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Braufessor said:
I had mine in St. Louis..... one of the first to get results back. I had already rebrewed my 2 lagers and my Alt as my beers were getting judged. In the end, I had a Dortmunder go through and it was already fermenting. I also have a Helles and an Alt that did not make it...... guess I just have to drink them myself. Even the earliest competitions many people should be planning their rebrews before results ..... if that is something they think they will need to do.
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I agree, but not everyone has the space to brew all 4 beers just incase they make is through. looking at the dates they must be received( 5/27) gives a brewer about 3 weeks to turn around a beer, that's just near impossible.
 
NervousDad said:
I agree, but not everyone has the space to brew all 4 beers just incase they make is through. looking at the dates they must be received( 5/27) gives a brewer about 3 weeks to turn around a beer, that's just near impossible.
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Imagine what it was like in the good old days when some brewers were entering ~40 entries in the 1st round....
 
Yooper said:
Well, as a judge that hasn't even had a chance to review them much (as they are still in draft), it would be a nightmare to judge to new guidelines without even knowing what they are, especially since some sites were judged in early March. So, the guidelines would have had to be approved and widely understood before march 1 if they were to be used in June!
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right. but my original reply said that I was disappointed when back in the fall, I found out they would still be using '08. I put quite a bit of time/effort into reviewing them, and was "ready" for the new ones. For them to basically hit reset and re-do everything from '14 - even re-using 11 of the 12 First Round sites from '14 - was a disappointment. YMMV

so, with the knowledge that the new guidelines are coming in one way or another to NHC '16 (I'm very interested to see how they address the greatly increased number of categories and the enormous Final Round growth that would come along with offering 12+ regions of 40 categories), my question stands as to why it would be such a disaster (with 6+ months of prep available.)
The guidelines are new, but a great deal of information is very similar to the past, and the draft have been out since July. Brian/Dennis, please let me know if you disagree with this statement: With a few exceptions, the drafts we reviewed didn't change THAT much did they?
The guidelines are available to everyone judging.
Inexperienced judges is already a concern for many NHC entrants, just as evidenced by this thread.
...I'm not seeing the disaster.

cheers--
--Michael
 
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Yooper said:
Well, as a judge that hasn't even had a chance to review them much (as they are still in draft), it would be a nightmare to judge to new guidelines without even knowing what they are, especially since some sites were judged in early March. So, the guidelines would have had to be approved and widely understood before march 1 if they were to be used in June!
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Honestly from a judging standpoint, they aren't all that different. The burden is going to really be on the competitions and competition software since they are pretty drastically reorganized and they envision comps being able to pick and choose which categories are grouped together (but they tried to group a little better in that English/British IPAs are now grouped with English/British Bitters rather than American (I)IPAs). Scotch Ales are also grouped with other big beers like Barleywines rather than Scots and Irish ales. So, basically, the lag time after release is going to be due to organizer (or exam) issues and not judge issues. An 80/- Scots ale is still going to be judged as such.
 
mwilcox said:
right. but my original reply said that I was disappointed when back in the fall, I found out they would still be using '08. I put quite a bit of time/effort into reviewing them, and was "ready" for the new ones. For them to basically hit reset and re-do everything from '14 - even re-using 11 of the 12 First Round sites from '14 - was a disappointment. YMMV

so, with the knowledge that the new guidelines are coming in one way or another to NHC '16 (I'm very interested to see how they address the greatly increased number of categories and the enormous Final Round growth that would come along with offering 12+ regions of 40 categories), my question stands as to why it would be such a disaster (with 6+ months of prep available.)
The guidelines are new, but a great deal of information is very similar to the past, and the draft have been out since July. Brian/Dennis, please let me know if you disagree with this statement: With a few exceptions, the drafts we reviewed didn't change THAT much did they?
The guidelines are available to everyone judging.
Inexperienced judges is already a concern for many NHC entrants, just as evidenced by this thread.
...I'm not seeing the disaster.

cheers--
--Michael
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I haven't seen any drafts after the last review round I was apart of, but from the comments and questions I've seen, I doubt they are changing that much. If anything, you might see a few beers move to different categories than in the draft or some names change. Overall, many of the new styles are international or historical, or variants of specialty beers to give judges something to go off of rather than personal experience (e.g. Specialty IPAs). Many of the current styles have had their descriptions improved and fleshed out more, so, if anything, that should make judging easier. It's not like current beers are suddenly going to drastically change or something.
 
Zanesville is posted- congrats to the winners! San Diego is the lone site remaining in the verification process.
 
Luckily my pale ale made it through Zanesville. This is my first year entering the NHC. What is the next step for the final round? They haven't emailed in any information yet so I am a little confused.
 
So I found 5 mystery bottles in my garage. I am almost positive 2 of them are the Strong Scotch Ale. Do you think if I pop the caps off to smell them that I would ruin them? Or should I just rebrew. A 1 month old Scotch Ale is going to be pretty terrible..
 
NervousDad said:
So I found 5 mystery bottles in my garage. I am almost positive 2 of them are the Strong Scotch Ale. Do you think if I pop the caps off to smell them that I would ruin them? Or should I just rebrew. A 1 month old Scotch Ale is going to be pretty terrible..
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Have you tried looking at them through light? You may be able to rule out a few that way. Good luck!
 
thrillhouse said:
Have you tried looking at them through light? You may be able to rule out a few that way. Good luck!
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They're all the same color, but I had a very similar ESB in batch.

There is one bottle that I know for sure is the SSA because I overfilled it. I wish I could use the color, but it's too close. :(

If I rebrew and it turns out bad at one month, I guess I can pop the caps at the last moment.
 
NervousDad said:
So I found 5 mystery bottles in my garage. I am almost positive 2 of them are the Strong Scotch Ale. Do you think if I pop the caps off to smell them that I would ruin them? Or should I just rebrew. A 1 month old Scotch Ale is going to be pretty terrible..
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I would probably chill near freezing, pop them, check that they are what you think they are (it should just require a half ounce or so) and assuming SSA top off with your most similar beer, perhaps even that ESB. quickly re-cap on foam. A little O2 isn't going to ruin this style at this point, but I'd still try to minimize it. If you can do it for certain with just smell, go for it.
 
Are all 5 the SSA potentially - or just 2 of them.? You have to send 3 to finals...... well, you don't have to, but you need at least 2 for the medal round and then 1 more for any possible BOS.
 
Braufessor said:
Are all 5 the SSA potentially - or just 2 of them.? You have to send 3 to finals...... well, you don't have to, but you need at least 2 for the medal round and then 1 more for any possible BOS.
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side note: last year for BOS there were FIVE beers missing; apparently sending only two is not uncommon. Two years ago they made note of it and were stingy on the pours of beers with only 2 bottles; I know someone who only send two bottles who got into BOS. Not so last year. Anyway, for beer I'd personally be happy with a medal and not mind only sending two.
 
All 5 could be SSA, but there could also be a IIPA,ESB and IPA in the mix. All of the other beers were pretty hoppy including the ESB so I hope I can tell by just smelling them.

Strange though I have sediment in all of the bottles, they were counter pressure filled from a keg that had been conditioning for a few months. Hope nothing funky is going on with them.
 
mwilcox said:
I would probably chill near freezing, pop them, check that they are what you think they are (it should just require a half ounce or so) and assuming SSA top off with your most similar beer, perhaps even that ESB. quickly re-cap on foam. A little O2 isn't going to ruin this style at this point, but I'd still try to minimize it. If you can do it for certain with just smell, go for it.
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^This^ except for the topping off. I would rather underfill a bottle rather than throw some possibly different flavors in there. If all 5 are potentially the same beer, you should take a small sample of each to confirm. Then, get a clean and sanitized 2 liter bottle and decant into it and recarb with a carbonator cap. Shoot for a tiny bit of overcarbonation since you'll lose a little at bottling. Chill to almost freezing and rebottle into newly cleaned and sanitized bottles also chilled to almost freezing to reduce foaming due to temperature differential. Obviously try to avoid as much oxygenation as you can (if you can purge the 2 liter and bottles with CO2, do so). I've never tried the process personally, but Gordon recommends it in his Brewing Better Beer book. All that being said, this is coming from your competition. ;)
 
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1429927806.995573.jpg

What would cause 23 of the 25 entries to be disqualified?! Unless some of them scored below 30, and they just didn't say this like they did for other categories...
Or was a third place awarded, then subsequently disqualified, and they don't keep track of fourth place and lower to be runners-up? I'm guessing that sounds more plausible...
 
Just my opinion, but they should get rid of the mini BOS and determine advancement based on points. Any beer that is good enough to score at least a 40 should automatically advance. If this results in too many advancing, then raise the bar. So if no entries in a category advance, then non were good enough to get awarded a medal.
 
Trillium said:
Just my opinion, but they should get rid of the mini BOS and determine advancement based on points. Any beer that is good enough to score at least a 40 should automatically advance. If this results in too many advancing, then raise the bar. So if no entries in a category advance, then non were good enough to get awarded a medal.
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The flaw with that is the reason why they do mini-BOS in the first place. Different sets of judges don't always score the same way.

Mini-BOS is an unavoidable, necessary evil.
 
I really think of NHC as 4 rounds...

1st round gotta get to mini BOS to have a chance to move on
Need to finish top 3 to move on
Final round gotta get to mini BOS to have a chance to move on
Need to finish top 3 to get a medal
 
Trillium said:
It just seems dumb to me that some beers under 40 advance, while one that scores a 43 doesn't.
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Right, but two pairs of both fully qualified judges could score the same beer different, one giving it a 39, and the other a 43 (as has been shown, scoring differentials between judging sets are MUCH wider than 4 points as it is, so this is entirely plausible). And they'd score a different beer a 37 and 41 respectively. And say the first pair gets the first bottle, and the second pair the second bottle. The (objectively, in hindsight) better beer would be left out, while the lesser beer would advance. That would be even dumber. By the same token, I think barring <30 point beers is flawed for the same reason, but not my call there.

Mini-BOS takes what each set of judges finds to be the best beers, and allows the highest ranking judges to reevaluate them all against each other. It needs to be done, even if sometimes it works against your high scoring beer.
 
Qhrumphf said:
Right, but two pairs of both fully qualified judges could score the same beer different, one giving it a 39, and the other a 43 (as has been shown, scoring differentials between judging sets are MUCH wider than 4 points as it is, so this is entirely plausible). And they'd score a different beer a 37 and 41 respectively. And say the first pair gets the first bottle, and the second pair the second bottle. The (objectively, in hindsight) better beer would be left out, while the lesser beer would advance. That would be even dumber. By the same token, I think barring <30 point beers is flawed for the same reason, but not my call there.

Mini-BOS takes what each set of judges finds to be the best beers, and allows the highest ranking judges to reevaluate them all against each other. It needs to be done, even if sometimes it works against your high scoring beer.
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I agree 100%.I've been burned in the mini-BOS before, but I've also benefited from it. I've had beer score in the mid 40's not win in competition and I've had beers in the low 30's win. The higher recognized judges are who decide the mini-BOS and I like it that way.
 
I think the only problem with mini-BOS is if they run into a situation where a beer that scored a 34 ends up winning the mini-BOS, but because it doesn't qualify for a gold medal/ribbon, it has to be awarded 1st place and a silver, and therefore only 2 beers medal and pass into the second round. There may have been multiple gold-qualified beers in the mini-BOS round, but because a lower scored beer won, one of those beers get sent to the NHC finals.
 
okbecker said:
I agree...info like when to send, where to send, when will the certificates be available, bottle labels, etc....
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Check the website like I mentioned. They haven't emailed the address yet. The email they send you if you qualified explains all of this. I think the email comes on or about 3 days after results are posted. The website is very detailed and has A FAQ section....
 
I have checked the website numerous times, no information posted on there of use when it comes to Final Round entries.

The email that I have received after qualifying simply states that you can log in to the competition center to view your records and that another email will come out when the competition page has been updated.

So just wondering if anyone has heard anything regarding when the Competition Page will be updated with the pertinent information as my info is still the same ?
 
It hasn't been updated yet. It states the dates the entries are due. They don't update everything until all of the entries have posted. It will probably get updated this week or next.

The FAQ's do mention the final round, the address is not yet determined.
 
mxstar21 said:
Check the website like I mentioned. They haven't emailed the address yet. The email they send you if you qualified explains all of this. I think the email comes on or about 3 days after results are posted. The website is very detailed and has A FAQ section....
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I was just getting concerned since it has been a few days and I haven't received any notification. I did get the generic email saying you will be notified when the website updates. Hopefully I will get some more detailed info early next week.

Also are the dates correct on the FAQ for receiving the final round entries. May 18 - June 2nd seems like a mighty large window? I thought I was somewhere earlier on this thread that it was sooner than June 2.
 
tbred said:
I was just getting concerned since it has been a few days and I haven't received any notification. I did get the generic email saying you will be notified when the website updates. Hopefully I will get some more detailed info early next week.

Also are the dates correct on the FAQ for receiving the final round entries. May 18 - June 2nd seems like a mighty large window? I thought I was somewhere earlier on this thread that it was sooner than June 2.
Click to expand...

Someone posted that it was the 27th, but I do not think that is correct or it must have changed. The FAQ say the window is the 18th-2nd.

Q: When are the entries due for the Final Round?

A: Anytime between Monday, May 18th and Tuesday, June 2, 2015.

They will get about ~750 entries so that windows is just about right.

I need to ship on the 29th using 2day service. I need every day in the keg possible.

My wife will be in San Diego on the 1st, So I'm hoping she can drop off in person.
 
FarmerTed said:
I think the only problem with mini-BOS is if they run into a situation where a beer that scored a 34 ends up winning the mini-BOS, but because it doesn't qualify for a gold medal/ribbon, it has to be awarded 1st place and a silver, and therefore only 2 beers medal and pass into the second round. There may have been multiple gold-qualified beers in the mini-BOS round, but because a lower scored beer won, one of those beers get sent to the NHC finals.
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I don't understand this. Can someone please explain. Does a beer have to score higher than 34 to be eligible for a gold metal? I understand that a beer must score at least a 30 in order to receive a metal and move on but was not aware that there are further restrictions. Thx
 

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