A Homebrewers Guide To Entering A Contest
Thats a damned good beer, Ernie, a close friend tells you
. It must be strong, you think, because your name isnt Ernie. And even if it was, your parents must have been a couple of pucker-holes. Who in gods name would call their little girl Ernie?
You have to agree with your buddy. It is a pretty good homemade brew. Visions of entering it in a contest start floating around in your head. Why not? Thing is: How do go about getting it professionally judged?
You Gotta Start Somewhere
Thinking that youve got an original taste and had the presence of mind to carefully detail the recipe, make another batch. We need to check to see this isnt simply a flush in the bowl. As a home brewer, youll need to know that most contests require that you enter product of a particular style Bavarian wheat, IPA, etc.
One such place you can find out about the various home brewers competition is at the American Homebrewers Associations website. Their Internet presence holds a wealth of info you those who dabble in the beer arts. Heres a link to the calendar for contests around the country:
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/competitions/aha-bjcp-sanctioned-competition/calendar
Go Small
You did it. Youve managed to faithfully duplicate that recipe. Its bottled. Now its time to scope-out a competition. Dont go for some big-assed contest right off-the-bat. Think small. You want to wet those well pedicured feet before you hit the big time. Quite a few of these horse races have a category for first-timers. Besides, youre more likely to score when there are not hundreds of entrants.
Check out the rules and regs of a competition. Dont wait for the last minute to drop by the thing with a few bottles in your hands. See what types of styles theyll let you enter. Throw down the fee to sign-up (usually its only a few bucks no bank-breaking in this regard).
Youll only need a couple of containers of stuff to make the grade.
One for the prelims.
Another for the category part.
The third for Best of Show once you win first place in your chosen division.
Each contest has its own labels youll need to affix to the trio of entries. Usually you can print them out from the website thats sponsoring the shindig. The bottle has to be clean of any old labels and have caps on them that are sans any markings. If theres any other crap on the lid, black it out with a permanent magic marker.
Additionally, all containers need to have a tag on it. Dont glue the info to the bottle. Dont tape it either. Doing it that way are grounds for disqualification.
You can personally cart the entries of send it by FedEX. Just make sure you have followed all the directions before you ship them out. BTW, you cant send beer through the USPS. After youve securely boxed the brew and the carrier picks it up they may ask you whats inside the package. Simply tell them that youre sending off some samples of your product for analysis.
The entire judging process is over. But dont expect the folks for the National Clearing House to show up at your front door with a giant prop check written out in your name. More likely than not, theyll post the results on their website. Even if you dont get the gold, youll usually get some comments back from the judges suggestions, not nasty flames on how you can improve the product next time around.
You win, hurray! You dont, NBD. At least youve learned something, got some constructive criticism and had some fun, Ernie.
by: Stan Schubridge
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