We brought a 10 gallon Igloo water jug that Mike bought for his golf team's practices and were glad we did. It became the community water behind us and allowed multiple brewers to rinse glasses and showcase their beer.
Sharing is caring. While we want to win as much as the next brewer, we also just want to be good people. We believe in karma. When I win, I want to beat the best brewers on top of their game. We bring our A game, and we expect everyone else to do the same. I want to beat the best and learn from the best, period. Sabotaging someone else or not helping a fellow brewer in need is awful in our books. Lend a hand. We were nervous at the start of the event and helped several brewers solve minor issues or allowed them to borrow tools. Getting to know the people around us helped us feel comfortable and took the nerves away. It really set the tone for the entire day.
Don’t worry about things you cannot change. What beer is the best is subjective. At the end of the day, you can have categories to judge (i.e., IPAs vs. IPAs, etc.). But, even if you pool all the best beers in the world together, saying which one is the best is subjective to the individual taste of the judges. For example, have you seen arguments about who is the best basketball player of all time? Well, honestly, who cares? If you look at the player’s on the list, they are all great, period. There are too many variables to really choose that answer. So, don't worry about the judging. Instead, focus on the moment and enjoy the day. Our beer didn't win best, but everyone won. We were fortunate to have great brewers next to us that were really great people. We enjoyed meeting them, discussing beer with them, sampling each others beers, and fostering new friendships. The day was really about the craft of brewing and the brewing community. We have great memories and hope to build on the friendships we started at the event; don't let judging take away from that.

Some products and companies we recommend

This is a list of some items that really helped us prepare for the event. We do not have sponsors and do not make any money off of our blog or Instagram. We are simply sharing what we used and what we found helpful.

The metal sign we used on the front of our jockey box is from Shutterfly. We remove the sign for storage and to protect the cover. The sign will last for year's to come and can also be hung on the wall of the brewery when not being used on the jockey box.

We used Cool Brew Jackets to house our kegs. Each insulated jacket holds a 5 gallon corny keg and fills with ice. These kept our beer at the temperature we wanted for pouring. Since we only had one jockey box, we used picnic taps on the other kegs. In the future, we will be adding an additional 4 tap jockey box. These bags kept our area organized and kept our beer at a fairly consistent temperature. When we got home, our kegs were still cold. We brought 8 kegs to the event and had 3 kegs of leftover beer to put back in our keezer to enjoy later.

You can also see our milk crate C02 storage. Did we bring extra C02? Yes. We figured we would have extra in case we had a random issue with a bottle or if someone else ran out of C02.

We purchased our foam signs from Vista Print. We use Vista Print throughout the year for various events, and they always have great deals and good products. We initially made our signage before we knew how much space we would be given. However, we already have a fix in place for next year. We like to purchase things that we can reuse. Each of the signs can be used as artwork in our brewery to commemorate the event which is a bonus.

The Two Jacks Banner we had over the black tablecloth actually came as a free bonus product when we purchased our custom tablecloth. Unfortunately, we were unable to use our table cloth at this event. However, it will be utilized in the near future at our friends' wedding. We purchased our tablecloth and banner from Totally Promotional. A bonus is you get to approve the proof before printing and the quality is great. The fabric cleaned up easily after the event.

This will definitely be a purchase for us in the near future. While the kegs in Cool Brew Bags were helpful, this cart would have made transporting the kegs easier and faster, especially at the end of the event when we were tired.

What things would we change for next time?

Honestly, very little. It’s very easy for someone else to say, “You should have put ____ beer in the competition instead.” We don’t believe in armchair quarterbacking our decisions. We had a clear purpose with what we wanted out of this event. We chose to include Judge Hopner IPA as our beer not because we felt it was our best beer. We chose it because it was the first beer recipe we created and the beer we have brewed the most consistently. At the time the competition paperwork was submitted, we had not completely dialed in our new brewing equipment and had changed our brewing process. We were certain we could make a very drinkable Judge Hopner IPA for the public, and we felt confident we would have a beer we could feel comfortable pouring for people. Would we change our beer choice? No. In your first competition, there are jitters and unknowns to work out. Do we think that Judge Hopner was the best beer we poured at the event? No. Did we get exactly the feedback we wanted and the confidence we needed to continue in competitions? Yes. Do we want to upgrade a few minor things? Yes. We are excited that we will feel way more comfortable pouring for our friends' wedding reception. Honestly, I would never be able to live with messing up the beer and cocktails for such a wonderful day!

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

Several takeaways. One, we really love brewing, and the event has really encouraged us to move on from some of our older beers and explore some of our other ideas. This event helped us to gain more confidence and enter multiple contests. Our goals for this year were to expand our brewing, enter competitions, and get out of our comfort zones. We are only in March of this year, and we are super stoked at the progress we are making and the direction our brewing is going. However, while we are new to many people in the homebrewing scene, this is not a new venture for us. This has been 10 years in the making. For anyone who is starting out and using kits and plastic buckets, we started there. We were not members of a homebrew club. We started a homebrew club and are fumbling our way through this. Everything we have learned has come from researching, brewing, and asking questions. The biggest takeaway from this event is that we are proud. Proud of what we have accomplished. Proud of what we have created. Proud of where we are going. And proud that we could represent the city that we love, Long Beach.

I am 4th generation Long Beach, and I come from a family that built this city (literally, my family owned a small construction company, CR Crain and Sons). In fact, my grandfather was a master mason and most of the masonry work you see (LBCC, CSULB, brickwork facades on homes, and so on are his work). My great grandmother graduated from LB High School; my grandfather graduated from LB Poly; my grandmother, father, aunt, and uncles all graduated from Wilson High School; my brother graduated from Millikan High School; and I proudly represent LB Poly High School class of 1994. Mike graduated from Millikan High School, and both Mike and I graduated from CSULB (BA degrees and teaching credentials). I started my teaching career at LBUSD, and Mike currently works at Jordan High School. We love this city and representing Long Beach at this event was wonderful. The fact that the event raised money for Rancho Los Cerritos was the cherry on top as the ranchos have always been a huge part of the city, and its' history. In fact, the opportunity to be a multigenerational Long Beach native and represent Long Beach at this event was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Knowing we would be pouring at the Rancho was the push we both needed to put ourselves out there. Once again, Long Beach has given us the push to move forward and be better brewers and people. We are glad that our city was represented so well and that so many people came from outside Long Beach to see what a truly wonderful, vibrant, and diverse community we have. We are definitely Long Beach proud.

Cheers!
2JBC

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