Beer #3 for NHC 2018.  I borrowed the recipe for this a while back from a local homebrewer, Keith Eisel, which he calls “Dream Steam” and it took Gold at NHC and then modified it for my system and I call it “Knows How to Party”.  Maybe I should call it “Dream Stealer”?  🙂  It is a really great beer and has done really well in competition.  For some dumb reason I decided to not enter this one at NHC but I did enter it in the Olde Hickory Pro-Am and it took 1st and an Honorable Mention (HM) for Best in Show.
WARNING – RANT:
There was a 1st, 2nd and HM but no 3rd BOS at the Olde Hickory Pro-Am so not sure why they decided to be total a-holes and give no one 3rd and me HM.  The ribbon would have been really nice.  I have entered a ton of competitions and I have two BOS ribbons (1 first and 1 third) to show for it.   But I have stopped trying to understand how judges brains work.  The beer scored in the 40s and had glowing scoresheets so I’m not clear on why they wouldn’t give it (or any other beer) 3rd.  I understand in a normal flight that you feel that no beer is good enough for a 1st or that the 3rd best beer isn’t good enough for a ribbon but we are talking about BOS.  That means that my beer was up against 20+ other 1st place beers and they felt it was the 3rd best beer out of hundreds of beers but refused to give it a 3rd place BOS ribbon and gave it Honorable Mention instead which means instead of a nice huge ribbon on the wall of the brewery I get nothing.  So freaking lame and, in my opinion, just outright stupid.  Please, don’t be that a-hole judge if you are ever in that position.