Messages

61

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Entry Problems - Possible Solutions?

« on: February 27, 2013, 01:24:20 PM »

But that is under YOUR control!! Right now the only people who got in had all afternoon to sit at their computers( i.e. didn't have other commitments).  A lot of people got shut out due to no fault of their own! If you raised the price to 30-50 dollars an entry and published it six months in advance....you could budget for it. If you choose not to enter because it costs too much...well that is YOUR choice and at least you were given ample chance to enter the NHC.

YOU are the one that said it was about quality.  Do you want the best beers, or not?  Your plan limits them.
YOU are the one that said "If you really, truly believe your beer is that good and could medal you will spend 30-50 dollars on a single entry."  You didn't say some people, or most people, you lumped us all together.  I really, truly believe I make multiple medal-worthy beers.  I will NOT pay what you suggest. I have the money.  It is beyond what I think is reasonable, thus I will not spend it.  Under your plan the NHC loses my awesome beers, and is therefore of lower quality.   

I knew months in advance when registration was going to start, and made sure I had no other commitments.  Hey, wait, that makes it sound like I budgeted for it...

cheers--
--Michael
 

62

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Entry Problems - Possible Solutions?

« on: February 27, 2013, 01:13:40 PM »

I have stewarded for the last two NHC second round competitions, and having recently become BJCP Recognized, I'd love to steward / judge for 1st round.  But the closest one to me is something like a 7 hour drive.

No, thank you!

PS seriously, how is Chicago not an entry location?

What's wrong with Milwaukee?  Those guys put on a great competition.

63

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Entry Problems - Possible Solutions?

« on: February 27, 2013, 12:39:57 PM »

What about paying  judges.  Raising the entry fee by 100% AND having an entry limit of 5 would still prevent the NHC from being a rich brewer game. If you pay judges you may attract more of them.

I've never been comfortable with the idea of taking money for judging, but if judging this year got me reduced/free entry next year or even just gave me guaranteed access - well I wouldn't turn it down...

I wouldn’t have a problem taking money. especially if it pays for gas and other judging related expenses. Even if the money is more than that it would be one way of financing the hobby. I think it’s all about creating more incentives for brewers to go the route of becoming a judge since the community of brewers is growing faster than the community of judges which is why we seem to be having these issues.

I’m not in favor of tying conference attendance/entry to judging. Personally I’d like to see competitions and the conference as separate events. There are many brewers who are not interested in entering competitions or judging but would like to attend the conference. Giving judges a leg up on registering for the conference would be unfair to the other group.

Kai

I'm talking about registering for the competition, not the conference.  The judges sit for hours writing about the beer; I don't see anything unfair about giving them access to the competition the following year.

64

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Entry Problems - Possible Solutions?

« on: February 27, 2013, 12:15:40 PM »

Don't bump the price. That would make the amount you can throw at this a big part of your chances to win.



Kai

+1  Turning it into a rich man's game defeats the purpose IMHO.

I don't think so at all. What it will defeat is....I have 15 beers ready to enter. 10 average ones, 4 very good ones, and 1 outstanding beer but.....WTF....I will enter ALL of them!  If you really, truly believe your beer is that good and could medal you will spend 30-50 dollars on a single entry.  Let's emphasize quality and NOT quantity.  If you are just looking for feedback on your beers....well there are a lot of other BJCP comps that will give you that and guess what??.....Many, many times it is the same judges as the NHC.  As it stands now are the winners at this years NHC really the "best" or are they the "luckiest" for being able to get their entries in.

disagree.  I have a bunch of beers I think are medal-worthy, and wouldn't pay that much for one entry, let alone the 8 I registered yesterday.  It's too much money, and I would just sit out.  How is that making it about quality?

65

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Entry Problems - Possible Solutions?

« on: February 27, 2013, 11:55:58 AM »

What about paying  judges.  Raising the entry fee by 100% AND having an entry limit of 5 would still prevent the NHC from being a rich brewer game. If you pay judges you may attract more of them.

I've never been comfortable with the idea of taking money for judging, but if judging this year got me reduced/free entry next year or even just gave me guaranteed access - well I wouldn't turn it down...

66

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Entry Problems - Possible Solutions?

« on: February 27, 2013, 11:39:35 AM »

I like the radical idea of 1 beer per membership.

But that potentially means 30K entries.

make it 1 per person, until whatever limit has been set has been reached.  you still have to be online at the right time or you miss out.  If that limit is not reached after the "Pre-registration" you open it up to anyone (additional entries from members and non-members) to fill it up.

67

Events / Re: NHC 2013 Entry Problems - Possible Solutions?

« on: February 27, 2013, 09:25:27 AM »

at this point I don't see how everyone, or even most, can be made happy.  Last year, having a region full and the whole competition 2/3 full in 8 hours was uncharted territory, yet interest seems to still have jumped by another order of magnitude.  If you believe the numbers listed on the 11 regions, we filled up 90% of an 8250-entry competition in barely an hour of the system actually working.
limit to 10, or 5? - there is only room for 1/4 of the membership to even enter a single entry! 

The average is 3.25 entries per person right now (again, assuming the numbers on the regions are correct...)  Last year it was 1733 people averaging 4.5 entries - way less than 10% of the membership.

cheers--
--Michael

P.S.  I don't care much about fame, but glory?  Sure, I admit want to beat the rest of you yahoos!   

68

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 03:24:00 PM »

My brother in law was able to register for San Diego but was unable to get any beers in before it got full.  Can he switch to another region?  Zero entered in SD...

yes, but don't wait!  Your next three closest regions will be full very soon!

No joy.  Locked his membership number to SD.  This sucks.  We brewed 15 beers for the competition and I was able to enter 4 and him zero. 

wow, that is terrible.  sorry man. 
SD shows up here as not full yet, so perhaps some people will not pay and a few spots will open up.  keep your eyes open.
http://www.brewingcompetition.com/
The concept of registration only working for one site is silly.  I'll be judging in KC and Tulsa but apparently I cannot actually register to judge in KC since my entries are going to Tulsa?  C'mon AHA...

69

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 03:03:55 PM »

My brother in law was able to register for San Diego but was unable to get any beers in before it got full.  Can he switch to another region?  Zero entered in SD...

yes, but don't wait!  Your next three closest regions will be full very soon!

70

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 01:14:50 PM »

"Currently, 0 entries have been logged."

I guess fears of how fast this was going to fill up were unfounded!   

71

Events / Re: NHC Direct links email

« on: February 26, 2013, 11:55:09 AM »

29A American-Belgian Style Ale (Custom Style)



I don't see this mentioned in the rule changes, and don't recall it last year...

72

Other Fermentables / Re: Cider Carbonation

« on: February 26, 2013, 10:52:13 AM »

still can have a little carbonation.  I don't know how much a little is though...

I'd love for some guidelines on what the term petillant and sparkling mean in terms of volumes of CO2.  I've been using ~1.5 and 2.5 or higher but am tired of judges spending too much time with personal interpretation of what they mean and not enough on actual evaluation.

I've put "very lightly carbonated, but not enough to call petillant" on a registration form before, and that sounds like your cider.

73

Events / Re: NHC entry registration - how fast does it fill up?

« on: February 23, 2013, 07:13:02 AM »

this may have been asked/answered elsewhere but I can't find it....   how fast do the slots fill up when the bell rings at 3pm EST next Tuesday?  do i have a day, or 6 hours, or only 1 hour???

FYI, I live in NY so would have to register in the NYC area?  or can I ship to say, Ohio or Atlanta if NYC fills up?

-red

you can pick any 1 region to send your entries.

considering how things have been going, of the three choices you give, I'd say 6 hours to fill up some locations and 1 day to fill up most. 
I believe last year after 8 hours it was over 2/3 full at 5500 entries and at least one region was completely full with others nearly there. 
Assuming you want the local region I'd plan to be online in that first several hours...

74

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Last minute BJCP

« on: February 22, 2013, 10:57:48 AM »

in the case of a beer with a big flaw like a bad infection, make sure you talk about something other than the infection.  Maybe you can't taste the Munich Dunkel under the brett, but the graders need to know that you know the style.  Don't say "malt hidden by infection."  Somewhere you need to say what it SHOULD be.  "The infection is hiding the (X,Y,Z components) that define this style."

use good descriptive words.  "Malty" is not enough.  What does it taste like?  The scoresheet has those nice reminders under Aroma, Appearance, Flavor, Mouthfeel, so be sure to describe them all, even if the level is zero.  if a style often has hints of something like sulfur or DMS, I'll comment on whether it is there or not.

you won't have the exact same opinion that the proctors had of all 6 beers, and that's OK.  Back up what you say with specifics - if you find a beer to be astringent, saying "check your sparge temps" doesn't tell the grader that you really know your stuff.  Perhaps the proctors were fairly blind to diacetyl while you are very sensitive - show that you know how to address it.

good luck--
--Michael

75

Homebrew Competitions / Re: Judging at 2nd round NHC

« on: February 06, 2013, 10:22:49 AM »

There were plenty of Certified judges last year and I recall some Recognized.  I'm fairly certain they'll want more experience than you've got but you've got months to go get some more.  At the very least you can steward and watch some of the highest-ranking judges work and taste some great beer.  You'll learn a lot.

cheers--
--Michael