Professional Vs Amateur - Competitions

[Howlingdog]

Let's have a look at the rules for the AABC, which all our state comps comply (or should comply) with.

snip
D3. Amateur brews The competition is restricted to amateur brews, that is to beers that have not been brewed on premises licensed as a commercial brewery. Beers produced from extract kits and wort kits and Brew-On-Premises are allowed as they are not considered to be commercially brewed. Entries must be submitted under the brewers name.
snip

So there you have it, no problems at all for a professional brewer to brew at home and enter our state and national competitions. The way I see it, the pro brewers are of a far less concern than the quality of fresh wort kits these days. Joe blow who knows nothing about "brewing" and take a top quality FWK home, add some yeast and ferment it in the right conditions and hey presto, a comp winning beer. That is just not brewing in my books.

cheers

Browndog

Quote from who? "Brewers make wort, yeast makes beer".

 

[gone_fishing_]

Interesting point of view and one which needs to be consideration as this comp is the second biggest in Australia.
I am assuming that most of the amateur section judges at the PRBS will be local qualified BJCP guys and most will be West coast brewers members.
West coast brewers will make up a large percentage of the entries, so how can you judge and be a contestant ? The chances are that you will judge your own beers.
I know this will happen as it has happened to me before, I did mark my own beer down for that reason. It wasnt a year I won a trophy
Its not a comfortable place to be at as a judge and the main reason I dont want to judge this comp again.
I know Brendan O is a top judge and gives great feedback. Mate its going to be hard for you. You will be a "professional" a judge and a contestant.
GB

I probably missed the point here?

FFS you cant judge your own beer

GF

 

[jayse]

Snipped>.

Yes I have morals and no I'm not going to do any of the silly or underhanded things that some have suggested (or perhaps just mentioned for the sake of discussion?)

Yes I just mentioned a couple silly things simply for discussion and the broader subject, I don't question your morals at all.

 

[ThatKiwiFella]

Like others, I believe that if you're not using equipment that commercial breweries utilise and are not licensed then I would have thought it was fine. I personally wouldn't have an issue.

As browndog says, there are greater concerns than the professional brewers (i.e. FWKs). Thank goodness for FWKs for my homebrewing though!

 

[///]

Exactly right - they have no input into the creative aspects of the process, and probably no real interest in having any. They make a beer (actually, just a wort) to a recipe, the make it exactly to that recipe, they get it right.

A bit slow in reply here, been thinking about the separation point between pro and amatuer is a few key points;

* alot of HB'ers focus on recipe and wort production. Raw materials management, Ferm management, packaging, logistics and trade items (and a countless list more items) are not part of the HB process and hence aren't taken into account by many HB'es as part of the brewing process ... these parts of the process are all as important as each other. Having a good recipe does not mean much when you have a recall for dodgey bottles and several million of those in trade to worry about.

* in a company like CUB not one man can do it all. The recipe and wort production is one small part of the picture ... as per above. If you have ever been to Abbotsford and looked at the height of the FV's (is it D cellar?) or see the pack lines running reality will kick in.

A small guy like me gets to bridge across all aspects and does everything, but we only do about 210 kegs a month and I have to; no one else is there to do it for me at the moment. At the moment ...

None the less, we all make beer and care about it. Be a cynic when it comes to big brewers and what they produce, but never confuse that with lack of passion about doing a job well and to the best of thier respective abilities. These guys are human after all.

If you consider various cerveza's, it takes a heck of a lot of effort and care to make a beer so devoid of flavour, so its crap but it is high quality crap! (and that is a quote from a head brewer from one of the largest global brewers I met some time back)

So I reckon Pro's should be able to enter and have it called a 'Brewing' competition. As I mentioned before, I'm used to being embarrassed at HB comps. I also hate how Aussies have to segment things, can wait till Superior Premium Craft Home Brew starts getting used, aint it all just beer?