Competition Corner – January, 2014

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Well, a new year is upon us as well as a fresh brewing competition season.   Each year, Pacific Gravity honors the brewer (or team) with the most homebrew competition wins.  See the official rules below for which competitions are eligible and how the points are totaled.  We are less than a month into 2014 and already we have two big competitions to get ready for.

First up is registration for the American Homebrewers Association National Homebrew Competition.  As a result of the massive registration overload they had last year, the AHA has completely re-vamped the process to register your entries.  First of all, you have to be an AHA member.  Secondly, you should have gotten an e-mail explaining the registration process.  Registration is now a two-step effort.  Step 1 is to go through the pre-registration process, where you let them know how many beers you want to enter.  The window for this is relatively brief, going from January 27th until February 2nd.  But the good news is that you don’t have to jump on the registration site the first instant.  After pre-registration is closed, the AHA will decide how many beers you actually get to enter.  You will be informed as to the amount sometime, between Monday, February 10 and Wednesday, February 19.   Step 2 is that once notified, you will have three days to pay for the entries that were accepted into the competition.  Sound complicated?  I suppose so, but at least the process doesn’t depend on the speed of your internet connection. The physical entries will be due in early March.  If you are entering beers in the San Diego regional site, we will transport them down, so you can drop them off at the Culver City homebrew shop.  (Note new address:  4234 Sepulveda Blvd, next to Dominoes Pizza.  If you enter at other sites (your choice) you are on your own to ship them off.

In all the confusion for AHA, don’t lose sight of America’s Finest City homebrew competition, hosted by QUAFF and is also in San Diego.  Entries can be dropped off at the Culver City shop any time before February 7th.   Entry registration is up and running now at http://www.quaff.org/AFC-2014/ .  Two bottles are needed per entry, and the cost is $7.00.  This is a great tune-up competition for the AHA Nationals, and typically draws the same judge pool.  Speaking of judging, if you are interested in a weekend road trip, judging is at St. Dunstan’s Church on Friday February 21st and Saturday the 22nd.

Although it seems like Pacific Brewers Cup is a long ways off, you’ll hear a lot about it in the upcoming months because this year, we are running it!   Our first planning meeting is this Thursday, January 30th.  Everybody is welcome to attend.  We are soliciting help from folks who can help out with the organization.  Look for details in a blog post in the next few days.  If you can help, please drop me a line at [email protected] .

Looking ahead we will be tallying wins in the same set of competitions as last year, though please note the AHA “club-only” series has been discontinued.   If you are hard-core competition junkie, there are a bazillion other contests to enter.  The AHA has their master list at http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/competitions/aha-bjcp-sanctioned-competition/.

2014 Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule

January 27-Feb 2:  AHA Nationals (Pre-registration opens)

February 7th:           America’s Finest City (due at the Culver City Shop)

Feb 10 – 19:            AHA Nationals (Registration confirmation and payment)

March (7th?):          AHA Nationals entries due

April                         Mayfaire

May                         California State Fair

July                          Los Angeles County Fair

September            Pacific Brewers Cup
October                 California State Homebrew Competition

 

2014 Pacific Gravity Brewer of the Year Rules

  1. All members or brewing teams in good standing of Pacific Gravity are automatically entered when they enter beers in selected competitions.  (Please put your club affiliation on the entry form.)
  2. If more than one brewer is listed on the entry form (i.e., a team entry), points are awarded to the team, not to individual brewers.
  3. Points can be earned in the following competitions:
    1. The AHA National Regionals and Finals Competitions
    2. America’s Finest City Homebrew competition, Mayfaire, California State Fair, Los Angeles County Fair, Pacific Brewers Cup, and the California State Homebrew Competition.
  4. Entries for competitions at remote locations must be packaged for shipment by UPS.
  5. Points are awarded as follows:
    1. Three points for 1st place, two points for 2nd place and 1 point for 3rd place.
    2. Additional 3, 2 or 1 points for Best of Show, first runner-up and second runner up.
  6. Points will be tallied after the results of the Cal State are in.
  7. The trophy will be presented to the brewer or team with the highest point total at the annual Holiday Party.
  8. In the event of a tie, multiple awards will be given.

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