I have been trying to keep my eyes open, but have not seen anything as of yet. Has there been any talk or confirmation as to how the new BJCP guidelines will line up with the NHC Medal categories?
*Will it just correspond directly, like it has in the past?
*Will new BJCP categories be combined to keep the same number of judging categories the same as in the past?
I know the new guidelines include more categories, which creates new obstacles for judging. Just wondering if anyone knew when this information might be confirmed?
From what I heard at NHC, the plan is to move to the new guidelines but not add all the new subcategories for the first year. I don’t know if the decision on exactly which categories to include has been finalized yet. I think Janice Gross would be running the show on that.
The AHA Governing Committee’s Competition Subcommittee is reviewing the 2015 BJCP style guidelines using NHC entry information from 2015 and before, and a decision will be made and announced in August or September 2015 detailing the changes for the 2016 National Homebrew Competition styles.
The 2008 guidelines had 23 beer categories, 3 mead categories, and 2 cider categories. I do not anticipate simply transitioning to the categories in the 2015 BJCP Guidelines. Instead, we will use a modified version of the 2015 BJCP styles, with the possible addition of a few new styles.
Just bumping this topic to find out if and when the categories for the 2016 NHC will be posted. I would not want to encourage our club to brew a historical style if it is not going to be on the list.
Thanks, Paul
Also keep in mind that they may not be able to make that assessment until they know how many entries there are. For example, if they have a lot of Kolsches entered, they may split those off from the main category.
There was a little blurb about this in the November/December Zymurgy. It says they combined the 40 categories down to 31, which retained most of the 2008 BJCP categories, to make it easier to transition to the current guidelines and breakup some of the larger categories. So, no word on final categories (that I have seen) so far.
When I talked to Sandy it looked like the '15 styles fit fairly well into '08-'15 categories, with the big 3 split up to make 31. So, APA would have own category, American Amber/Brown would have own category, small stouts split from bigger stouts, and AIPA its own cat too. I believe the American Wild were in a big Specialty Category.
I’m certain Historical Styles will be welcome, and will be judged by their existing guidelines where possible but also certain they won’t have their own category - they’ll either be in specialty, split up to categories they fit better, or more likely IMO, a combination of both.
As before, if the AHA could make this official, that’d be great.
If that is the case, I believe that the AHA and associated sub-committees are seriously underestimating the American Wild segment. I won’t be wasting any of my American sours on NHC if they are up against big giant fruit/peanut butter/spice/coconut/etc bombs in a catch-all Speciality category.
I would generally agree, though it becomes fairly self-defeating of your prophecy if too many share your views and hold back their American Wild entries. 8)
At least there are 3 subcategories for Wild entrants now instead of one.
I’d still be hesitant to enter until we see how judges are going to treat the new wild categories especially if your beers are significantly different from the classic Belgian styles or a berliner.
I’ve had mine treated fairly well in comps using the 2015 Guidelines. However, I have come second (or third) every single time to a much bigger beer when combined with other specialities.
How do I know this? Every time I’ve entered an American Wild when combined with Specialities, a judge (supposedly the ranking judge each time) from the mini-BOS has come up to me after the awards and apologizes for not being able to convince the rest of the mini-BOS judges to place the American Wild over the ‘super-charged’ speciality beer. This has happened 3 separate times at 3 separate competitions. It’s kinda frustrating, but I’ve learned that my precious little Am. Wilds should only be entered in comps that use the '15 Guidelines and that have Am. Wilds split out from Specialities. Easy peasy.
So 29A Fruit Beer is totally separate (29B & 29C are in Speciality?), with approximately 120 entries each of the last two years, and American Wild is shoved into Specialty, with approximately 140 entries in each 2014 and 2015 NHCs.
Interesting how they seem to have basically pulled the styles around to replicate the 2008 guidelines. Considering how lopsided Category 9 was this year, things like that surprise me a bit.
That NHC Cat 26 is going to be huge I would think. I’ll have 5 at home to chose from, probably only send 1 of them.
If my Helles and Dort turn out great I’ll have to choose one there too. Following trends, my guess is Helles Exportbier will rule the day there.
I might have to take the plunge and enter an APA too.
