# Sorting out the Comps



## Yob (17/2/15)

so as not to bog down the Beerfest thread with all this, here are all the relevant posts I think..





HoppinMad said:


> Yes this is correct. Check the Vicbrew events calendar carniebrew. May 24th is the set date for the IPA comp.





Albainian said:


> Geelong Craft Brewerrs are pencilled in to host our inaugural comp on 14 June. This date was selected on advice from VicBrew that the Merri Mashers were hosting their IPA comp on Sun 24th May and Westgate on 5th July- we picked a date in the middle...Carniebrew, I cant check or send pm's from work PC for some reason but will be in touch when I get home to discuss.





fergthebrewer said:


> Yes , Stout Extravaganza will be Sunday July 5th
> Regards
> Ferg





carniebrew said:


> I just realised June 7 is the Sunday of the Queen's birthday long weekend (republic please!). So we will likely push to June 14.




It might be a good idea to add these comps to the community calendar here also? They advertise for a week prior so is a good Idea to get them all in there I think.


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## Yob (17/2/15)

VicBrew Event Calender


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## WarmerBeer (17/2/15)

No Melb Brewers British Ale comp this year?


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## Yob (17/2/15)

I'm by no means the authority on the subject but I believe it will happen, I seem to recall discussion about it at the last meeting.


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## Forever Wort (17/2/15)

Our Merri Masher IPA comp date is certainly a bit of a clusterfuck at the moment (enemies everywhere! every date has competition!) but we promise to resolve it all soon. Just keep on planning those IPAs!


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## carniebrew (17/2/15)

Yob said:


> I'm by no means the authority on the subject but I believe it will happen, I seem to recall discussion about it at the last meeting.


I've been chatting to Andy D about stuff this week, and he said something the other day about "with us not running an extra comp this year...", so I assumed Beerfest was it for the Melbourne Brewers this year?

Vicbrew calendar doesn't show any comps happening in June, which is why we were assuming it's clear. May 24 was never a committed date, always just something we were working towards.

June 14 looks like the right day for us now, any reason MM and GCB couldn't run comps on the same weekend?


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## carniebrew (17/2/15)

Who updates the Vicbrew website, so we can get our date changed? To be honest it should have been TBA rather than May 24 to start with.

Also, one of the reasons we chose May/June as the date range for our comp was so that it would be long enough after Yarra Valley's Belgian Beerfest (April), and long enough before Westgate's Stout Extravaganza (July). Slotting another Vic comp in between ours and those would have been making things really crowded no?


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## manticle (17/2/15)

[email protected]


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## MartinOC (17/2/15)

carniebrew said:


> Who updates the Vicbrew website, so we can get our date changed?


I've been trying to get onto the Vicbrew Secretary (also webmaster) recently to call the first VICBREW meeting of the year so we can get the ball rolling, sort this Comp. shit out & also offer some advice/assistance to the MM's for their comp., but he's gone quiet of late.

Leave it with me & I'll try him again to get some action (in the Comp.-context I mean, NOT the other way....  ).


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## 1974Alby (17/2/15)

good work starting this thread...Im sure we will get it sorted...I guess with so many clubs these days the calendar is really crowded. It is a challenge to find dates that arent in conflict with other major events or too close to other comps... we had originally flagged June as our preferred date, and recently finalised on the 14th based on the VicBrew calendar - in an attempt to be mid-way between the Merry Mashers and the Westgate comp.


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## MartinOC (17/2/15)

Albanian, are you the official contact for the Geelong boys?

I just sent an email to the Vicbrew committee to get the ball rolling for this year (also to sort this Comp. shit out), but I've lost a few email addresses somewhere.

If so, send me your email details by PM & I'll get you added to the distribution list (hopefully!!). If not, please provide one & I'll get it sorted.


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## danestead (17/2/15)

What are the WASABC dates? The website hadn't been updated since last year's results went up.


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## Yob (17/2/15)

No English ales comp is the word I'm getting, was scratched to make room for other comps


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## 1974Alby (17/2/15)

Had a chat to a couple of our Committee members this afternoon and we will stake a claim on Saturday 5th September. This leaves June free for Merry Mashers and is about a month before VicBrew...which is appropriate as our comp is the Geelong 'Top 5 Shootout' which will be open to the five most popular categories (by no of entries) at the previous years VicBrew. As brewing and drinking tastes evolve we envisage that our categories each year will change over time....Its only a matter of time until Saison's are on the list!!!


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## motch02 (18/2/15)

Any NSW comps? Vic looks like the place to be


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## Yob (18/2/15)

That's what is says on our licence plates, must be true..


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## WarmerBeer (18/2/15)

Yob said:


> That's what is says on our licence plates, must be true..


Due to some administrative stuff-up, they accidentally excluded the last word on our state plates:

... fined.


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## Yob (10/3/15)

Who does specialty these days apart from VicBrew?


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## mxd (10/3/15)

Yob said:


> Who does specialty these days apart from VicBrew?


no one in Vic, a couple of years ago beerfest did bat alas no more.


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## Yob (10/3/15)

which club is going to host a specialty comp then? :icon_drool2:


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## sp0rk (10/3/15)

motch02 said:


> Any NSW comps? Vic looks like the place to be


Grafton and Newcastle Shows are the 2 main ones I'm entering
There's also Bellingen show, but that's only a small one and is mostly locals


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## Black n Tan (10/3/15)

Yob said:


> which club is going to host a specialty comp then? :icon_drool2:


Corio Bay Brewers will have a specialty category by the sounds of it: they have indicated that their comp will be for the top 5 categories by entries at the previous years Vicbrew and speciality was the largest category last Vicbrew last year.


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## Yob (10/3/15)

I've started working on something to help with this competition shamozzle this morning, I hope to have a draft up and away by the end of next week..


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## hoppinmad (10/3/15)

Black n Tan said:


> Corio Bay Brewers will have a specialty category by the sounds of it: they have indicated that their comp will be for the top 5 categories by entries at the previous years Vicbrew and speciality was the largest category last Vicbrew last year.


Geelong Craft Brewers' Top 5 Shootout in September will include the following five categories

Amber and Dark Lager
Pale Ale
American Pale Ale
Bitter Ale
Specialty

These categories were most popular by number of entries at last year's Vicbrew. As previously mentioned by Albanian this will be held in September, prior to this year's Vicbrew. So it should be a good chance for brewers get some pre-vicbrew feedback on a range of styles they may be considering entering.


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## Black n Tan (10/3/15)

HoppinMad said:


> Geelong Craft Brewers' Top 5 Shootout in September will include the following five categories
> 
> Amber and Dark Lager
> Pale Ale
> ...


Sorry got there name wrong. Geelong Craft Brewers.


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## Yob (12/3/15)

will something like this work? will it help? is it useless?

I wanted something a little different to the current format but this is all I could do at short notice without extensive discussions with the site people..

flame suit on, ready for the helpful comments :lol:

LINKY


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## 1974Alby (12/3/15)

Looks like you've already put a bit of work into this and Im sure it will work well, I do wonder who will maintain and populate the site? I can imagine this quickly growing to be a lot of effort for someone (you) with little personal reward. Not wanting to be negative, just questioning whether this needs a dedicated website, or whether the KISS principle might be employed and we could achieve the same result with a simple table pinned to the front of the competitions and results forum.

Is there a way to somehow incorporate this info with the compmaster service?,,,do most clubs use this to manage entries?


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## DU99 (12/3/15)

will this overide the vicbrew website.


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## Yob (12/3/15)

Buggered if i know,yet to speak to anyone, VicBrew site doesn't deal with comps on a national level though so to a degree, yes


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## Trevandjo (12/3/15)

I think you've done a great job. Not sure if you need a subscription section though. 

Anyway, well done.


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## Yob (12/3/15)

Albainian said:


> Looks like you've already put a bit of work into this and Im sure it will work well, I do wonder who will maintain and populate the site? I can imagine this quickly growing to be a lot of effort for someone (you) with little personal reward. Not wanting to be negative, just questioning whether this needs a dedicated website, or whether the KISS principle might be employed and we could achieve the same result with a simple table pinned to the front of the competitions and results forum.
> 
> Is there a way to somehow incorporate this info with the compmaster service?,,,do most clubs use this to manage entries?


To answer some of this, anyone can enter the comps, it's an open board so I shouldn't have to do much beyond the ironing (I hope) comp organisers I guess can delegate the task (or nicely suggest) that it's added. 

If the boards are kept to a known format, should be easy to find what you want, I'll put together a mock comp listing to show my intent


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## Yob (13/3/15)

So I entered the Grafton HBC as an example of the format I was thinking of.

LINKY

So the idea is to just list the comp particulars, comps can get buried here pretty quickly, moreso some details of the comp that are added in the middle of the conversation.

so if Im looking for a NSW comp, I can go right to it pretty much (or any other state clearly)

Im all for discussions to remain here, the intent is not to drive conversation there just the event particulars.

@DU99, I'm to be meeting with Vicbrew and contacting as many of the other big comp organizers as possible to see if it cant gain some traction. I dont think the task needs become an onerous one, but the benefits are that there is a *National database* of *all comps*, something thats been missing really. If we can get more people knowing about the comps from a dedicated site, that will ultimately do 2 things, bring in more people to competition brewing and bring more people here (possibly) to discuss them.


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## droid (13/3/15)

good stuff mate, it would be nice to go to one place and navigate around to see all the comps, it seems that things are only going to get bigger and something like this needs to happen


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## DU99 (13/3/15)

should run for goverment..Yob.


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## Dan Pratt (13/3/15)

just checked out the link.

your a fkn legend!

:super:


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## Mardoo (13/3/15)

If there's one national website that covers all comps then all comp masters only have to go to one place. If we have it on this board, and that one, and another way over there the likelihood that everyone will have access to lists of and information about all the comps is less. I think this is a great idea.


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## MartinOC (13/3/15)

Yeah, Mardoo, but the assumption is that everyone will access AHB, just as they will access a National database.

Vicbrew committee discussed this last night & it was considered "too hard" unless all states buy-in equally to participate.


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## Mardoo (14/3/15)

An incorrect assumption of course, but the deed is done.


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## Yob (15/3/15)

MartinOC said:


> it was considered "too hard" unless all states buy-in equally to participate.


I'd suggest that these are the main obstacles to overcome, the short sightedness of, we'll just do our own thing needs to be addressed, certainly that mentality does nothing to further the home brewing scene, to generate extra interest, help navigate, find or promote events. 

The national database can still allow for a singular track process from such organisers and as such would only need to deal with their own events, the idea is to provide an environment where all the 'single tracks' converge 

I spoke to some other folks on the weekend about it with much the same hesitations, I guess I just need to get some buy in from the big players, everyone agrees in principle it's a good idea, so, let's confront the obstacles and overcome them.


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## carniebrew (15/3/15)

So how do you create a comp? The link above seems to just take me to a discussion style board, when I sign up/log in, I see "Start Topic" as my only choice.


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## Yob (15/3/15)

correct, ive just noticed an issue with it, ironing continuing, eventually, it'll probably list the on the forum board, still playing with it mate.

Id hold off listing just ofr now as I think that board is replicated across the pages.. as I say, Im still fiddling with it.

But yes, essentially comps are listed as topics within the board format (changing)


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## hoppinmad (29/9/15)

Albainian said:


> ....Its only a matter of time until Saison's are on the list!!!


sooner than you thought too I imagine!

Next year's categories in the Top 5 will include the following-

Specialty
Amber and Dark Lager
American Pale Ale
Brown Ale
Farmhouse Ale and Wild Beer

Looking forward to it!


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