National Homebrew Club Ireland

So there was a lot of chat recently about doing more local club only competitions, run by members of the local club for local club members only. – Might be an idea then to invite some non-Capital members to help with judging, a bit like a peer review but we'll see if the concept works first.

Given we've just come out of a major BJCP event, I'd like to do a Non-BJCP event, just to have a bit of craic with this (I know Summer session is probably around the corner but the idea I have for this one is a bit different) so.. :

Capital's Creative Competition Project (C.C.C.P) – a left wing approach to innovative brewing.

The idea I'd like to promote here is to Push the Boundaries (shameless BrewCon plug) of our brewing imaginations and see what Capital is made off when it comes to showcasing brews that would shock & awe the person drinking it. One could argue to do a Speciality style based BJCP comp, but I really wanted to focus on raw creativity for this one. Things to measure the brew by could be:

·         Drinkability vs. Creativity – would you see yourself at a beer festival buying another glass of this. While we don't want a load of beers that are designed to appeal to the masses, you don't want to enter a beer that nobody wants to drink. (a difficult target to achieve)

·         Innovation & originality – doesn't need to be an absolute original idea but make it your own. Might be hard to do that if we have a load of coffee stouts or pine needle IPAs.


A recent commercial example I would go by is Yellow Belly's Pale Stout – IMO a fantastic, enigmatic example of innovative brewing, get handed a golden pale beer, taste a lovely stout with coffee notes – simple & surprising. It may have been done before, I'm not sure, but when I had one I immediately thought we need more of this. Trying to pass that off in a BJCP style (even a Speciality with base style) would be a struggle but such a great beer.

Anyway, I may be a bit naïve on what to expect here, so constructive feedback and thoughts welcome. Just getting the idea up, open to volunteers to help too if you're interested.

TL;DR The concept of Local Club Competitions really is that the local club runs an event (BHCP or not) to add an extra layer of competitiveness but at the same time in the name of a bitta craic. If it works, we could so more often with different goals/themes.

Two issues with local only club comps:
- It flies against the idea of the NHC as a group of homebrewers that is working together to improve the quality of homebrew in Ireland.
- There are very few clubs that are big enough to be able to do it, most of which are Dublin focused; again excluding a wide range of people.

Personally, I think were in need of more opportunities for people to enter competitions, not less. However, to each their own and good luck with it if ye go ahead.

Quote from: molc on March 07, 2016, 02:15:33 PM
Two issues with local only club comps:
- It flies against the idea of the NHC as a group of homebrewers that is working together to improve the quality of homebrew in Ireland.

100% agree, this idea was really to be something a lot more casually run for fun, so collecting entries/ arranging results could be done at a meetup.

This shouldn't replace Hosting an actual NHC competition for the entire club to enter, just add an event for the local guys to aim for now & again.

Quote from: molc on March 07, 2016, 02:15:33 PM
- There are very few clubs that are big enough to be able to do it, most of which are Dublin focused; again excluding a wide range of people.

If you seen our last meet, we're quite big, (for another discussion) so while we might be decent club to test this idea, may not work for smaller clubs alright

Could go down like a lead balloon

Quote from: Hingo on March 07, 2016, 01:59:49 PM
see what Capital is made off when it comes to showcasing brews that would shock & awe the person drinking it.

I thought Capital had done enough of that at the Nationals already

I see what your trying to do but it does sound like a pfo to the rest of us mere mortals who brew with hops water malt beer and yeast.

After Chips talk at Brewcon it'll all be about the rose buds and pigs mickey

Could be a BJCP event, but casual enough to run during a meetup. Otherwise defeats the purpose

Was summer session bjcp?
With you on the "pineapple chunks" idea so many beers out there which don't conform to true BJCP trad cats.

Nope. That's a full blown club competition though that needs a fair bit of planning.

That lead balloon is getting closer to the ground me thinks. Might have over complicated things in my OP

there was a bit of talk over the weekend about judges getting more practice which is what this was aimed at. Filling out a lot of sheets does not work as well at a big meet. Its a lot handier to run a few smaller local comps over the year.
There will be one or two open to other clubs too; for those i prefer the club heats model as it lets a larger number of people enter and the final entries are easier to manage.

Quote from: CH on March 07, 2016, 02:48:57 PM

Quote from: Hingo on March 07, 2016, 01:59:49 PM
see what Capital is made off when it comes to showcasing brews that would shock & awe the person drinking it.

I thought Capital had done enough of that at the Nationals already

I see what your trying to do but it does sound like a pfo to the rest of us mere mortals who brew with hops water malt beer and yeast.

After Chips talk at Brewcon it'll all be about the rose buds and pigs mickey

Any interest at all in a pigs mickey group buy? I know a Ukrainian butcher who can get us a good price...

An idea for the creative competition would be an IPA competition but restricted to the subcategories of it only. So this means excluding your normal brewed to death american, english and double IPA but looking at the new styles of belgian, white, black, red, session, rye, spiced/herbal IPA's. It allows the experienced to get really creative and it gives them a good challenge but for the inexperienced its still an easy to make beer. Its still within BJCP guidelines for judging and these are some of the more modern styles and who doesnt love a good IPA?

Quote from: tommy on March 07, 2016, 04:18:39 PM
An idea for the creative competition would be an IPA competition but restricted to the subcategories of it only. So this means excluding your normal brewed to death american, english and double IPA but looking at the new styles of belgian, white, black, red, session, rye, spiced/herbal IPA's. It allows the experienced to get really creative and it gives them a good challenge but for the inexperienced its still an easy to make beer. Its still within BJCP guidelines for judging and these are some of the more modern styles and who doesnt love a good IPA?

And make the drop for this competition a month before it's held - after all, Nationals was 5 weeks from collection to Finals.

Having judged two IPA categories, the biggest problem this year was faded/absent aroma hops - this was true in 75% of the entries.

Practising techniques to create long-lasting late hop flavour would, by itself, hugely boost the quality of our hoppy beers.

Quote from: SlugTrap on March 09, 2016, 11:35:42 AM
Having judged two IPA categories, the biggest problem this year was faded/absent aroma hops - this was true in 75% of the entries.

Practising techniques to create long-lasting late hop flavour would, by itself, hugely boost the quality of our hoppy beers.

Have folk here tried adding Brettanomyces after primary fermentation for their IPAs?  I've seen it suggested that as it consumes oxygen it can keep hop flavour in the bottle.

Quote from: SlugTrap on March 09, 2016, 11:35:42 AM

Quote from: tommy on March 07, 2016, 04:18:39 PM
An idea for the creative competition would be an IPA competition but restricted to the subcategories of it only. So this means excluding your normal brewed to death american, english and double IPA but looking at the new styles of belgian, white, black, red, session, rye, spiced/herbal IPA's. It allows the experienced to get really creative and it gives them a good challenge but for the inexperienced its still an easy to make beer. Its still within BJCP guidelines for judging and these are some of the more modern styles and who doesnt love a good IPA?

And make the drop for this competition a month before it's held - after all, Nationals was 5 weeks from collection to Finals.

Having judged two IPA categories, the biggest problem this year was faded/absent aroma hops - this was true in 75% of the entries.

Practising techniques to create long-lasting late hop flavour would, by itself, hugely boost the quality of our hoppy beers.

For this idea it's a "bring to the meet-up" job - competitive but not as formal as a full competition.

I like the idea of specially IPAs, I mean sure it's done to death, but the specialty IPA cat isn't limited to the BJCP sub cats in the 2015 BJCP guidelines

(http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160309/78f05317dc584929a4852ae852a81c4f.jpg)

The otherside of the coin is that this would make a good idea for a Competition for the rest of the club to enter.