Homebrew Competition filled in 19 minutes

[tmags711]

So, Binny's, a chain of large liquor stores in Chicagoland, hosts a homebrew competition each year. It's sponsored by Sam Adams; submit a brew, get it judged, winner gets flight/hotel/entry to GABF. Awesome

Catch is, it's only open to the first 50 people. And you can't pre-register. And you can only drop off your bottles at one of the locations. And everyone wants in.

SWMBO took my bomber over this morning. It opened at 9:00, she pulled up at 9:25 and it was full! The fifty spots filled up in 19 minutes!

This was my first experience (trying) to enter a homebrew competition. My question is: Is it always like that? I was really hoping to get a critique of my beer. It also seems like there aren't many competitions or judgings around Chicago, which I find disappointing. What have other peoples experiences been?

I see tons of threads of people talking about their beer scores, and I'd love to hear from a non-biased source whether my beer is respectable, and I can't find a competition!

Done ranting. Can anyone share their experiences and recommendations to get some educated opinions?

 

[Wynne-R]

Fifty? Hardly seems worth the trouble. All the ones I can think of are 200+, they want to grow. The Bluebonnet Brew Off (DFW) imposed a limit this year for the first time ever, 4500 entries. There were entries from all fifty states and a few foreign countries.

Perhaps you could ship your beer to a competition.
http://www.bjcp.org/apps/comp_schedule/competition_schedule.php

Don’t ship USPS, it’s illegal. Fedex and UPS will take it if they don’t know what’s in it. Package it really well and if anybody asks, it’s ‘yeast products’.

Also, check with local homebrew clubs. Sometimes they have members only competitions. At the very least you could get tasting notes from a fellow member.

 

[Braufessor]

There are tons of competitions around the midwest/chicago area. To be honest, entering the competition you were trying to enter "for first-time feedback" was probably a poor choice - a competition like that really has nothing to do with "feedback" - it is about winning. All competitions are not like that. In fact, NO competitions are like that, really. Generally, limits are in the 300-700 range. Of course, prizes are usually medals, gift cards of $25-$50 and swag from breweries like t-shirts, etc. The link above is a good link for comps. lots of comps in the fall and January-March in the midwest.