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Author Topic: My equipment at a brewery  (Read 3293 times)

Offline BarleynYeast

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  • Las Vegas, NV
My equipment at a brewery
« on: May 23, 2013, 11:36:09 pm »
I have moved my brew sculpture over to the neighborhood brewery. They are good friends and our deal is I can use it whenever I want to brew and they can use it for their test batches. (Also my wife is happy because we can park one more car in the garage :o) I make my wort their and transport it to my house and ferment it.
My question is should I be able to enter it in competitions? The NHC rules forbid the use of “equipment used to brew beverages for any commercial purpose, whether for commercial research, production or any other purpose" so NHC is defiantly out. But other compositions have rules that read more like “no Brew-on-Premises or commercial entries allowed”
I would like to hear what members here think?
Thanks!
Matt

Offline aschecte

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Re: My equipment at a brewery
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2013, 06:33:21 am »
I don't know what your describing does NOT sound like it would eliminate you from the NHC or any other "brew on premise" competition. To me what you wrote reads more like "hey my buddy is professional brewer that has a sh(t ton of space........ he was nice enough to let me store and brew my beer there as my wife wants to park a car in the garage" and, I let HIM use it for test batches ( NOT YOU )......  as long as your not using their steam jacketed boilers or glycol fermenters and utilizing raking systems in the mash tun etc etc etc.... and you are truly just a homebrewer that is in the corner somewhere of your buddies brewery using your still probably great brew system and then going home with the wort why would this disqualify you ? under the same thinking a good friend of mine is a professional brewer and btw his brewery is growing very fast and he uses my system at times for test batches..... so I can't enter ? I'll quit the AHA right now if that's the case. I won't mention any names but I personally know of a person that owns and operates a fairly large micro brewery here in NY and he won 1st place in a category in last years NHC but he used his old homebrew set up but I know for a fact as I was there it was brewed and fermented in a 6.5 gallon carboy in his full scale brewery. If Iwas you I would not read to deep or think too deep about this.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2013, 06:37:11 am by aschecte »
don't worry I'll drink it !!

Offline dak0415

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Re: My equipment at a brewery
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2013, 06:43:49 am »
It doesn't sound to me like this is a restriction on where competition wort is brewed as the (professional) quality of the gear and who owns it.  If your pro brewer friends were to do their test batches in your garage, would that disqualify you form the NHC?  I don't think so.  As long as YOU own the brewsculpture (and could move it back to your garage anytime) I would not accuse you of having an unfair advantage.
Dave Koenig
Anything worth doing - is worth overdoing!

Offline Jimmy K

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Re: My equipment at a brewery
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2013, 07:00:51 am »
There is definately no solid line between homebrewing and pro brewing equipment. There are fairly simple nano/pro brewers and sophisticated homebrewers. I wouldn't worry about it.  Since you and the equipment are not owned/employed by the brewery, I think your safely on the homebrewing end of the gray area. Just don't use any of their equipment (like a walk in cooler for temp control, testing equipment, etc) to be sure your following the spirit of the rule for for competition. (Although even that might be overkill)
Delmarva United Homebrewers - President by inverse coup - former president ousted himself.
AHA Member since 2006
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Offline BarleynYeast

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Re: My equipment at a brewery
« Reply #4 on: May 24, 2013, 11:52:20 pm »
First, thank you all for the input! This is what I was hoping to hear. I do believe that the true spirit of this rule is, don’t rent / use professional equipment for an advantage over your peers. I really don’t want to hear that someone is upset about where I make my wort even though I make it on my equipment. Besides I have had some marginal beers made on equipment much better that what I have cobbled together over the years. You need to put in time, effort and learn from generosity of other brewers to make great beer.
I am on the competition board of the local home brew club and will work with our director to change the wording used in our comps. After the craziness of NHC is over with I will write Janis and see what she thinks and if she can help effect a change with the wording of the rules of NHC. It sure would be nice to get that 2nd round win!
Thanks again!
Matt