My email from the AHA-NHC states 18,000 bottles have been registered. That has to be a record.
Updates: Judging, Medals & Awards Ceremony We have successfully sorted, checked in, and inventoried all received entries (approximately 18,000 bottles) in preparation for judging the world’s largest amateur beer competition June 21 through June 23.
Has the AHA-NHC abandoned the standard rules for numerical scores on beers? Such as 0 to 50?
They have said that no actual scores will be provided to the entrants. Why not? A number score is really the best way to see where a beer falls within the style guidelines.
And what is with the score sheets not available until mid July? Nearly a month after the judging? Can they not be posted online, or simply emailed to the participants?
Comment Sheets
Each entry will be judged by two judges and receive at least two comment sheets per entry for beer, mead, or cider. Comment sheets will be collected, compiled and scanned to digital format, then emailed to competing brewers in the weeks following judging. You can expect to receive your comment sheets by mid-July.
And therein lies the main problem. The logistics of shipping everything to Boulder, then packing and shipping to Pennsylvania, then re-packing and shipping back to Boulder, would be enough to drive a normal person to insanity.
They should have the entire event in Colorado. How do they stage the GABF? Is it not all handled in Colorado?
Perhaps the AHA would be better off returning to a series of regional competitions.
Yeah last year there were no scores on scoresheets, just a star rating system and how many rounds out of 3 your beer advanced. However, some first round judges did put a score on sheets off to the side. I have seen mixed comments this year that there will be first round scores after all of the complaints last year, but then some say no.
As for the delay in getting scoresheets out, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact the week after NHC is July 4th week, so AHA staff is probably mostly out of office and then it’s just a matter of verifying and updating 3000-5000 sheets. I mean there are plenty of smaller comps that don’t post scoresheets online that take weeks to send them out by mail, so a large comp like this, I don’t think that’s that unreasonable. It definitely takes time with scanning and uploading all those sheets. I mean think about it, let’s say there are 4,000 entries and each entry has 2 judge sheets, that’s 8,000 sheets to scan and upload.
There was less than 1200 brewers entered in the AHA-NHC competition. This is on par with the Bluebonnet Competition 2022. The scoresheets were available within 24 hours of the Bluebonnet awards ceremony.
It was category 3 “Pilsner”. From my understanding it’s both German and Czech pils. I had two in that category and the beers were some of the best I ever made, but I got skunked.
The NHC is hands down the toughest home brew comp. In smaller comps a lot of novice brewers enter and it swells the overall number of beers and brewers in the competition. At the NHC you get some of the most experienced and competitive brewers from all across the US. This comp is a bitch.
I had three entries, Munich Helles, German Pilsner, and a Festbier. Of the 3, I honestly thought the Helles would do well. It might be my best beer. 3 up, and 3 down…that’s what they call a strikeout!