2017 National Brewing Championships

[Bubbles]

Competitive, me..?

[Will_D]

How can we announce grouped categories before we know how many entries are entered.

The categorys for entry are the 2015 BJCP cats.

How the comp. committee decide to aggregate entrys can only be done when the entry demographic is known empirically!

BTW; I am NOT on th ecomp. committee!!

[wallacebiy]

How can we announce grouped categories before we know how many entries are entered.

The categorys for entry are the 2015 BJCP cats.

How the comp. committee decide to aggregate entrys can only be done when the entry demographic is known empirically!

BTW; I am NOT on th ecomp. committee!!

100% correct . It's the only fair way ..

my suggestion for the Kudos in any individual sub Category , but the medals and progression to overall be via grouped categories seems fair . The groupings can be decided once the entries are
in so as to roughly balance the groupings ( ie if there were a 100 entries in a 100 different sub categories and 10 groups there'd be roughly 10 sub categories in each group ..) 

[wallacebiy]

All harmless fun, but you better start practicing for your medal





It will be real interesting to see what categories are grouped this year?, I bet like a couple of years ago with BIPA, NEIPA has its own cat this year

Tshh
Sure I'm just well used to winning !!!!

[Bubbles]

How can we announce grouped categories before we know how many entries are entered.

I'd have thought 4 years of competition entries would be enough to predict the likely spread of entries.

The recent MOBI-Euro competition announced medal categories well in advance, in fact I don't know of a homebrew competition that doesn't.

[molc]

It's a bit of a conundrum. The competition organisers want to optimise the groupings so there's a good level of competition for each medal, so they have meaning. There's a fairly large variability in styles (outside of stout and american ales at least) from year to year so it makes sense to do the groupings once the final entries are all tallied.

On the other hand, it's pretty hard as an entree to put your best foot forward if you don't know the bracket your beer will be in before brewing, as you'll want to stand out against the competition by being different in some way. You need to know the bracket for your entry before brewing to tweak recipes in the right direction.

I'm sure many have made excellent beers that pale in comparison to the eventual medal winners in the mini bos "beauty contest" as they don't have that extra something on the day.  Picture an ordinary bitter vs a best or strong bitter for instance. Now group those in with british golden ales and suddenly your english hops seem dull in comparison to the bright citrus from the americans.

[Bubbles]

On the other hand, it's pretty hard as an entree to put your best foot forward if you don't know the bracket your beer will be in before brewing, as you'll want to stand out against the competition by being different in some way. You need to know the bracket for your entry before brewing to tweak recipes in the right direction.

I'm sure many have made excellent beers that pale in comparison to the eventual medal winners in the mini bos "beauty contest" as they don't have that extra something on the day.  Picture an ordinary bitter vs a best or strong bitter for instance. Now group those in with british golden ales and suddenly your english hops seem dull in comparison to the bright citrus from the americans.

Exactly. You could pick up numerous examples of this.. e.g. what chance would a well brewed blonde ale have against 40 american pale ales in the same category. If a brewer knew that their blonde ale was going to be judged alongside 40 APAs, would they bother entering it?

[Will_D]

Judging is to BJCP style guides so in theorey you coudl have stout and lager in the same comp.cat.

Its how well they are made and how well to style they are that counts.

[irish_goat]

I think with the maturing of our judges and continued education we should hopefully be getting to a point where a blonde ale and an imperial stout can be judged subjectively side by side and a winner can be picked.

Medal categories are currently being looked at by our Judging Officer, Richard and Rossa. Will update when I know more. 

[wallacebiy]

Judging is to BJCP style guides so in theorey you coudl have stout and lager in the same comp.cat.

Its how well they are made and how well to style they are that counts.

What Will said ....


( brew to win Overall , making it the best beer ever !!!!! no worries then about category splits and divisions !!)

[Leann ull]

It's only a beer competition lads

[wallacebiy]

It's only a beer competition lads

Exactly
Not like it's life or death .....

It's more important than that !!!!

[oblivious]

Zero flexibility this year as I'm not involved
Just to also state that longnecks and fliptops are higher than a bulmers crate and may get caught and flipped open by the moving and stacking of crates SK entrants don't be disappointed if this happens you have been warned!

Do you know if the alpack 500mls are ok?

http://www.alpack.ie/products/500ml_chap_beer_bottle_1400.html?filter_set%5B0%5D=8%2C2930%2C292&

[irish_goat]

Absolutely fine.

[LordEoin]

Meet the first of my 3 gold medals: https://imgur.com/a/1cDMY