Introducing BrewScene.com!

[boxster20]

Hi fellow homebrewers!

My name is Ed. I started entering homebrew competitions a few years ago. Through the process of entering beers into a number of competitions, I realized, from an entrant’s perspective, homebrew competitions are disconnected and it is impossible to see a complete view of a beer and its scores/awards across all competitions, as well as, the homebrewer entering them. If you’ve experienced entering beers in competitions online, you’ve seen how the registration, management, and publishing of scores and awards for the competition are hosted on each competition’s website. I created BrewScene.com in an effort to give organizers an option to centrally manage their competitions and to give homebrewers a single place to enter and track the scores of their beers across any competition in the US (International planned in future release). And it’s free!

As a homebrewer, you get the following:

• Single view of all of your beers and the scores and awards they receive.
• Ability to create beers in advance of competition registration open date so registration is as simple as selecting your beer(s) from your beer list.
• Access to the Top Beers, Homebrewers, and Homebrew Clubs using actual competition data collected on the site.
• Social network to connect with your homebrewing friends - see and comment on the beers they create, the competitions they enter, and the awards they win.
• Ability to enter scores and awards received from historical competitions and competitions not hosted on brewscene.com.

As a competition organizer, you get the following:

• Create a new competition in minutes with no software to install or website to manage.
• Instant visibility of your competition to homebrewers, judges, and stewards in a single location.
• Site-wide messages to BrewScene.com users when competitions are created and scores/awards are published.
• Competition management functionality including:
• - Entry and Judge/Steward Registration
• - PayPal Payments
• - Round, Category, Flight, Scores, and Awards Management
• - Mailing labels, Award labels, Pull Sheets, and Sign In Sheets

The site was just recently launched so I encourage you to check it out and provide your feedback. Immediately, you can enter scores and awards you’ve won in previous competitions to start building out the Top Beers, Homebrewers, and Homebrew Clubs ranking. I know there are a ton of you out there that can top the three beers I have in the Top Beer ranking!

If you see the value in the site and the ultimate vision, I need your help to make it successful. I’m looking for competition organizers who are interested in using the site for an upcoming competition. If you are a competition organizer, reach out to me (here or in a PM) and I can provide a full overview of the competition management functionality and get you started. Early adopters will have a good chance to have their enhancements/suggestions implemented. If you are not an organizer, but enter competitions, reach out to your competition organizers to request they check it out.

Thanks for taking the time to check it out. Feedback is more than welcome!
Cheers!
Ed
http://brewscene.com

 

[IslandLizard]

Great idea!

 

[passedpawn]

That's pretty sweet. I like it a lot.

 

[passedpawn]

What I'd like to do is register on your site, then get emails when competitions (all, or by state) are coming up. Maybe within 30 days send me a note. That would be a great service for me.

 

[boxster20]

Absolutely! It's a great idea and is definitely on the to-do list. I'd like to send reminders x number of weeks in advance of the competition date to remind homebrewers they need to start brewing if they want to be able to enter a beer. I'd also like to send reminders the week of or day before when registration opens. Finally, provide the ability for the organizers to send out requests for judges and stewards if they are understaffed leading up to the competition date.

Sound like what you were looking to receive? A more advanced version would be to allow you to selected the brew by deadline in order to be ready to enter into an upcoming competition and send the reminder by the date you specified since there is variability by the type of beer being brewed for how much time you need before the competition.

 

[stamandster]

Looks really good! I'm looking forward to testing it out

 

[CA_Mouse]

As for Judges/Stewards, you could have an area that is access-only for them and for organizers. This would allow judges/stewards to look for upcoming events they would like to work at and it would give the organizers a repository for contacting local judges/stewards to fill any positions that they need.

 

[boxster20]

Thanks for the suggestion CA_Mouse. I also will be adding functionality for organizers to contact the judges/stewards who volunteered from the previous year's competition to remind them about the current year's competition and request their services again. Additionally, plan to add functionality for organizers to copy their previous year's competition so they have less set up to do.

 

[boxster20]

Since the competition management aspects of the site are not available unless you create a competition, I created a video to quickly demonstrate the competition management functionality. Let me know your thoughts.

http://brewscene.com/manage-competition-functionality-overview/

Thanks!