4-category Homebrew Contest

[momchenr]

Hey gang! I've been homebrewing for a few years now and lurk on the forums for advice and guidance. I found out that my boss at work is putting on a festival this fall and wants to have a homebrew competition be part of the festivities. He and I were talking about it, and I tried to explain to him that since he could only really count on 15-20 competitors, that categorization would be difficult.

He doesn't want it to be any more than 4 categories. At first I was thinking, 'Wheats / Pales / Darks / Other', but that wasn't right. Then I thought about just doing it off SRM... setting up brackets of SRM and going off color. But that didin't feel right either.

If you guys had to split up a homebrew contest into 4 categories - what would they be? I know this is a totally loaded question.

 

[Xandir]

Light (color) lagers, dark lagers, light ales, dark ales?

 

[apalke]

This may not be what you're looking for, but what about regional style caegories? American-, British-, German-, and Belgian-style beers?

 

[ktblunden]

Just participated in a local competition that was set up as follows:

Division 1 Light/Pale Ale
CLASS:
1. AMERICAN LIGHT ALE (Blonde)(BJCP Style 6B)
2.CREAM ALE(BJCP Style 6A)
3.KOLSCH(BJCP Style 6C)
4.ORDINARY BITTER(BJCP Style 8A)
5.BRITISH PALE ALE (ESB)(BJCP Style 8C)
6.AMERICAN PALE ALE(BJCP Style 10A)
7.AMERICAN AMBER ALE(BJCP Style 10B)

Division 2 India Pale Ale
CLASS:
1.ENGLISH IPA (BJCP Style 14A)
2.AMERICAN IPA (BJCP Style 14B)
3.DOUBLE IPA (BJCP Style 14C)

Division 3 Brown/ Dark Ales
CLASS:
1.AMERICAN BROWN ALE(BJCP Style 10C)
2.OLD ALE(BJCP Style 19A)
3.ENGLISH BARLEYWINE(BJCP Style 19B)
4.AMERICAN BARLEYWINE(BJCP Style 19C)
5.ROBUST PORTER(BJCP Style 12B)
6.SWEET STOUT(BJCP Style 13B)
7.OATMEAL STOUT(BJCP Style 13C)
8.AMERICAN STOUT(BJCP Style 13E)
9.IMPERIAL STOUT(BJCP Style 13F)

Division 4 Wheat & Rye Beer
CLASS:
1.BERLINER WEISSE(BJCP Style 17A)
2.AMERICAN WHEAT(BJCP Style 6D)
3.WEIZEN(BJCP Style 15A)
4.DUNKELWEIZEN(BJCP Style 15B)

Division 5 Belgian Ales
CLASS:
1.WIT(BJCP Style 16A)
2.BELGIAN PALE ALE(BJCP Style 16B)
3.SAISON(BJCP Style 16C)
4.BELGIAN BLONDE ALE(BJCP Style 18A)
5.BELGIAN DUBBEL(BJCP Style 18B)
6.BELGIAN TRIPEL(BJCP Style 18C)
7.BELGIAN STRONG GOLDEN(BJCP Style 18D)
8.BELGIAN STRONG DARK(BJCP Style 18E)

Division 6 Specialty Beer
CLASS:
1.BELGIAN SOUR ALES(BJCP StyleS 17D, 17E, 17F)
2.FRUIT BEER(BJCP Style 20)
3.SPICE/HERB/VEGETABLE BEER(BJCP Styles 21A, 21B)
4.SMOKED/WOOD AGED BEER(BJCP Styles 22A, 22B, 22C)
5.SPECIALTY(BJCP Style 23)

In each division they awarded 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and the 1st place in each division went to the BOS runoff. Seems to have worked out pretty well.

 

[mrdauber64]

I was part of the Minneapolis beer dabbler contest and they did it where anybody who scored over 35 no matter what category moved on to a mini BOS and from there the best beer won. They capped the entries at 50. It was all done in 3 hours. This seems like it would work for your contest. Check out Chip Walton's Chop and Brew YouTube page for more info. He was a steward and posted a short video in all the rules. I can find it if you need it.

 

[duboman]

IMO, If you are only going to anticipate 15-20 entrants then 4 categories is still too much, you may have the majority of entrants in one and only one or two in another which skews the judging and winning for a category as there are not enough entrants to balance the field.

For that small a comp I would specify one category like American Pale Ale or whatever and that's what everyone brews and competes against each other. Possibly two categories would work but I personally wouldn't even enter this if it was that small with so few entrants. Winning a category that only had 2-3 beers to sample is not my idea of a comp

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Why not just make it 1 category -- best beer wins.

Perhaps make people declare the BJCP style their beer conforms to so you have a standard for judging, but only have a 1st, 2nd, 3rd for the entire deal.