2017 National Brewing Championships

[irish_goat]

Had a look but can't see your account. Ciaran is managing the website so I'll ask him to have a look.

Your NHC membership has lapsed so that might be what's causing the trouble as well though.

[JDC]

Ah, Cheers for that.  Hadn't spotted that - renewing now.

[johnrm]

The comp site looks pretty slick.
Unfortunately my Missus has us flying to Barcelona for the first Leg.
Who do we talk to about inconsiderate other halves?

[irish_goat]

The comp site looks pretty slick.
Unfortunately my Missus has us flying to Barcelona for the first Leg.
Who do we talk to about inconsiderate other halves?

Poor effort.  I'm going to Barcelona 2 weeks beforehand myself. 

For future reference, the 2 weekends the 6 Nations aren't on is nearly always going to be for the Nationals. 

[johnrm]

I'll have to get her sister to change her birthday for future years!
Now, back on topic...

[DEMPSEY]

Should have married the sister

[johnrm]

I'm not even allowed trade in the car every 3 years.

[Parky]

Is cat. 31 Alternative Fermentable left off the list intentionally? If so, where would a rye ale fit?

A fair question from Helmet - Bump ^^^^^^^^

[Leann ull]

Guys the way I am guessing this will be structured is that like our very first competition there were only 14/15 total cats so in the case of the exotic it was grouped into its closest relative so if it's a Stout rye into Stout cat if it's a rye Ale into Ale cat etc.

Most important part is the descriptive, only describe ingredients you can actually taste or perceive are there. If judges have to go hunting and can't find it not good.

[Bubbles]

If that's indeed the case, that's 28/29 entries per category. That's potentially a lot of high-scoring beers (~40 pts) in each category that won't get the recognition of a medal. That's a real pity, and I'd love to understand the justification for it.

CH, it's been said by yourself many times on the forum that any beer scoring over 38 is an excellent beer and after that it's a beauty contest, or luck of the draw. Surely going from 40-odd categories (which was too many, admittedly) to 15 is compounding that problem.

[Leann ull]

True no easy solution but there were medal hunters out there brewing for the odd cats and getting gold with 3 entries in the cat which isn't right either.
If your beer is good and true to style or descriptive it will rise above the rest.
40 cats is not the way to go I'm guessing at 15 I have no clue, how would you solve it?

[Bubbles]

True no easy solution but there were medal hunters out there brewing for the odd cats and getting gold with 3 entries in the cat which isn't right either.
If your beer is good and true to style or descriptive it will rise above the rest.
40 cats is not the way to go I'm guessing at 15 I have no clue, how would you solve it?

That's the theory alright, if the beer's good enough etc. But my point is there's a lot of good, high-scoring beers that will run the gauntlet in the mini-BOS against beers of potentially much different style. Lumping lots of sub-styles in together for the purposes of mini-BOS is not supposed to be an issue, as the individual beers are being judged according to their sub-style, but lit's not ideal. You've got big beers competing against small beers, delicately flavoured beers against strong flavoured ones.

I agree 40 is simply too many, we need some level of competitiveness. I don't know how it's solved, but I'd start by increasing the number of categories from 15.

[Leann ull]

I'd start by increasing the number of categories from 15.

Thats my number not the organisers I have no clue as to what they are doing this year, and where do you stop as there will always be a case for upping it because "my beer is special" and needs its own proper BJCP cat?

on the BOS its a fact of life my own Helles was beaten by an IPA a couple of years back, years of therapy and I am just over it now  .
Perhaps I should have entered one with citrus in it.  

High scoring beer is not a defacto great beer, the quality of the judging can be low with hard judges being 5 points below and soft judges being 5 points over and I know thats one of the big lessons from previous years for more parity on judging standards.

At the end of the day I know that the organisers try and have bos judges with clean palettes and they are best placed to put one against another.

Its always going to be difficult to put a finite quantitative number on what is a qualitative opinion, but in the main what was done worked, I'm sure this year will be no different.

Its up to us as entrants and club members to recommend solutions to help the organisers, every year there have been lessons learnt in how the whole thing is run what works and what doesn't, full open bjcp cats didn't work so its up to us to propose something that will help.

[helmet]

I completely understand that the amount of categories on offer must be cumbersome. The only reason I asked about 31 is that it appears to be the only cat not available on the drop down. I just thought it might have been an accidental omission.

[Leann ull]

In that scenario maybe the IT guys should put I back in and do the joining of the groups at a latter stage?