[Kid Moxie]

Jim, honestly if you heard it - handcuffs would have been deployed. I don't doubt for a minute her veracity... it was offensive, inappropriate and my dad would have beaten me within an inch of my life for even thinking such a thing.

When I heard about it it was one of the few times in my life I would've really felt justified sucker punching the d-bags that said it.

[klickitat jim]

Just for clarity sake, I'm not in anyway trying to defend the foolish juvenile comments made on any BN show. I'm from a generation raised on buggs bunny and daffy duck. Most of that crowd were raised on beevis, butthead, and cartman. Its no surprise. It doesn't offend me, it just makes me glad I'm old. Plus I can turn it off if I'm not in the mood.

Personally, I'd rather listen to that garbage than a lot of other garbage. I sift through the nonsense for what I want.

Bottom line, if he's outgrown his usefulness as a GC member, maybe its time to vote differently? If BNA10 was a problem, people shouldn't buy tickets next year.

Just my thoughts on the matter. Honestly, I have bigger fish to fry.

[ranchovillabrew]

Not BN  related,  but in line with the conversations  that shouldn't have  occurred.  In line for the  banquet  I heard one of the most  racist  conversations I've ever heard.  When we entered the  banquet  we made sure NOT  to sit next to the people  behind  us in line.

[HoosierBrew]

It's a shame, but being able to brew beer unfortunately doesn't guarantee that somebody isn't a numb-nutted D-bag. Glad that stuff was in the minority at least.

[ranchovillabrew]

Absolutely,  only two  people  all weekend I didn't  enjoy  speaking with.

[brulosopher]

Absolutely,  only two  people  all weekend I didn't  enjoy  speaking with.

I made the cut!!!

[mike89t]

P.S. - I'm taking applications if any Midwest superclubs are forming and recruiting.   

Hmmm Superclubs...

At Club night the Arizona club and Austin Zealots club were right next to each other.  They both have the same initials (AZ) and both had a bunch of award winning beer during the first round and finals.  If they were to create a Superclub they could easily beat the BN national team for COTY.  Could call themselves South West AZmatic Brewers (SWAB) Superclub or something stupid like that.  Its foolproof I tell you!

[hopfenundmalz]

I love The BN and believe they have contributed an insurmountable amount of information to the homebrewing community. Being my first NHC, I was under the impression the booing when they won (which we all expected) was for fun. I'm not sure what I really think about the fact they continue to win CotY, but I'm compelled to encourage the formation of perhaps a collaborative new (and huge) club that's focused solely on winning this award. It may take some time, but I don't think it's impossible, and my guess is even The BN would view it as a fun thing.

Ultimately, "we" are who makeup the BN Army (I am a member), we are this community. The fact they are now expected to win based purely on their numbers absolutely waters down the award. Hmm.

The Austin Club killed it in the second round, but BN had the most first round points, which put them over.

I didn't boo. They won under the rules that are posted. Could the rules be changed? Yes.

Good points by Steve.

[udubdawg]

I guess we could divide first round points by number of regions entered, then add Finals pts.

*shrug* - silly, yeah. Just like the way we do it now...

*edit* - actually lets just get rid of Gambrinus, and make COTY total First + Final round points divided by total entries.

[bengelbrau]

And once you win COTY, what do you have? Something sparkly that can hang on someone else's wall? If this is about who "wins", it seems like something is awry.

[mchrispen]

Dude, AZmatics made me laugh out loud... Good blood between clubs. So many former Zealots are there now. It's a love fest.

[toby]

Toby, you might be right... I thought he was wearing the DeFalco's shirt.

That would have been Scott then.  I didn't see him at the time, and didn't even realize he was in attendance until after the banquet.

[S. cerevisiae]

I guess that I will add my two cents to the discussion.  I have never understood the concept of brewing as a competitive sport.  To me, it just takes the fun out of brewing.  It took me over twenty years to enter my first and last BJCP-sanctioned contest.  I thought that I could gain a better handle on brewing as a competitive sport by getting involved with the BJCP.  Sadly, it took me a year and half to realize that being involved with the BJCP just compounded the problem by adding hierarchy to the mix.

This thread highlights the dangers of brewing as a competitive sport.  Why does the home brewing club of the year have to be based on competition points?  Why isn't it based on retention, quality of the educational program, service to one's community, or some other metric?  While I understand that there is a hardcore competitive element within the AHA that would not have it any other way, that element is still a fraction of the AHA base.  Very few brewers that I know compete in brewing contests, and that list includes several BJCP judges.  I am hoping that their will come a time where the membership base is large enough that we can separate the National Homebrewers Conference from the National Homebrew Competition much in the same way that the Craft Brewers Conference is a separate event from the Great American Beer Festival.   

[jvoeltz]

Dude, AZmatics made me laugh out loud... Good blood between clubs. So many former Zealots are there now. It's a love fest.

Don't forget some of us ASHoles are honorary ZEALOTS as well!

[dbeechum]

You know of all the years that I had to miss the AHA Members meeting - it was probably a good thing. I got the report afterwards and I can safely say that I know of no one on the GC that wasn't horrified at the story.

What was said was so far beyond the pale of anything that has ever slipped the surly tongues of any of the BN hosts. Of course, when you've modeled your schtick on Stern, you're going to get the same crappy response as some of Stern's fans.

On Justin's usefulness as a GC member - he's been pretty damn valuable and is a helluva lot more thoughtful than I think people would give him credit for.

On the subject of the BN as a Club or Not-A-Club - the question all hinges on how you want to define it. What's the minimum number of meetings? What's the threshold that one needs to cross. I don't know. I do know that the BN serves as a damn good feeder source for a great many homebrew clubs and the AHA out there. They've been an awfully fine gateway "drug" for getting folks hooked into the idea of being involved with a group.(Even with all the juvenalia)

Lots of different ideas tossed about with regards to levelling the playing field - without being grossly targeting. My one thought was to set the 1st round points on a per-capita basis levelling with 2nd round medals staying flat rate. E.g. the BN has 300 entries and places 100 points worth of medals earns them 30 points where QUAFF placing 80 points with 200 medals earns them 32 points and Joe's Homebrew Shack places 40 points with 35 entries earns them 46 points. After that in the second round, medals get added on a per medal basis (e.g 6 for each gold, 4 for silver,2 for bronze).

Or my personal favorite is reset the award importance and rename CotY to the AHA Habonde Club of the Year (or some such) for the most profligate brewers.

And to the yeasty one's point, when I gave my intro to the Radegast, I explained the rationale as one where competition just isn't the reason for being in a club or being a homebrewer for the vast majority of folks, so we wanted a way to recognize what is the important stuff to most of us.

Having said that, the competition is something people like and I think it will always be part of the convention because it's the one time you can gather that many judges together to handle the workload of the second round in one day.