National Brewing Championships 2016

[Leann ull]

Some cats are very close, but if there was lots of entries in each they will have their own medal.
At the end of the day they are being judged to style not against each other and they will come through because they are the best representation of the style not because they are better than the beer in the next category. 
In comps how it normally works if there are say 1 or two entries per cat above, there is usually an obvious 1st and the difficulty always starts in picking 2nd and 3rd.

[mr hoppy]

The amount of aggregation will probably depend on the mix of styles coming in. Similar styles I imagine will be grouped together.

Does that mean that the categories won't be determined until after 31/1? That would be a fairly big change from previous years.

[Leann ull]

Closing date is 31/1 as that's the point that we know all entries all cats, same as all previous years. Its only at that stage do we decide merges.
The merges only occur where there is only an entry or 2 per cat.

The only thing stopping us ordering a medal for every cat is cost tbh. It might be fun if every cat had a medal but if we cut them there is the potential for a lot of wasted unawarded medals that Dempsey sleeps with around his neck as god knows

What also hasn't been decided is thresholds for medals, last year it was judges decision as to whether beer judged attained a medal status and why some cats only got a silver and not a gold.

I think the thinking this year is bronze 28-33 Silver 34-39 Gold 40+, thats all speculation on my part anybody any thoughts?

[marzen scorsese]

I think having a qualifying score for a medal is a great idea that way there's no medals given out for a poor beer. If there was 3 or 4 beers in one cat and only one scored above the threshold for a medal then it would be fair to me that there's a medal for that beer and that would limit pointless medals given out just because there was only a few beers entered. What do ye think?

[Bubbles]

I think having a qualifying score for a medal is a great idea that way there's no medals given out for a poor beer. If there was 3 or 4 beers in one cat and only one scored above the threshold for a medal then it would be fair to me that there's a medal for that beer and that would limit pointless medals given out just because there was only a few beers entered. What do ye think?

The problem is that different sets of judges will have a different "level" of awarding points. One table's bronze medal-winner beer might be a 32, whereas another table might give the same beer a 40. It's happened in the past where medals were awarded for good beers, but they just happened to have been awarded low-ish points.

[molc]

At my table last year, they were scoring in the mid 30's but only giving medals to gold, as they felt the rest didn't deserve a medal.

I think it would be a great idea to have guidelines in place for this, as it will focus the mind on what deserves a medal for the particular competition.

[marzen scorsese]

Yeah there would have to be some guidelines agreed upon beforehand otherwise as bubbles pointed out it could vary from judge to judge or table to table.
I like ch's idea of bronze 28-33 silver 34-40 and gold 40 plus that way some cats will have only a couple entries and only one medal maybe none all depending on the quality of the beer. If any judges could say whether there was many beers outside of the bronze threshold mentioned or whether those numbers would even work. Would this mean a lot of extra medals and therefore an extra cost? Is it feasible?  I do think it would be great if you got a medal per cat but this might be too much hassle, just throwing some ideas out there

[bachus]

What's the craic with bottle size for mead? 2 x 500ml would clear me out!

Very true. 1L of the rich in good quality honey mead and aged for 2-3 years...  12-14% ABV, so the judges should have a small glass, not a pint ;-)

[helmet]

What's the craic with bottle size for mead? 2 x 500ml would clear me out!

Very true. 1L of the rich in good quality honey mead and aged for 2-3 years...  12-14% ABV, so the judges should have a small glass, not a pint ;-)

So are there any guidelines on this?

[Leann ull]

Mead like wine is an exception in the case of wine its 1L bottle for mead just submit 1x 500ml as 2 judges 100ml first round then 100Ml each BOS , its to allow enough left over for BOS.
Cheers

[helmet]

Grand job, thanks.

[Bubbles]

for mead just submit 1x 500ml as 2 judges 100ml first round then 100Ml each BOS

You sure? What about mini-BOS? I'm not convinced one 500ml bottle will be enough, even for high ABV mead..

[Leann ull]

First sample is 100Ml max per judge that stuff is like syrup and a judge would struggle to finish that amount, so max 200Ml gone from 1st pass.
Unless there are significant mead entries unfortunately as per previous years the cat will be joined to cider.

[Hop Bomb]

I think having a qualifying score for a medal is a great idea that way there's no medals given out for a poor beer. If there was 3 or 4 beers in one cat and only one scored above the threshold for a medal then it would be fair to me that there's a medal for that beer and that would limit pointless medals given out just because there was only a few beers entered. What do ye think?

The problem is that different sets of judges will have a different "level" of awarding points. One table's bronze medal-winner beer might be a 32, whereas another table might give the same beer a 40. It's happened in the past where medals were awarded for good beers, but they just happened to have been awarded low-ish points.

38 pointer won IPA fest last year even though there were 46 & 48 point beers. When it gets to mini BOS & BOS rounds scores dont matter much.

[molc]

Watch all the judges scramble to do the cider and mead cat this year