NSW Home Brewing Championship Fail

[Jacko1234]

I have a complaint regarding the handling of the home brewing championship.

I entered 4 meads. The website stated 2 entries per category are permitted. It then proceeded to list many many categories in mead, such as fruit mead, spiced mead, sweet mead, dry mead etc etc. I have asked several people how they would interpret this and it seems a normal brain functioning person would interpret this as being you are allowed a maximum of 2 in each of those categories. Which is what I did. However, as I will get to below, apparently this actually means only 2 entries in all of mead (why even mention the sub-categories then?)

I entered my entries in order of preference, that being passsionfruit mead, peach mead, orange and cinnamon, manuka & avocado blossom plain mead. In my mind being 2 from the fruit category, 1 from the fruit and spice category and 1 from the plain mead category.

The results are shown below. As a side note it seems there was only 13 mead entries so not sure why there is a limit of only 2

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As you can see my peach mead scored 80, which would have given it 2nd place. However I was puzzled as to why it was not.

When I emailed Peter, the organiser for clarification he said "the rules state only 2 entries per category, any more will be scored but not ranked.... The system that we used considered your first 2 entries in the category by entry number. All other entries were scored only."

Ok...... Well my first 2 entries were the passionfruit and the peach as shown in my attached photo. Entries number 183 and 184.

He replied back that His 'system' re-organised it so actually my entries 183 and 186 were judged......What???

The competitor who came 1st also submitted 3 meads. One scoring 84 and coming 1st, the other 2 both scoring 68. How ragingly angry would he be if only his two 68 scoring meads were recorded and he didn't get first place???

I am not asking for a recount to take 2nd place away from the person who got a 79 score, I may well be done with this retarded competition now. In my mind I got 2nd and it was really just for my own interest to see how my meads compared to others.

I just now want to point out how poorly the competition is handled.

 

[n87]

As you have figured out, 'Mead' is the category, 'Sweet Meat' would be a sub category.
In the AABC (Nationals), you are permitted max 2 per category and in that, max 1 per sub category. I dont know why the last few years of NSW state comp it has been lessened to 2 per category with no sub category limit... but it has.
Stating the sub category limit makes it a bit easier to figure out which is considered a category.

Regarding the reason for this rule, @MartinOC wrote a fairly exhaustive explanation here: https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/reasons-for-competition-rules.100292/

As I am sure you are aware, this comp is run by volunteers, one hell of alot of effort is put into each of these comps. Sometimes things arent explained as well as they should be, that happens everywhere.
Having the system pick 2 entries to me is a valid way of unbiasly picking which scores count.
Another point is that these categories are usually judged across multiple tables, after which, the top few from each table are compared to determine the actual arrangement of them. You can see an example of this in the first category 'Low Alcohol' where the scores in order of place were: 79, 76, 78, 80.

At the end of the day, it worked out well for you. from the scores you got, no matter which 2 you, judges, the system or pixies chose, you would end up with a 3rd (maybe a 2nd depending on factors outlined above) place and entry into the nationals.
I would urge you to enter one of your meads into the nationals, by the scores, you make consistently solid mead. You may get different judges and you will most likely get a different score and possibly some different feedback which might help in the future.
On top of that, if you can, come and steward at the nationals (26th Oct), it will give you a new perspective on the comps, and you may be able to get a taste of some other great home brewed meads from around the country.

 

[DJR]

You've qualified for nationals with the 3rd place, my understanding is now you can enter any mead you like in that category so maybe enter the peach mead which scored highest?

The wording making the rules between style and category can be a bit confusing I guess. I've qualified for 2 entries in Pale Ale / Kolsch with a 1st & 2nd however I'm unclear if that means I can enter just one beer or two into Nats, probably academic at this point as I don't really have enough of the beer or enough time to rebrew it.

 

[Hoppy Mad]

How did your mead go at the National Comp? Did you enter it?