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 11/04/2010 10:22 a.m.
 
Robert Owen
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Joined: 4/01/2010
Posts: 16

The SOBA National Homebrew Championship is an annual event run by SOBA and supported by Mac's All Malt Brewing and BrewCraft. For the last two years the event has been organised by myself and Brendon MacKenzie and judging has taken place in Wellington. We normally receive about 150 entries for the event which takes a good two days of judging by a group of four or more judges.

Judging in previous years has been before BrewNZ so that winners can be announced at BrewNZ, this year on 27th/28th August.

This year Brendon will be out of the country during this time and my work commitments mean that I don't have the time available to organise the event, however, both Brendon and myself are happy to help out as much as we can.

So we're looking for volunteers for this year's competition, in particular to receive entries and manage these correctly and to arrange for judging and stewarding to take place before BrewNZ. For brewers to get good notice of this years competition we need to start getting things underway as soon as possible so if you're interested in getting involved please speak up.

Some options already mentioned are for groups of styles to be judged in different regions in order to reduce the judging load on one group. Only holding the competition every two years, alternating with a commercial competition. Rotating the organisation and judging between different regions every year.

I'm interested in anyone's thoughts on how the competition should change or evolve so that it continues as New Zealand's best and biggest home brew competition.
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 13/04/2010 1:25 p.m.
 
David Wood
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Joined: 19/02/2010
Posts: 1

Need a venue? I'll see if Dom's keen to hold the judging at Hashigo Zake.

I'm keen to help out any way I can (don't know if I'm qualified to judge), but I can steward and receive the beers if need be.
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 14/04/2010 8:30 a.m.
 
Glynn Foster
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Joined: 19/02/2010
Posts: 2
Happy to help out too.
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 15/04/2010 1:05 p.m.
 
Brendon Mackenzie
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Joined: 19/02/2010
Posts: 11

Hi Rob,

When's the call going to be made on whether we can hold the NHC for timing with AGM/BrewNZ?

As far as the future goes, I have mentioned this idea to a few others in the past. I think SOBA should consider holding the NHC should every 2 years. I would have a SOBA commercial beer competition every alternating year. Here's a copy of a previous email to the SOBA executive:

".....As a long term strategy I would favour SOBA having a second Commercial beer
competition using the same scoring and systems we have developed with the homebrew
comp that ultimately awards the "best XX beers for the year" (choose a number).
Basically it would be working towards a scalable Good Beer Guide (a completely
different model to CAMRA's). Here's the strawman:
   1. Hold the comp/announce results Feb/Mar (i.e. 6 months from SOBA Homebrew Comp
and BrewNZ). Maybe only every 2 years though.
   2. Initially (at least) we solicit entries from beers brewed in NZ
   3. Initially only beers in the form of have they are sold in off-licences to
retail consumers (be that bottle, PET, bladder, glass demijohn, etc). This would
possibly exclude a few but not many who are solely on licence retailers -- I
don't think we have the logistical time to manage kegs just yet.
   4. Allow the brewers to specify the style based on either the BJCP or WBC
category they think best
   5. Judge based on BJCP scoring system
   6. Likewise with the Homebrew comp there would be no reason to have the comp in
Wellington every year.
I would also move it towards a mixed appraisal of the beer (maybe within 1-2 years
time) with some sort of split/weighting, perhaps:
50% Blind judging
40% Community from BrewSeeker for previous year(s)
10% Editorial board (if/when we have a good beer guide)
I have lot's of other thoughts on this as well, but not really the time to go into
the detail.
Basically, I reckon we should stand alone and offer a different type of comp
offering to Homebrewers and Commercial Brewers..."

Cheers,

Brendon
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 15/04/2010 1:45 p.m.
 
Brendon Mackenzie
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Joined: 19/02/2010
Posts: 11

Also, here are some changes I would consider to the NHC:

Prizes:
SOBA NHC Champion brewer: Should change it so you count the first 3 medals, total the points and see if you have a winner. If not then move to the next medal and see if that splits them. If you can't split them then either (1) share the award (2) get the Judges to decide who should get the award
Best overall beer/ Hop balanced beer / Malt balanced beer / Best in class medal: If tied, then get Judges to decide who should get the award
Add a prize for "Best label" or best "Beer presentation". There were some excellent labels and it could easily be added as a category.
Add a Competition challenge (secret ingredient, best beer less than 2% ABV)
Entry Form:
Add "Beer Name" to the form - most people were providing a beer name anyway
Combine BJCP Category and number. Having them separate was stupid
Greater rigour on mailing address formating, incuding Post code for easier addressing of envelopes and covering letters.
Greater rigour on names, etc so it's easier to print certificates (no nicknames for example).

Brendon
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