NHC 2016 Style Guidelines Announced

Events & Comps
1

Hi all,

Thanks for your patience; the new style guidelines for the 2016 National Homebrew Competition (NHC) have been posted on the NHC Competition Information page http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/competitions/national-homebrew-competition/competition-information/ as a downloadable PDF.

Please read the discussion at the beginning of the BJCP 2015 Style Guidelines as well as the Appendices with suggested rearrangement techniques for the new styles. http://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.php

The AHA looked at the entry data from NHC 2014 and NHC 2015 to analyze the best adaptation of the new styles for the 2016 NHC.  Ultimately the decision was made to use Appendix A, Method 2 for sorting the styles into a modified version of the 2008 Guidelines.

Here are the pertinent changes to the NHC categories.

  • The number of categories has increased from 28 to 31.  Specifically, the categories with the most entries (American Ale, Stout, and IPA) have been split into two categories each to make the entry count across categories a little more even.
  • There are more subcategories in many of the categories (including the Specialty Beer category!) than there have been in the past.  The NHC restriction of one entry per subcategory still applies.
  • The categories requiring special ingredients have changed, so please read the category description for this requirement.
  • There is now a Specialty IPA subcategory; do NOT enter IPAs in the Specialty Beer category, use the Specialty IPA subcategory for these beers.
  • Each subcategory heading also includes a cross reference to the original BJCP 2015 Style Guidelines http://www.bjcp.org/docs/2015_Guidelines_Beer.pdf.  If you have questions, please refer to the original document.

Keep in mind that the entry numbers from two years of NHC entries were used to create the NHC 2016 Style Guidelines.  If the entry numbers in the 2016 NHC show the need to rearrange some styles for the following year, that will be addressed following the conclusion of the 2016 NHC.

Good luck in the competition!

Cheers,
Janis Gross
National Homebrew Competition Director
AHA Project Coordinator

2

Interesting.  We shall see how it plays out.  I do like that strong stouts and American IPA are their own categories now.  Some of the others seem very broad with a huge variety of potential beer flavors in there.  Looking forward to getting some entries in now.