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Author Topic: NHC Competition question...  (Read 17643 times)

Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #15 on: January 25, 2013, 08:14:53 am »
I think the changes will be positive, except for as a steward, I don't relish having to deal with double the amount of bottles....imagine trying to find a beer's mate after a full 2 days of comp.....gives me the chills thinking about the logistics.

That and all the wasted beer....oh the horror!
You send 3 beers per second round qualifier.  That was a lot of beer out there that last night.
Jeff Rankert
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Home-brewing, not just a hobby, it is a lifestyle!

Offline Janis

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #16 on: January 25, 2013, 09:02:57 am »
Hi Stephen,

Because there are a lot of leftover beers from the Final Round, the organizers make sure it is put out following the Awards Ceremony; otherwise they have to haul it back home and figure out what to do with it.

Jeff,

You're right, there were a lot of leftovers in Seattle because last year the number of competitions went from 10 to 11.  With 10 competitions there are 840 possible entries in the Final Round, and for the previous 3 or 4 years, only 760 were actually submitted to the Final Round.  With 11 competitions there are 924 possible entries, and last year 871 were actually submitted.  That's an increase of 111 entries, so 333 additional bottles.

Cheers,
Janis
Janis Gross
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Offline james

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #17 on: January 25, 2013, 09:06:51 am »
That was a great idea putting out the left over bottles.  Are you the first to do that or does that happen every year?

Having the scoresheets available was pretty awesome too.  I'm sure it is a pretty massive undertaking to get them ready by that time, but think of the postage savings!

Offline Janis

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #18 on: January 25, 2013, 09:50:08 am »
That was a great idea putting out the left over bottles.  Are you the first to do that or does that happen every year?

Having the scoresheets available was pretty awesome too.  I'm sure it is a pretty massive undertaking to get them ready by that time, but think of the postage savings!
Hi James,

The ability to have the score sheets available immediately after the Awards Ceremony is completely dependent on the local organizer having a system with experienced volunteers in place during the competition.  As the entries are judged, the scores are entered into the competition database, and the score sheets are given to the collating crew to assemble the packages for the brewers. 

There isn't really any savings on postage, since I mail out a letter with the score sheets to every Final Round entrant.  If there are no score sheets, I still mail out the letter.  The winning entrants get their score sheets, and a letter, plus a press release for each winning entry, in addition to the medal and prizes if they didn't collect those at the awards ceremony.  It's still great for the entrants to get their score sheets quickly, rather than having to wait for 2 to 3 weeks for the shipment back to the Brewers Association, the printing, and finally the packaging to happen.

Cheers,
Janis
Janis Gross
National Homebrew Competition Director
AHA Project Coordinator
janis@brewersassociation.org

Offline udubdawg

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #19 on: January 25, 2013, 10:24:47 am »
I think the changes will be positive, except for as a steward, I don't relish having to deal with double the amount of bottles....imagine trying to find a beer's mate after a full 2 days of comp.....gives me the chills thinking about the logistics.

That and all the wasted beer....oh the horror!

We don't waste beer in Seattle.

Did you see the last night of NHC?

yeah that was great.  I feel I learned quite a bit about Cat 7 after trying several of the NHC second round beers that night. 
However since the gsandel seems to be talking about the first round, it remains to be seen how the excess beers will be dealt with.  We're talking about a fairly small group of first-round stewards and judges and staff to take several hundred bottles rather than 2000 thirsty homebrewers!
Whatever; since I often am forced to bottle condition due to lack of keg space I'm just happy that I should not have cloudy re-pours for mini-BOS!

cheers--
--Michael

Offline P.J.

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #20 on: January 26, 2013, 01:29:10 pm »
As a past NHC 1st Round Judge Coordinator, I welcome the decision to have two bottles in the 1st Round.
I understand the challenges of handling 1500 bottles, but the objective of any homebrew competition is to give entrants good quality feedback on their creations and recognize their efforts with the accolades they deserve.  I'm confident having two bottles in 1st Round will increase the quality of the results, by reducing errors and advancing the most deserving entries to the 2nd Round. 
P.J.

Offline tesgüino

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Another NHC Competition question...
« Reply #21 on: March 11, 2013, 07:53:34 am »
On "My Entry and Entries" it has me listed as shipping entries. Is this something that's locked in? Do I have the option to drop off my entries?

Juggling kegs to get the proper carbonation levels is turning into a challenge and taking longer than I had planned. Hoping that dropping off will be an option (and a good excuse to go into the city.)

Offline Janis

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Re: Another NHC Competition question...
« Reply #22 on: March 11, 2013, 09:51:29 am »
On "My Entry and Entries" it has me listed as shipping entries. Is this something that's locked in? Do I have the option to drop off my entries?

Juggling kegs to get the proper carbonation levels is turning into a challenge and taking longer than I had planned. Hoping that dropping off will be an option (and a good excuse to go into the city.)
Hi,

If you log in to your registration information, the Shipping/Drop-Off is a drop-down, so you can change it to Drop-Off.

Good luck in the competition!

Cheers,
Janis
Janis Gross
National Homebrew Competition Director
AHA Project Coordinator
janis@brewersassociation.org

Offline udubdawg

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #23 on: March 12, 2013, 08:53:37 pm »
general thought:  50 characters is not a lot of space to accurately describe what I've done with some of my creations.  This limit is making me reconsider which I enter.

Offline Janis

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #24 on: March 13, 2013, 04:03:49 pm »
general thought:  50 characters is not a lot of space to accurately describe what I've done with some of my creations.  This limit is making me reconsider which I enter.
Hi,

I realize the 50 character limit can pose some problems for the more adventuresome/creative homebrewers entering the competition.  My intent was to keep the "my Aunt Bessie loves this beer and thinks I should go pro..." comments out of the description that gets printed on the pull sheets for the judges and also on Avery 5160 labels in the Final Round.

Another thing every homebrewer whose entry requires special ingredients should think about is whether the ingredient is discernable in the finished product.  If you add 20 spices to a beer, not all 20 will be distinguishable in the final beer.  If all 20 are listed and the judges can only identify 3, the beer may not be scored as high; however, it's a sure thing that not all 20 spices will fit on an Avery 5160 address label.

I'm sure we'll find some interesting abbreviations in the special ingredients this year, and we may even find that 50 characters is too restrictive, but we had to start somewhere.  Thanks for the feedback!

Cheers,
Janis
Janis Gross
National Homebrew Competition Director
AHA Project Coordinator
janis@brewersassociation.org

Offline tesgüino

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #25 on: March 16, 2013, 08:00:19 am »
I also wanted to tweak a description. Could have sworn that last year I could edit my entries right up to the day they were due. Just went to make a change and no longer see the edit feature. Nowhere did I read a final date for editing entries. Did I miss it somewhere? What's up?

Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #26 on: March 16, 2013, 08:29:29 am »
I also wanted to tweak a description. Could have sworn that last year I could edit my entries right up to the day they were due. Just went to make a change and no longer see the edit feature. Nowhere did I read a final date for editing entries. Did I miss it somewhere? What's up?
The date was yesterday, March 15th.
See Part II.
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/competitions/national-homebrew-competition/competition-information/rules-and-regulations#part2
Jeff Rankert
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Ann Arbor Brewers Guild
Home-brewing, not just a hobby, it is a lifestyle!

Offline tesgüino

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #27 on: March 16, 2013, 08:36:15 am »
Oops! Missed that. Thanks.

Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #28 on: March 16, 2013, 08:38:39 am »
Oops! Missed that. Thanks.
Edited my etries on Thurday night, printed the labels on Friday. Was on time for once!
Jeff Rankert
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BJCP National
Ann Arbor Brewers Guild
Home-brewing, not just a hobby, it is a lifestyle!

Offline udubdawg

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Re: NHC Competition question...
« Reply #29 on: March 16, 2013, 09:55:02 am »
I would have also likely missed the deadline but Janet was nice enough to answer that question on the first reply of the thread so I made sure to put in a calendar reminder. 

Could have used the weekend to finalize my entries and I'm sure those that only got registered this week could have too.  Did have to get inventive in using only 50 characters, but so be it.  Everyone else is in the same thin-description boat.

cheers--
--Michael