AUSTRALIAN REGIONAL HOMEBREW CHAMPIONSHIPS - 26 August, 2017

[Nosh Narrabri]

Hi guys! Just sharing some info about our competition that will be held in Narrabri, NSW:

The Australian Regional Homebrew Championships will discover and celebrate the pre-eminent regional homebrewer.

In a winner-takes-all contest, Nosh Narrabri creates the leading platform for
homebrewers to face off under clear rules and fair competition.

With $2,200 worth of prizes for the winner, it's well worth your while spending a few of your weekends brewing up a storm in your secret home-brew location, perfecting the winning beer for 2017!

To enter please fill out the form on our website (www.noshnarrabri.com.au/australianregionalhomebrewchampionships/) and you'll be emailed a competition number in order to submit your homebrew beer anonymously. Beers are to be delivered to the Narrabri Visitor Information Centre during business hours between 9am Monday 14th August - 5pm Wednesday 23rd August, 2017. Sending via post is fine, but Nosh Narrabri do not take any responsibility for its safe or reliable delivery.

The first 4 entries are free, after that it's $5 per entry.

Winners will be announced at the Nosh Narrabri Food & Wine Expo on Saturday 26th August, 2017. You do not need to be present at the event to win, but you do need to be contactable on the day.

Visitors will be able to taste a range of the competition beers on the day too (subject to availability).

Please see the Terms & Conditions on our website for more details. Any questions, feel free to contact the competition organiser Rohan on 0425222786 or email [email protected] or [email protected] . There's accommodation info on our website as well if you wanted to make a weekend out of it. On Saturday night we have the band 'Mental As Anything' playing which should be fantastic! Only $45 a ticket.

Good luck! Feel free to share this info among your homebrew buddies and communities.

From Kate,
Nosh Narrabri Committee Member
www.noshnarrabri.com.au

 

[vaanderal]

How are the entries judged? Are there catergories, style guidelines, etc?

 

[Nosh Narrabri]

Hi, thanks for the reply! I've copy and pasted our terms & conditions below. Hopefully this answers your question? Let me know if not.

The form that needs to be filled out (on our website) asks about original gravity, final gravity, process and special ingredients. This is to try and make the competition fair and ensure there are only valid entries being considered for the win.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF COMPETITION ENTRY

1. The Australian Regional Homebrew Championships is wholly owned by the organizers, Nosh Narrabri Inc.

2. Organizers reserve the right to disqualify any non-conforming entries.

3. This competition will be conducted under the following rules for entry.

4. Any person who is not a member of the organizing committee, a judge or steward in this contest is permitted to enter.

5. Entrants are permitted to enter multiple times providing the same brew and recipe is not used more than one time. Entry will attract a $5 fee only AFTER the first five (5) free entries. This rule was changed on 24th July, 2017.

6. The competition is restricted to amateur brewers. This ensures the Australian Regional Homebrew Championships not open to brewers or beers that would be making product subject to excise duty. Any beer produced in licensed brewing premises is ineligible.

7. The Australian Regional Homebrew Championships is open to beers brewed from extract kits, wort kits, or any other source of fresh wort that is the choice of the brewer.

8. Entries must be submitted under the brewer's own name.

9. Each valid entry shall consist of one brew. For an entry to be valid, it must be styled on one of the following;

a. Pale Ale

b. IPA

c. Porter

d. Pilsner

10. Entrants will submit (2) beers in bottles of 500ml or larger. Either glass or plastic bottles are acceptable.

11. Entrants shall complete entry details online.

12. Entries will include the name and contact details of the brewer together with the recipe details. (The recipe is provided solely to allow judges to validate the winning entry.) Judges require a direct conversation (in person or on the phone) with the winning entrant before publicly awarding the prize to any contestant, therefore, contestants must be available in person, or by phone, to discuss their entry on August 26, 2017 to the satisfaction of the judges.

13. Entrants retain full intellectual property of their entries. Nosh Narrabri, the judges, committee or stewards are not permitted to publicly reveal any details of judged entries. All submitted entry details regarding the beer brewing process and/or ingredients shall be deleted and erased by the organisers within 7 days after the event.

14. Bottles must not have any unique identifying features on the bottle or cap that may identify an entrant. It is the duty of the competition stewards to attach suitable code on each bottle in each entry to ensure the correct identification of each entry remains with each entry. This is accomplished when entries are received and stored in preparation for judging.

15. The stewards will ensure that all entries will be served at the same temperature in unmarked glasses. The judges and the serving stewards will not be aware of the name of the brewer whose beer is being served. Stewards shall decant all entries behind a screen so that the judges cannot be aware of the entrant details. Only appointed stewards shall serve the judges.

16. Only the Nosh Narrabri Head Steward will be aware of the entrant details and their corresponding competition numbers.

17. Judging will be by blind tasting. Judge’s decisions are final. No correspondence will be entered into.

18. Completed judging/score sheets will be returned to the brewers within two weeks of completion of judging via email.

19. A single prize shall be awarded to the entrant with the highest number of aggregated points awarded by the judges.

20. The judging panel will be required to resolve any tie so that only one winner is found.

21. All bottles and contents remain the property of Nosh Narrabri and shall not be returned.

22. All entries must arrive at the Steward’s Office no later than Wednesday August 23rd 2017.

24. Whilst all care is taken when handling the entries, Nosh Narrabri takes no responsibility/liability resulting from any damages due to handling the items when in the care of the Stewards

25. Steward’s Office address for entries:

Penny Jobling
Australian Regional Homebrew Championships Gatekeeper,
Narrabri Visitor Information Centre
Tibbereena Street, Narrabri NSW 2390
Tel: 02 6799 6762

a. Valid entries must be carefully packaged to prevent breakages
Entrants should ensure they have completed the entry form online prior to sending entries.

i. a completed contestant identity form – printed from the completed online form

ii. $5.00 note (if this is your 5th entry or more)

 

[kaiserben]

It mentions $2,200 worth of prizes for the winner. What are they exactly? (I thought I'd seen this mentioned somewhere on social media, but haven't been able to find it mentioned since).

 

[moonhead]

So it's judged more like a specialty category? Where the description of the entry is the guideline judged against?

 

[MHB]

What on earth makes you think its a BJCP comp?
For decades the "styles" in Ag show comps all round Australia related to the colour coded Coopers kits, I wouldn't be too surprised if that wasn't still a pretty good style guide - for this comp.
Mark

 

[n87]

Couple of questions for clarification

7. The Australian Regional Homebrew Championships is open to beers brewed from extract kits, wort kits, or any other source of fresh wort that is the choice of the brewer.

I may be being pedantic, but does this mean we are unable to produce our own wort?

9. Each valid entry shall consist of one brew. For an entry to be valid, it must be styled on one of the following;

a. Pale Ale
b. IPA
c. Porter
d. Pilsner

Does this include obscure versions of these, eg, Belgian Pale Ale or Black IPA?

 

[DU99]

do that mean a FWK can be used

 

[moonhead]

What on earth makes you think its a BJCP comp?
For decades the "styles" in Ag show comps all round Australia related to the colour coded Coopers kits, I wouldn't be too surprised if that wasn't still a pretty good style guide - for this comp.
Mark

Right, but don't we still need to know the style descriptions/guidelines in that case? I mean, this beer I've got in my keg, is it going to be considered a pale ale, or a sour imperial rauchbier?

 

[Nosh Narrabri]

So it's judged more like a specialty category? Where the description of the entry is the guideline judged against?

Hi, it'll be judged by the categories of:
Pale Ale
IPA
Porter
Pilsner

Does that answer your question??

 

[Nosh Narrabri]

Couple of questions for clarification



I may be being pedantic, but does this mean we are unable to produce our own wort?
You can produce your own wort, that's fine


Does this include obscure versions of these, eg, Belgian Pale Ale or Black IPA?

Not specifically, no. Part of the judgement of the beers will be on how well they fit the criteria of either of these categories:

Pale Ale
IPA
Porter
Pilsner

Does that answer your question ok?

 

[Nosh Narrabri]

It mentions $2,200 worth of prizes for the winner. What are they exactly? (I thought I'd seen this mentioned somewhere on social media, but haven't been able to find it mentioned since).

Hi,

The prize involves:

True Brew will provide $1025 worth of product: (Keg kit $480, Gas bottle $280, Fast ferment $140, 2x mangrove jacks pouches $75, 1x$50 voucher)

Barrett Burston Malting is providing $1000 cash.

New England Brewing Co. is providing $140 worth of their packaged beer.

Nosh Narrabri will be providing $35 cash

 

[Nosh Narrabri]

H

do that mean a FWK can be used

Hi, yes fresh wort kits are fine

 

[Nosh Narrabri]

Right, but don't we still need to know the style descriptions/guidelines in that case? I mean, this beer I've got in my keg, is it going to be considered a pale ale, or a sour imperial rauchbier?

The beer will be judged on how well it falls into either 4 of the categories (IPA, Pale Ale, etc). They won't be judged on any other categories but these traditional ones. Hope that helps? Colour will definitely be a factor involved in the judging process.

 

[MHB]

Feels a bit odd calling you Nosh..
But Nosh you have wandered in an alternate universe, a place where Pale Ale has more shades of meaning than many would think possible...
The NSW State comp will be run on the 9/10 September, in that comp there will probably be a dozen classes that would qualify as "Pale Ale"
in fact here is a list of the styles people can enter beers as http://www.aabc.org.au/docs/AABC2017StyleGuidelines.pdf.

I'm not saying its a right wrong thing, it reminds me of what beer competitions were like 25 years ago - the term random comes to mind, with lots of emphasis on just how many schooners of a given beer a judge reckons he/she could nail, before falling over backwards.
Were I inclined to enter this comp I would wind my hops way the hell down (then down a bit more), concentrate on clean sessionable versions of classic examples - think Coopers PA, rather than Little Creatures or Pacific - I wouldn't be entering anything that might scare the horses, good basic beer - with just that little bit of something extra so you stand out from the pack.
Mark

Nosh there is even a beer judge training program, allegedly world wide, but really pretty Amerocentric see BJCP
M

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light ...

 

[Bribie G]

Great to see a comp that is based on entries from regional home brewers. The current local, state and national competitions are let's face it very much capital city and regional mini capitals (Newcastle etc) affairs and based on clubs and forums populated by "them wot already knows" brewers.

As MHB says it's really a supersized version of the Ag show concept, but nothing wrong with that as it's a gateway for garage kit brewers etc to expand their hobby into comps.

Here's a brilliant example: Grafton has had a very well supported and successful home brew comp for many years, based on the agricultural show that is held after Easter every year, and categories have been along the lines of "best pale beer brewed from a kit or modified by the entrant" and so on. Thanks to local efforts from keen brewers such as Brewmatt and supported by other locals, hats off to Stu etc, the comp has been "migrated" to BJCP judging and many if not most of the locals have gone along with that and greatly improved their brewing skills. Earlier this year I was privileged to be on the tables judging the "legacy" entries from the old Show Society categories, and compared to previous years there was hardly a bad one among them - some of the kit and kilos actually beat the bejazus out of a lot of the All Grains.

I see that Barrett Burston are chucking some money on the table as well so they see value in encouraging AG home brewers in the regions. I'll see if I can get a couple bottle conditioned in time and put them in myself.

 

[RdeVjun]

I'd echo Bribie's, MHB's and also other sentiments from the posts above and encourage eligible participants to enter this comp. The Grafton Show example is similar and has proven a great success, but for many of us that are familiar with BJCP's clipboardy structure and aren't indoctrinated to regional show society style affairs similar to this it is quite bewildering, it sure was a confronting thing to deal with as a judge the first time but FWIW I too have been astounded by the quality in recent years, so this sort of competition is very worthwhile.
As a casual observer, advice to prospective entrants is to firstly and foremost eliminate the obvious flaws, e.g. infection and oxidation, that's maybe half the battle won, while expecting that nailing subtle nuanced character that's squirreled away deep within the bowels of BJCP style guidelines is competitive is probably a mistake. Apart from that, if my understanding is correct, there's four fairly broad categories that most of us will recognise, although many of the beers styles that are more popular of late will simply not fit and likely struggle to gain traction with the judges given that there will likely be other more generically- styled entries that do. Its also an opportunity to maybe road test the odd beer that for whatever reason technically doesn't cut the mustard as far as explicit BJCP style guideline alignment goes and give it a spin of the wheel amongst peers.

 

[Northwest brewer]

I'd echo Bribie's, MHB's and also other sentiments from the posts above and encourage eligible participants to enter this comp. The Grafton Show example is similar and has proven a great success, but for many of us that are familiar with BJCP's clipboardy structure and aren't indoctrinated to regional show society style affairs similar to this it is quite bewildering, it sure was a confronting thing to deal with as a judge the first time but FWIW I too have been astounded by the quality in recent years, so this sort of competition is very worthwhile.
As a casual observer, advice to prospective entrants is to firstly and foremost eliminate the obvious flaws, e.g. infection and oxidation, that's maybe half the battle won, while expecting that nailing subtle nuanced character that's squirreled away deep within the bowels of BJCP style guidelines is competitive is probably a mistake. Apart from that, if my understanding is correct, there's four fairly broad categories that most of us will recognise, although many of the beers styles that are more popular of late will simply not fit and likely struggle to gain traction with the judges given that there will likely be other more generically- styled entries that do. Its also an opportunity to maybe road test the odd beer that for whatever reason technically doesn't cut the mustard as far as explicit BJCP style guideline alignment goes and give it a spin of the wheel amongst peers.

This is the third Nosh homebrew competition and this year we are getting quite serious about what you and many others are calling for - that is, a simple country show style competition. We're really grateful for Barrett Burston's cash support ($1000 is going be pretty useful for the winner). And also local supply shop True Brew at Tamworth as well as the neat craft brewer at Uralla, New England Brewing Co are all providing great prizes. So please raid your fridge for some tasty samples in any one 4 generic styles - box 'em up and let's see what comes up top.

 

[Bribie G]

Thanks, actually I bottled up a porter style this afternoon and I'll send a couple in. Also I have a Pilsener style on tap that I'll run off a couple of bottles and bottle condition, so I'm in


Great fan of New England Brewing, we stayed at Uralla in April at the motel a couple of doors down from the brewery.
From what I can remember

 

[n87]

Hi @Nosh Narrabri ,
I filled out the form the other day, when should I expect the email with the details?
Just want to make sure that I havent missed it.