Need free beer? Start a competition!

[Warnski]

I entered my first comp. last summer (Alabama Brew Off) and had pretty much the opposite impression from the OP. Five bucks per entry, $1000 award for BOS, very nice medals, and a free pint of craft beer at the pub where they had the award presentation. They ended up with a little less than 250 entries, which comes to less than $1250, so I don't think they could have done it without some sponsors. I was well aware of certain minor flaws, even in my winning entries, and the judges picked up on them quite accurately. For example, my Maibock was a little "boozy" and "overly bittered" yet won gold in a field of 11 bocks, so there were probably some pretty lousy bocks to taste in there. I won 3rd in a field of 21 American Ales with a beer I thought was pretty mediocre, but I had some around at the time, so I thought "what the heck? I'll submit it." I really didn't get the impression the judges were sitting back basking in deliciousness all day.

I really enjoyed meeting many of the judges and other entrants at the awards banquet and certainly got the impression the judges were generally very competent folks who love the hobby enough to put in a rather hard day of work carefully judging beers. I live far from the big city and don't have a local homebrew club, so I thought it was a nice experience just to meet other homebrewers and be involved in the event.

Now this is more along the lines of a brew competition that I could get on board with! I will keep my eye out for this kind of setup, thanks!

 

[Spartan1979]

Let's see, I spend approximately 7 hours at a competition on a Saturday. I "get" to taste 3 ounces or so of approximately 16 different beers or about 4 12 oz bottles worth. If I'm lucky, 1 of those 16 beers will score 40 or more. A couple will be good, a few more decent, a couple more drinkable at best and there's alway at least one that would cause me to stop homebrewing if I had made it. It's a great deal. Oh, yeah there's a sandwich from Wal-mart as a free lunch.

Remind me again, why I'm doing this.

BTW, I'm a BJCP National Judge.

 

[Spartan1979]

So here is what I still don't understand about comps. The judges/stewards/organizers are all volunteers, in most cases you "win" a cheap medal or ribbon...best case is some sort of donated homebrewing related prize, and my scoresheets are scanned and emailed to me. So why does it cost between 7-10 dollars per entry for most BJCP comps? A larger comp could easily take in 5K in entry fees alone. Does it really cost 5K to store bottles for a few weeks, rent some sort of judging room, supplies, and feed the judges some sort of lunch(maybe), and then mail out scoresheets(all done with volunteers). I only enter a few comps a year but I have never understood where my entry fee goes. I have never entered a comp that says something along the lines of " A fundraiser for XYZ Homebrew Club".

I run our club's competition. We get around 325 entries. Out of the entry fee, we pay for breakfast and lunch for the judges, stewards and staff. We have done dinner in the past. We have to buy medals and then mail them out to the people who are from out of town. We have to have scoresheets, etc, printed, buy cups for tasting, pay BJCP a small fee, rent chairs.

We probably clear around $1000. It's our biggest fundraiser of the year, besides dues. Just my time is close to 80 hours. With everybody's time, we probably average a $2 a hour profit. It's probably not worth it.

 

[Phunhog]

I run our club's competition. We get around 325 entries. Out of the entry fee, we pay for breakfast and lunch for the judges, stewards and staff. We have done dinner the past. We have to buy medals and then mail them out to the people who are from out of town. We have to have scoresheets, etc, printed, buy cups for tasting, pay BJCP a small fee, rent chairs.

We probably clear around $1000. It's our biggest fundraiser of the year, besides dues. Just my time is close to 80 hours. With everybody's time, we probably average a $2 a hour profit. It probably not worth it.

I am glad to hear your club is making some money (hard earned!) out of the deal. Up until this thread I had no idea that a comp had to pay the BJCP a fee. How much is it? Is it based on the number of entrants or is it a flat fee? Also since you are a National judge I assume you have been judging for a number of years. Is the quality of beers you are judging getting better? It would seem that with all the knowledge out there plus advanced homebrewing equipment the quality of beers would be very high. I for one won't even bother to enter a beer in a comp unless I think it could score at least in the high 30's and win.

 

[Spartan1979]

I am glad to hear your club is making some money (hard earned!) out of the deal. Up until this thread I had no idea that a comp had to pay the BJCP a fee. How much is it? Is it based on the number of entrants or is it a flat fee? Also since you are a National judge I assume you have been judging for a number of years. Is the quality of beers you are judging getting better? It would seem that with all the knowledge out there plus advanced homebrewing equipment the quality of beers would be very high. I for one won't even bother to enter a beer in a comp unless I think it could score at least in the high 30's and win.

As I said, it's a small fee, I think $30. You pay it up front, so it doesn't matter how many entries you get. It's just one of the many small things you need for a comp that add up.

Are the beers getting better? Maybe. There are probably less bad beers than there use to be, but not any more outstanding beers. The middle range, beers scoring 30-35 has expanded. But that may also be a function of the size of the competitions getting bigger.

Interestingly, probably the worst beer I ever judged was at the NHC Finals this year. It had a butyric acid infection. It literally smelled like diapers and tasted like puke. It's the first time I ran across that.