Welsh National Homebrew Competition 2017

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Toffee

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Entries are now open, and its filling up quickly.

https://homebrewcompetition.wales/

This was a great event last year, with good prizes and feedback was posted to entrants the very next day.

The venue this year is the new Tiny Rebel brewery tap room in Newport, which should be an ace day out as well!

Get involved, I was a steward last year and had a fun day and learned a lot from the judges. :thumb:


You don't have to be Welsh to take part.
 
Agree it's rubbish.

I register and the. Realised it's £15 to enter two enteries. Hmmm no thank you.
It's run by a few volunteers, and entry fees are just to cover costs. No profit.

But fair enough if you don't think it's worth a round of drinks to be in with a chance of some great prizes, and get feedback on your beers from bjcp judges. I got some valuable feedback last year and believe I am now making better beer because of that.
 
I've added two entries. May be being simple bit I can't find where to pay or what they want info wise with each bottle?
 
It's run by a few volunteers, and entry fees are just to cover costs. No profit.

But fair enough if you don't think it's worth a round of drinks to be in with a chance of some great prizes, and get feedback on your beers from bjcp judges. I got some valuable feedback last year and believe I am now making better beer because of that.

Couldn't see anything about prizes.

Also £3000 if everyone enters two bottles. Not really sure what overheads are with all those sponsors.
 
I've added two entries. May be being simple bit I can't find where to pay or what they want info wise with each bottle?
You just go to your entries, and then there is a link to pay, if I recall.

Leon - I don't think the sponsors actually pay towards it, maybe just send a few prizes or give discount on them. I don't know, but it's a fair question. I'll ask the treasurer and maybe if this is a question people had, add to a faq. But last year there was a starter keg kit as main prize, with other prizes of stainless paddles, chillers, etc. I can't remember now what else

I believe the costs incurred would include venue hire, food for judges and stewards, appropriate judging glassware and so on. I think the website is more or less "off the shelf" beer competition one. Uk national is more or less the same.

I know the organisers personally, so questions like this are good, as they can improve on comms for next time.
 
And if I am dropping it off to Tiny Rebel personally (any excuse to go to Wales and/or TR) how do they get labelled?

It says if sending by courier to put a label with the beer name in a sandwich bag and stick to it.

Is this the same for hand delivered? Do they not need to know abv, grain bill etc?
 
And if I am dropping it off to Tiny Rebel personally (any excuse to go to Wales and/or TR) how do they get labelled?

It says if sending by courier to put a label with the beer name in a sandwich bag and stick to it.

Is this the same for hand delivered? Do they not need to know abv, grain bill etc?

Did you manage to find the label template? It eluded me.
 
OK - how to label your bottles.

Log in. go to "my account" at the bottom next to your entries there will be:

"edit entry"
and "print entry form"

it will then allow you to print off labels that you attach to your bottles with a rubber band

if dropping off at a dropoff point, then its more or less the same as shipping. last year I put them in a box, packed em well, with the label attached with a rubber band and the bottles in a ziplock bag each

with regard to knowing details ABV etc,. i am not sure if that is required. looks like there is space for that on the label /submission form, but last year the only thing you HAD to submit was the info on the bottle label, with the exception of those styles that say you need to give more info.

for example - if you are submitting a Raspberry US IPA. That would be Fruit Beer 29A. It says next to that style:

"The entrant MUST specify a base style; the declared style does not have to be a Classic Style. The entrant MUST specify the type of fruit used. Soured fruit beers that aren't lambics should be entered in the American Wild Ale category."

So on the info for the label, I would write "base style 21A - American IPA. Fruit used: Raspberries"

If it needs extra info other than category, it will warn you:

â™  = Specific type, special ingredients, classic style, strength (for beer styles), and/or color are required.
♦ = Strength required
♣ = Carbonation level required
♥ = Sweetness level required

Most styles don't need it.

Oh and you can edit the style before you ship or drop off. so you don't need to decide what to enter now. Just grab a couple of spaces and decide based on what is tasting best at the time!

Beers will be judged by the 2015 BCJP style guidelines. If you want to do well at the competition - read the guidelines well and judge your own beer against them: http://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.php

if it expects high carbonation in a style, and yours is low, you will lose some points.

Oh and submit the beer you can taste/smell - not the one you made..... e.g. If you used *some* vanilla in a stout, you don't HAVE to enter it under Spiced Beer. If you do, the judges will expect to smell and taste the vanilla. If they can't, you will lose points. But if you enter under another Stout category, the vanilla might just add some extra to the beer. Or you tried to make a US IPA but it fell short a bit on ABV, so maybe its an APA now. You get the idea. Outside of the categories that need extra info (Raspberry IPA example) the judges will have NOTHING else to go on apart from the category entered and the beer in front of them.

If anyone has any questions about the judging process, just ask.
 
Oh and here is a blog post by one of the organizers about Stewarding, if anyone was localish and fancied it

https://ukcbn.co.uk/what-does-a-bjcp-competition-steward-actually-do/

Like I said, i did this last year and learned a TON from tasting beers along side the BJCP judges (Greg Hughes was one of them, for instance), so much so I am on the path to BCJP certification myself.

For anyone who has not seen a scoresheet, here is one of mine from last year:



I used the feedback to further hone my process - paying more attention to fermentation temps, yeast health and proper oxygenation of my wort, to avoid some of the off flavours that these judges picked up, which I was not able to when I entered them. I didn't win anything, but learned a lot.
 
Not really sure what overheads are with all those sponsors.

OK I posed this question to the treasurer and got this answer. Hopefully this answers your question!

it was posted to the event facebook group here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/WelshNationalHomebrewCompetition/

which those entering might want to join.

the text, for those not on facebook is:
"Where do my competition entry fees go?
A perfectly good question, to which I hope this provides a perfectly good answer.

Firstly, the Welsh National Homebrew Competition I run entirely by unpaid volunteers - that includes judges, stewards and organisers. Incidental expenses such as travel to and from the judging venue, or to pick up entries, are met out of people's own pockets.

The only material benefit anyone gets is lunch on judging day. This is usually the biggest single expense; feeding up to 40 people at £8-£10 per head. The second biggest single cost for most competitions is venue hire, typically around £200, but we're lucky because Tiny Rebel Brewery is again providing a venue for free. If they hadn't done that last year, we would have accrued a three figure loss which Sarah and I would have had to meet out of our own pockets. Insurance is another cost for many competitions, but again we're lucky because we are covered by Tiny Rebel's policy.

Prizes are mostly donated by our generous sponsors (thank you everyone!), but we have to buy medals and trophies. Depending on how the figures look we might upgrade these this year.

Other costs include decent glasses for tasting beer (and plenty of them), printing costs for judging sheets, flight sheets, labels for anonymising entries and other paper- based admin on the day. Last year we also got bottle openers and clipboards, as well as pencils and slop buckets. These sound intensely trivial, but they are either essential or make life easier for the judges.

We also have to supply palate cleansers for judges, such as water and plain crackers.

Last year we made a surplus of £30, which was quite unexpected and I still need to buy a round of drinks with it for all the REBEL HBC members who helped out on the day. It's likely we'll have a larger surplus this year, in which case we'll work out the best way to use it - we're hoping to hire a refrigerated unit so that beer can be judged at a consistent, correct, temperature. At time of writing that would make us the only UK competition to do so."
 
Entered, I'll be entering a Strong Bitter and a Saison. Not sure if I'll be there or not yet. Although it's not that far for me to be honest!
 
Good update. I hope to be there. Should be a good day. Will only be able to.confirm in a week or so though.
 
weekday bump for this. currently 128 places taken of the 200. also: "everyone who wins a category in the Welsh this year will get a guaranteed entry into the sold out UK Nationals. So a Welsh gold medal is your golden ticket to a UK National entry"
 
Not sure, but you can mail Sarah to cancel your entries. Or I believe paid entries will take priority over unpaid.
 
entries have been increased to 4 max per person if anyone wanted a couple more.
 
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