We entered this beer in the Juicy/Hazy IPA category at the World Beer Cup next month, and here’s why it is highly unlikely to win a medal. First, this style has been the one of most entered categories in the past several years, averaging ~370 entries. That’s A LOT of competition. And then, it has to get through 4 rounds just to get to the medal table – which means it has to be considered one of the top 2 within a flight of 7-9 randomly selected, double blind entries. Then it has to be in the top 3 beers in the next 3 rounds after that. And THEN it has to be in the Top 3 at the Medal Round. And every round has different judges at the table, from different countries, with different palates and different experiences/thoughts/opinions of the style. Yes, the style has guidelines – making judging objective in the first round – but once every beer on the table is within those range of parameters (usually by the second round in this case), subjectivity and personal preference come into play (and even more so as the rounds go on). There is discussion, there is debate, most judges have blindspots for certain defects and have lower thresholds (i.e. are more sensitive) for others (they are human, after all), the beers are personally ranked, and finally there are decisions made. To have one beer, get poured 5 times (from 5 different containers) and then compared to 40-50 other beers, and continually be among ~18 judges agreed upon favorites, is just INSANITY. And it’s why we never enter this category…unless we run out of options when the Brewers Association allows for an additional entry.  So here’s to making a flawless beer to style and feeling lucky. Like, really really lucky.

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Malt: Rahr 2 Row, Rahr North Star Pils, Rahr Red Wheat, Crisp Naked Oats

Hops: Citra, Mosaic, Strata, & a lil secret variety.