Castle Hill Brewing Competition

[Stuster]

Linz, according to the entry form

Ribbon for Hills District Champion- Brewer residing in the Hills district with the
highest average score

Now how is the Hills district defined? :lol:

 

[Tseay]

The requirement for two bottles may cut down on interstate entries, but I might enter a beer for NZ, posted from WA. If posting beer from outside of NSW, which is the preferred agent to receive them?

GL,

I've been out of town for a while and just noticed your post. Send your beer to The Castle HIll Show Office as decribed in the form. If you still have any querries please PM me.

Cheers
T

PS Please highlight that is entered as a NZ beer if that's what you decide to do

 

[Tseay]

Linz, according to the entry form

Ribbon for Hills District Champion- Brewer residing in the Hills district with the
highest average score

Now how is the Hills district defined? :lol:

Castle Hill Shire area

 

[Tseay]

Ive asked over on the country brewer website and I'm asking here too....


Can someone please define the "Hills District Champion"??,... is it the same as "Winner of Best in Show or Grand Champion Brewer"

..if so theres a wealth of knowledge for the overall winner of this show




For the Hills District Champion, the Hunter Beer Company has donated a Brewery package for 2 at their Potters Hotel and Brewery in the Hunter Valley. The package includes a private brewery tour and tasting with Luke their brewer, hot breakfast for 2 and the chance to brew on site with Luke.


and


Winner of Best in Show or Grand Champion Brewer will win a personal Brewing Master Class with Callum Service at Paddys Brewery

Linz, the Hills District Champion will only be awarded to the best entry froma someone residing in the HIlls District. Best in Show etc is open to all entrants. For exampe a Canberra entrant won the Best in Show award lst year and a Sydney brewer( not from the HIlls District) won the champion brewer award.. Its possible of course that the Hills District Champion could also win Best In Show, if his/her entry was up to scratch.

I should point out that unlike the State championship, you don't have to live in the state for your beer to win an award. The only exception being the Hills District Champion and the International Beer award. Whilst International entrants will receive the Ag Show awards, they are not eligible to receive the sponsor donated prizes. The cost and difficulties of posting say, 25kg of grain to Canada rule that out.

Cheers

T



T

 

[Linz]

Thanks for that Tseay

 

[Tseay]

Morning,

Just a reminder that the closing date for the comp is tomorrow. If you are having trouble meeting the deadline, please PM me and we'll arrange to collect your entry.

We've now received entries from NZ and Canada with the US entries in the good hands of Fedex as we speak. There is an excellent range of prizes available including personal brewing masterclasses with Paddies and Potters.

Cheers

T

 

[Tseay]

Just a small point.

We are running Home Brew Retailer awards as part of the castle Hill comp. If you are submtiing an entry via the Castle Hill show off or through a mate, please make sure you nominate your HB retialer.

Cheers
T

 

[RobboMC]

As a kit brewer I would like to say it's a shame the kit syle guidlines couldn't be made available earlier,
perhaps it was just me learning about the show a bit late.

The open styles are of course well known and documented and so brews can be brewed to these styles in plenty of time.

I have some great kit dark ale, but not made to the style guidelines.

So a short message to the Castle Hill show people that I hope are reading,

If you are going to have kit classes is it possible to publish and standardise the style guidelines
some time in advance, like around 6 months to a year. I would have loved to have had a decent crack at
the kit classes if I had only known in advance.

Just giving you guys feedback, please don't feel too criticised.

 

[Tseay]

Robbo,

Feedback is always welcome and thank you. The guidelines used, closely follow those developed earlier this year for ANWABS ( thanks Wee Stu). Please let me know how your brew differs from the guidelines in case we can take that into account for next year. Guidelines are after all just that.

We decided to introduce a kit section as a trial and welcome any suggestions. My guess is that we could look at a Australian Pale Ale as well, but it will depend on the response from kit brewers to this year's comp.

Cheers

T

 

[Tseay]

The US entries arrived yesterday is good condition. We now have a 4 country competition for Best in Show and Champion Brewer and the other prizes. Rumour has it that the Sydney Barley Wine project has decided to enter.

 

[Gulpa]

Robbo,

Feedback is always welcome and thank you. The guidelines used, closely follow those developed earlier this year for ANWABS ( thanks Wee Stu). Please let me know how your brew differs from the guidelines in case we can take that into account for next year. Guidelines are after all just that.

We decided to introduce a kit section as a trial and welcome any suggestions. My guess is that we could look at a Australian Pale Ale as well, but it will depend on the response from kit brewers to this year's comp.

Cheers

T

Hi Tseay,


I was in the same boat. I already had my beer made before I found out about the comp (dark ale with cascade) and didnt have an opportunity to brew another to style.

Without knowing how many kit entries you get, its possible you could do couple of broad classes with a few styles in each. Or at least add a class for american ale. With the popularity of american hops around here you would probably get a few entries.



Cheers,
Andrew.

 

[Tseay]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the feedback - why not enter your beer in the open American Brown Ale category ? As noted in the entry form kit beers aren't restricted to the kt section. Please PM me and we'll arrange to get your beer into the comp.

Your post does raise the broader question as to how to handle the creative brewer when we rely on style guidelines for competitions. The last thing we want is for guidelines to exclude a good beer. There is a section for experimental beers in the BJCP and we need to encourage our cutting edge brewers to enter. Might need some sort of commentary from the brewer as to what she or he was trying to achieve.

A peoples' choice award wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Andrew, have a go and get in touch.

T

 

[Gulpa]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the feedback - why not enter your beer in the open American Brown Ale category ? As noted in the entry form kit beers aren't restricted to the kt section. Please PM me and we'll arrange to get your beer into the comp.

Your post does raise the broader question as to how to handle the creative brewer when we rely on style guidelines for competitions. The last thing we want is for guidelines to exclude a good beer. There is a section for experimental beers in the BJCP and we need to encourage our cutting edge brewers to enter. Might need some sort of commentary from the brewer as to what she or he was trying to achieve.

A peoples' choice award wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Andrew, have a go and get in touch.

T

Hi Tseay,

Thanks for the reply and the offer. Its already entered in the American Brown category. Sorry I didnt give enough info.

Now Im sitting here trying to think why I (and other kit brewers) shouldnt be competing in an open class. We obviously should. I have seen results from other shows and understand that kit brewers can do very well in open classes.

I guess my point is really that if you are going to have specific kit only classes it would be good to have a bit more flexibililty in what you can enter.

Sorry I cant help with the broader question. At this stage in my brewing I cannot imagine making a beer that did not fit into one of the defined BJCP categories. Maybe one day.

cheers,
Andrew.

 

[Stuster]

Your post does raise the broader question as to how to handle the creative brewer when we rely on style guidelines for competitions. The last thing we want is for guidelines to exclude a good beer. There is a section for experimental beers in the BJCP and we need to encourage our cutting edge brewers to enter. Might need some sort of commentary from the brewer as to what she or he was trying to achieve.

I think that's a great idea, Tseay. I think brewers are becoming more experimental (partly due to all the info available on the net) and the judging categories should reflect these changes.

 

[Tseay]

For entrants information, following some of the sentiments expressed here , we have added a new award - "The President's Choice" award. The AG Society President ( who's interested in what we are doing) will be presented with a range of good beers from the comp and will simply nominate the one he likes .( yep likes)
If this works, then we'll look at some sort of 'people's choice 'award for some of our future events.

 

[Stuster]

The AG Society President will simply nominate the one he likes .( yep likes)

What sort of subversive nonsense is that? The beer he likes? :lol:

 

[Tseay]

Many thanks to all who entered, helped on the day and in the months leading up to the competition.

Special thanks to Trev for wrangling the judges, to Linz and Tim who both approached light speed when stewarding, Randall for an enormous amount of work behind the scenes and in front of them, to the professional brewers, Mel, Barry and the guys from the Inner City Brewers and our team from the Hills Brewers. Appologies to any one I didn't mention but should have. ( put it down to age and sleep deprivation)

In terms of follow up, once data entry has been verified, the results will be released to the Agricultural Society and then posted on the HBG web site and here. As the show office is only staffed once a week , I expect that the mail out of tasting sheets etc will probably commence towards the end of next week.

If you have any specific queries please PM me.

Again many thanks to all.

T

 

[mikem108]

Heres some snaps of the day

Special Thanks to Callum for the help in the first flight.

 

[Tseay]

Here's a view of most of the team - fine body of brewers

 

[homebrewworld.com]

Well done Castle Hill Comp !
Pity i could make it to help out on the day, bloody work.....
My wife say's that photo has more 'chins' than a chineese phone book

Cheers