MartinOC
Insert something suitably witty here
No arguments here!
Aussie Brewer of the Year?
- Thread starter newguy
- Start date
Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:
newguy
To err is human, to arrr is pirate
- Joined
- 8/11/06
- Messages
- 2,225
- Reaction score
- 35
I understand the reasoning for wanting to cull the entries so that a competition becomes manageable. I should explain the situation here and then maybe our rules and the reason for them will become more clear.
In Canada we had a few regional homebrew competitions (literally only 3 or 4), and pretty much all of them in just 2 of our western provinces. Other competitions came & went, but it was really just the core 3 or 4 that were faithfully run every year. Round these parts the majority of a homebrew club's finances come from competition entry fees, and we all wanted to increase the friendly rivalry with the ultimate goal being more entries for every competition. And thus CBOTY was born. The idea was and is very simple: participating competitions just have to ask to be added to the CBOTY roster, and once the comp is over, report the results. The results of each individual competition is rolled into a master list and at the end of the "brewing year" (which is July round these parts), the top placed person is crowned the CBOTY and gets the privilege of holding the Alexandra Cup (which I donated/named after my daughter) for the following year.
The problem with this whole idea is getting the results at all, let alone in the preferred format (which is the same as the posted format). Altering things to ask for not only the winners but the overall records of who entered what simply isn't going to happen. That said, a winner is a winner. It's absolutely possible to have an anomalous competition (due to local judge skill/preferences), but for a brewer to consistently grab medals from competitions that literally span the breadth of the country - that's no fluke. That brewer is damn skilled. And that's what CBOTY recognizes.
CBOTY has had the desired effect in that the old core of the original 3-4 comps have seen entries rise by 50-100%, and there have been other comps spring up across the country since CBOTY started. Most of these new comps have been swamped with entries - which again was the ultimate goal.
How those entries are handled at the comp level could be the subject of a different thread entirely, but here it's common for the judging to last a week. If entries are due on a Friday, the club will sort them the following Saturday or Sunday and judging commences Monday evening. Judging usually runs for 2-3 hours per evening until Friday, which is generally an all day judging session. On Saturday the stragglers (i.e. mead/cider and BOS) are done and things squared away in time for the club's annual BBQ/supper/pissup. Usually local judges only are present during the week with out-of-town judges showing up on Friday/Saturday. In this manner a club with a decent number of judges (10-15 minimum) can get through 300-400 entries pretty easily. The largest comp I'm aware of (locally) had a hair over 600 entries, and they powered through them in a week.
In Canada we had a few regional homebrew competitions (literally only 3 or 4), and pretty much all of them in just 2 of our western provinces. Other competitions came & went, but it was really just the core 3 or 4 that were faithfully run every year. Round these parts the majority of a homebrew club's finances come from competition entry fees, and we all wanted to increase the friendly rivalry with the ultimate goal being more entries for every competition. And thus CBOTY was born. The idea was and is very simple: participating competitions just have to ask to be added to the CBOTY roster, and once the comp is over, report the results. The results of each individual competition is rolled into a master list and at the end of the "brewing year" (which is July round these parts), the top placed person is crowned the CBOTY and gets the privilege of holding the Alexandra Cup (which I donated/named after my daughter) for the following year.
The problem with this whole idea is getting the results at all, let alone in the preferred format (which is the same as the posted format). Altering things to ask for not only the winners but the overall records of who entered what simply isn't going to happen. That said, a winner is a winner. It's absolutely possible to have an anomalous competition (due to local judge skill/preferences), but for a brewer to consistently grab medals from competitions that literally span the breadth of the country - that's no fluke. That brewer is damn skilled. And that's what CBOTY recognizes.
CBOTY has had the desired effect in that the old core of the original 3-4 comps have seen entries rise by 50-100%, and there have been other comps spring up across the country since CBOTY started. Most of these new comps have been swamped with entries - which again was the ultimate goal.
How those entries are handled at the comp level could be the subject of a different thread entirely, but here it's common for the judging to last a week. If entries are due on a Friday, the club will sort them the following Saturday or Sunday and judging commences Monday evening. Judging usually runs for 2-3 hours per evening until Friday, which is generally an all day judging session. On Saturday the stragglers (i.e. mead/cider and BOS) are done and things squared away in time for the club's annual BBQ/supper/pissup. Usually local judges only are present during the week with out-of-town judges showing up on Friday/Saturday. In this manner a club with a decent number of judges (10-15 minimum) can get through 300-400 entries pretty easily. The largest comp I'm aware of (locally) had a hair over 600 entries, and they powered through them in a week.
Similar threads
