Making the Right Tweaks for Competition Beers | Video Tip


Strict attention to quality throughout the brewhouse, whatever the type of beer, can only help you in competitions—as can thinking ahead on maturation and carbonation. Kevin Templin, cofounder and head brewer at Templin Family Brewing in Salt Lake City, shares some key tips on how to improve your odds.

The same detail-oriented approach to quality that works for Templin Family’s award-winning lagers and lower-ABV beers also works for other styles—including their hazy IPA, Squirrel, which won successive World Beer Cup gold medals in 2023 and 2024. Trying new styles and entering them in competitions can pay off—and so can planning ahead when it comes to the maturation and carbonation of competition beers.

Kevin Templin, cofounder of Templin Family Brewing in Salt Lake City, is a brewmaster who’s won respect from peers by coaxing excellence out of lower-strength styles. Despite Utah’s limitations on ABV, Templin’s beers are frequent winners at major competitions, including a recent run of four straight years of medal-winning lagers at the Great American Beer Festival.

In the full hourlong course, he lays out the Templin Family approach to ensuring high quality and character in what he calls “beers to be consumed in great volume.” Among the highlights:

  • why your brewhouse should be pristine
  • the three T’s: time, temperature, and titration
  • making micro-adjustments to fine-tune the smallest details
  • sensory analysis and why you should be writing it all down
  • measuring and minimizing dissolved oxygen
  • ensuring the gentle transfer of beer
  • buying only the best ingredients available
  • mashing for body and flavor in low-strength beers
  • starting low on IBUs and building up from there
  • adding whole-leaf hops in game bags big enough to hold a moose
  • knocking out colder for cleaner lagers
  • what to consider when choosing a house lager strain
  • deciding when to spund based on sensory of hydrogen sulfide
  • thorough purging of tanks before transfer
  • aiming for creamy natural carbonation
  • considering maturation and foam when brewing for competitions

And much more.

Want access to more video courses like this one? All of our subscriptions come with a 100 percent money-back guarantee. Get your All Access Subscription to tap into a library of more than 100 full courses on a diverse range of brewing topics. If you don’t love it, we’re happy to refund your money.



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