so I’m brewing as fast as I can for NHC 2013. I see February 26th is shown as the day we can start registering entries. I also know we have to pay shortly after registering.
My concern is that I may be paying for entries before they are ready, and as such before I know if they are any good.
Therefore my question is: After I pay, can I still edit my entries? In other words, if I register/pay for an entry and two weeks later decide it isn’t very good, can I change that entry to a category I’ve got on hand that IS good?
(I assume this was never a problem until recent years when the contest started filling up in record time…)
thanks in advance…this is the first time I’ll enter; looking forward to it.
cheers–
–Michael
That’s great that you are already brewing for the competition!
The online registration opens February 26th at 1 p.m. Mountain Time. After you enter the brews, you must pay for your entries within 24 hours, or the entries will be deleted and you’ll have to input the information again. Once your paid entries are registered, the registration system will allow you to edit your entries until noon (12 Mountain Time) on Friday, March 15, 2013. The registration will still allow you to print your labels until the end of the shipping window which is 5 p.m. Mountain Time on Wednesday, March 27, 2013.
Sorry Janis, I forgot to thank you for your prompt answer to my question.
Next questions: Any updates on if first round entries will still only require one bottle?
And last year there was talk of a possible limit on entries per person - any update on that?
Based on all of the feedback from last year’s competition, there are a number of changes being implemented this year. The AHA will be making the changes known on the front page of our web site, through social media, on the Forum, etc. in the next week or two.
Gary was on The Brewing Network last Sunday and explained the reasons behind some of the changes. The changes seem to have been made for good reasons. I was surprised that a lot of the Canadian qualifiers didn’t send their beers to the 2nd round.
I love the tiebreaker rules for Ninkasi too, with a coin flip at the end ( but very unlikely to ever reach that point ).
In addition to Clint’s summary, here are the rest of the changes for 2013:
Two (2) bottles per entry are required in the First Round.
The tiebreaker rules for the Ninkasi Award have been changed/expanded due to the 15 entries per person rule.
There are 11 Judge Centers in the U.S. this year. These have been registered with the BJCP, but here is the list of cities with First Round competitions: Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Denver, Tulsa (OK), Kansas City (MO), Saint Paul, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Zanesville (OH), and New York City.
We had 53 of 84 Canadian entries submitted (31 not submitted) in 2012 to the Final Round which is ~63%. There were another 22 entries from all of the U.S. competitions (840 entries possible) that were no shows. I know that some of the Canadian no shows were held up at Customs and returned to Canada, and I have to think the extra effort involved with shipping and having to get through Customs can be a deterrent to Canadians entering.
For the Ninkasi tiebreaker we have added 7 levels including the coin flip. I’m fairly certain that we will never end up using the coin flip, but you never know. I’m glad you caught Gary’s interview on the Brewing Network!
I think the coin flip only happens after the steel cage to the death match. If by some chance both entrants come out of the cage alive then it is down to a coin flip.
or maybe step 6 was paper rock scissors and step 5 was the steel cage match.
I think the changes will be positive, except for as a steward, I don’t relish having to deal with double the amount of bottles…imagine trying to find a beer’s mate after a full 2 days of comp…gives me the chills thinking about the logistics.
Because there are a lot of leftover beers from the Final Round, the organizers make sure it is put out following the Awards Ceremony; otherwise they have to haul it back home and figure out what to do with it.
Jeff,
You’re right, there were a lot of leftovers in Seattle because last year the number of competitions went from 10 to 11. With 10 competitions there are 840 possible entries in the Final Round, and for the previous 3 or 4 years, only 760 were actually submitted to the Final Round. With 11 competitions there are 924 possible entries, and last year 871 were actually submitted. That’s an increase of 111 entries, so 333 additional bottles.
Having the scoresheets available was pretty awesome too. I’m sure it is a pretty massive undertaking to get them ready by that time, but think of the postage savings!
The ability to have the score sheets available immediately after the Awards Ceremony is completely dependent on the local organizer having a system with experienced volunteers in place during the competition. As the entries are judged, the scores are entered into the competition database, and the score sheets are given to the collating crew to assemble the packages for the brewers.
There isn’t really any savings on postage, since I mail out a letter with the score sheets to every Final Round entrant. If there are no score sheets, I still mail out the letter. The winning entrants get their score sheets, and a letter, plus a press release for each winning entry, in addition to the medal and prizes if they didn’t collect those at the awards ceremony. It’s still great for the entrants to get their score sheets quickly, rather than having to wait for 2 to 3 weeks for the shipment back to the Brewers Association, the printing, and finally the packaging to happen.
yeah that was great. I feel I learned quite a bit about Cat 7 after trying several of the NHC second round beers that night.
However since the gsandel seems to be talking about the first round, it remains to be seen how the excess beers will be dealt with. We’re talking about a fairly small group of first-round stewards and judges and staff to take several hundred bottles rather than 2000 thirsty homebrewers!
Whatever; since I often am forced to bottle condition due to lack of keg space I’m just happy that I should not have cloudy re-pours for mini-BOS!