[denny]

Denny, you are correct.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while! 

[bonjour]

The Committees that we are on will give you an idea of what we are working on (below)

AHA Governing Committee Subcommittees
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/membership/aha-governing-committee

Club Support
Justin Crossley & Curt Stock (Co-Chairs), Roxanne Westendorf and Drew Beechum

Competitions
Harold Gulbransen (Chair), Paul Schick, Gordon Strong, Jamil Zainasheff and Curt Stock

Conference
Bob Kauffman (Chair), Fred Bonjour, Harold Gulbransen, Jamil Zainasheff, Curt Stock, Roxanne & Rob Westendorf and Jim Homer

Evange-ALE-ist/Pub Discount Program
Fred Bonjour (Chair), Chris Graham, Jeff Renner and Chris Frey

Retail
Jake Keller (Chair), Chris Graham, Justin Crossley and Dave Logsdon

Surveys
Roxanne Westendorf (Chair), Chris Frey, Chris Graham and Jake Keeler

Web
Denny Conn (Chair), Fred Bonjour, Drew Beechum, Dave Logsdon and Justin Crossley

Zymurgy Content
Drew Beechum (Chair), Roxanne Westendorf, Dave Logsdon, Jeff Renner, Denny Conn and Chris Frey

[lgharis]

I would like to see the AHA make the competition software used for the National Competition available as shareware to the clubs.

I would like to second this sentiment.  Here are some ideas for requirements.

- Accept online entry data and output to a standard format.
- Output category winners list in PDF, Excel, or some other standard electronic format.
- Output points by brewer and club for use by regional competition circuit to keep totals for total brewer points, club points and team points.
- Interface with PayPal or other payment options to gather data.
- Be able to select categories for a competition that does not include all BJCP styles and/or groups styles in different categories.  We have at least four such competitions in the Lone Star Circuit(Bluebonnet, Celtic, Limbo and Dixie Cup).

I would not expect all features to be in a beginning list.  Actually I rather liked the online entry used this year by the Cactus Challenge.  There has to be some software out there that would be acceptable as a starting point but just needs some mods.  It would require someone to register it with something like SourceForge.net.

Would it be possible for the AHA provide seed money for such an effort by someone/group who could do the programming.  Maybe have a submission of software for review by a panel that would select a winner.  The winner would receive some sort of reimbursement for their effort.  The reimbursement could be cash, NHC event registration paid for the next year, or free AHA membership for 1-n years.

[denny]

Great idea, but really this is nothing the GC can make a unilateral decision on.  This has to come from the AHA.

[Gary Glass]

We looked into making the NHC database into something that could be made available to a broader array of competitions a while back.  The NHC is a rather specialized competition, so while it works well for the NHC, it wouldn't work well for most other competitions.  Beyond that, we realized that we really didn't have the means of offering tech support for a competition database.  It's a lot to ask of a volunteer to create a database that could be widely used in many different competition scenarios and provide tech support into the future.  If someone is interested in doing that, great!

[ghumphrey]

I would like to see the AHA make the competition software used for the National Competition available as shareware to the clubs.

I would like to second this sentiment.  Here are some ideas for requirements.

- Accept online entry data and output to a standard format.
- Output category winners list in PDF, Excel, or some other standard electronic format.
- Output points by brewer and club for use by regional competition circuit to keep totals for total brewer points, club points and team points.
- Interface with PayPal or other payment options to gather data.
- Be able to select categories for a competition that does not include all BJCP styles and/or groups styles in different categories.  We have at least four such competitions in the Lone Star Circuit(Bluebonnet, Celtic, Limbo and Dixie Cup).

If I may, there is already this type of software freely available to clubs that does most of the requested items above. It's called Brew Competition Online Entry. I created and maintain the code just for this reason.

Go to http://www.brewcompetition.com to test drive an installation. Clubs can download the entire source code and install it on their web servers OR clubs can have their competition entry website hosted by brewcompetion.com for a very minimal fee.

See also:
Features
Hosting Information
Order Hosting
Download at Google Code
Download at SourceForge

Please contact me directly with any questions at prost@brewcompetition.com.

Thanks!

~Geoff

[denny]

Geoff, that's great!  My club has been looking for something like this.  Thank you so much!

[hamiltont]

We'll definitely look into Brew Competition Online Entry for next year's Buffalo County Fair Comp!!!  Thanks Geoff!!!

[ghumphrey]

Geoff, that's great!  My club has been looking for something like this.  Thank you so much!

We'll definitely look into Brew Competition Online Entry for next year's Buffalo County Fair Comp!!!  Thanks Geoff!!!

My pleasure. We implemented version 1.0 for my club's competition last year - that helped work out some bugs in the program, but on the whole, it worked like a charm for collecting entries and entry fees.

Since then, I've been working closely with Bruce Buerger of the Beer Barons of Milwaukee to get some features and functionality implemented for use in the Schooner Homebrew Championship, which is registering right now.

Spread the word!

Thanks,

Geoff

[tschmidlin]

Spread the word!

I already sent the link to a few clubs in my area, we've been talking about writing our own software since we don't love any of what's out there.  I'm sure they'll check it out.

[Thirsty_Monk]

If I may, there is already this type of software freely available to clubs that does most of the requested items above. It's called Brew Competition Online Entry. I created and maintain the code just for this reason.

Please contact me directly with any questions at prost@brewcompetition.com.

Thanks!

~Geoff

Thank you for letting a lot of people know about your software.
Just for curiosity
What license did you realized it under?

[ghumphrey]

Thank you for letting a lot of people know about your software.
Just for curiosity
What license did you realized it under?

It's under the GPL license from the Open Source Initiative. More info at: http://www.brewcompetition.com/index.php?page=license

Cheers!

[Thirsty_Monk]

Thank you for letting a lot of people know about your software.
Just for curiosity
What license did you realized it under?

It's under the GPL license from the Open Source Initiative. More info at: http://www.brewcompetition.com/index.php?page=license

Cheers!

Very nice.
Thanks again

[wamille]

This is definetly selfish... but a lot of us overseas would love to be able to enjoy some American Craft Beer.  I'm in South Korea and the beer here is not good.  Worse, I love hoppy West Coast IPA's and strong American Stouts - neither are represented here in South Korea at all.  I've been trying my best to facilitate the opening of the American Craft Beer floodgates... tried talking to Kona, Maui, Pike, and a couple other breweries, but there seems to be problems locally that make exporting to South Korea problematic.  The biggest reason I'm told there are no American Craft Beers here is due to there lack of production capability domestically... so those of us overseas are just out of luck.  We do get a Canadian beer pale ale here from a brewery in Alberta.  It's not bad, but not a Dogfish Head 90-Minute IPA or Sierra Nevada Celebration... or (a beer I so desperately want to try) a Russian River Pliny Elder (or Younger).  I make my own beer... not bad I think... but again, I don't have a lot of time nor space in my tiny apartment.

Any help getting Great American Craft Beer to South Korea would be appreciated.  It might also be a mighty market as the beer here is so appaulingly bad and there are millions of beer drinkers to exploit!!!

Cheers,
Bill

[denny]

While I can certainly sympathize with you, I'm afraid your request is beyond the scope of what the GC can do.