slow time of year for competitions

I finally work up the courage to enter one competition, and then a few more, and now there is not even a whisper of a local competition for months! At least not on the AHA website. Are there other places to look for competitions? I actually did pretty well in the first few and want to continue to get some good feedback.

If not, sadness.

How do you decide which out of state competitions to enter? Shipping price?

 

Brew clubs often have competitions. Mine has one just about every time we meet.

 

If I am going to ship out of state I look for well established comps and make sure i have at least 2 beers to enter. I don't see the point in shipping a beer to a competition that may only have a few entries or be poorly ran. I also feel like if I am going to ship beers the cost to add a second beer is not too bad.

 

I think the BJCP site usually lists more because so many competitions are BJCP sanctioned. http://www.bjcp.org/apps/comp_schedule/competition_schedule.php

 

This may be stupid, but how do you figure out what is a well established competition? I see the upper Mississippi mash out, but other than that I am having a hard time deciphering what is like a big one. Or at least one that is worth the shipping costs

 

I try an see how many years it has been going on and things like GABF pro-am and sponsors. While there is nothing wrong with supporting a new comp I would not usually ship to one. You can also try brewscene.com for a list of up coming ones.