NHC 2010, are you entering?

[JayInJersey]

I used HomeBrewTalk.com as my local brewing club on my application

 

[Bobby_M]

.........................................

Nice work! Are you physically going to Minneapolis or are you going to live vicariously through your entry?

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I ended up winning category 16 in the east region with my Grapes of Wrath clone (thanks Brewtopia!). 41.5 average, 47 entries.

 

[AnOldUR]

Nice work! Are you physically going to Minneapolis or are you going to live vicariously through your entry?

It would be fun to chaperone my beer, but you have to let them fly on their own at some point. Will you or anyone else from NJ be there to look after them. They always behave better when I tell them I have friends who will report back to me keeping an eye on them.

 

[Sedge]

WOOOOOHOOOO! First place for 10b and 3rd place for 21c!

My second competition. Feeling pretty good, not going to get any work done the rest of the day.

I'm from NJ but I don't think I can afford to get out to MN either. So sad.

Also my beers that placed were quite hoppy and I just moved. So a rebrew will be tricky with different water. I hope the bottles I saved are good enough to send.

 

[babalu87]

Those are suggestions, not requirements.

There are a lot of BN people in the Bay area who do have local personal interaction. They just got dozens of good out of towners to brew for them unlike QUAFF and St. Paul which got a smaller number of great brewers from out of town to brew for them.

They do have outings, the BNA each year.

Unless we require that a club be completely local or you have to live within 100 miles of the address the club is registered under or whatever, I don't see how this is fundamentally different than the status quo except that the BN has more out of town participants than other clubs.

So this is all about winning club of the year?

 

[passedpawn]

Any club is better than no club. IMO a local one is better because of the interaction and sampling. But if I didn't have a local club, I would dang sure put HBT on there... I've learned 95% of what I know here.

If the BN (or HBT) won club of the year it would deserve it. Really.

 

[remilard]

So this is all about winning club of the year?

No, I doubt until this year very many people thought the BN could actually win club of the year. Note that the brewcasters who are great competition brewers all still brew for their local clubs (other than Jamil who always brewed for QUAFF). I was at a comp recently where a guy said he entered as a member of the BN because he learned more from them than any other source. I think a lot of people feel that way and want to identify with them. Obviously several people feel that way about this site as well.

I have zero evidence that the BN has actively recruited "mercenaries" like some traditional clubs have (St. Paul being probably the most prolific). People who brew for BN came to the BN for reasons other than helping them to win competitions, probably the programming in nearly every case. If your club produced hours of (what I consider to be) quality programming about beer every week, you would have more members too.

Personally I have nothing against this. People should be able to identify with whichever club they want and if clubs want to try to win club of the year they have to increase participation by brewers good enough to medal in the NHC. Why turn down anyone?

Any time somebody or a group wins something, someone is always looking for a reason that they shouldn't have been allowed to win. Jamil/Gordon enter too many beers blah blah blah. No matter who wins Ninkasi and who wins club of the year, people will complain.

No club is solely or even primarily interested in winning club of the year, and not the BN by a longshot. Most of these clubs (BN included) have a hundred or more members with a small handful who seriously compete.

 

[Zen_Brew]

Hmm

I don't remember being told I advanced on my scoresheets and I can't check as I got hard copies in the mail and I'm on a mini vacation in San Diego, but apparently I took first in Cat 16 in the Northwest with my Belgian IPA. Schweet!

Category 16 Belgian and French Ale - Sponsored by Port Brewing Co/The Lost Abbey
Max Score: 39.5
Min Score: 19.5
Avg Score: 30.1
# of Entries: 41
1 16e Brian Searfass of Kenmore, WA, Greater Everett Brewers
2 16c Mike Hahn of Salt Lake, UT, Zion Zymurgist Homebrew OPerative Society (ZZ HOPS)
3 16e Adam Paysse of Seattle, WA

 

[Sedge]

I won under The Brewing Network banner for the aforementioned reason. The most drastic and effective changes in my process and the bulk of my knowledge has come from TBN, with HBtalk as a close second. My job has me driving a lot and staying all over the place and I can never get to local meetings.

For the forseeable future I'm now back in Princeton during the week, so I might try and get out to a WHALES meeting if I can get there on time.

Everyone else is posting their info so I'll post mine:

Category 10 American Ale - Sponsored by BJ's Restaurant & Brewery
Max Score: 43
Min Score: 18.5
Avg Score: 28.4
# of Entries: 76
1 10b Shilpi Halemane of Princeton, NJ, The Brewing Network

Jamil's Evil Twin all-grain. Was a x-mas gift from the girlfriend. I was really pleased with it, and amazed it did so well against so many entries.


Category 21 Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer - Sponsored by High Gravity Homebrewing & Winemaking Supplies
Max Score: 42.5
Min Score: 18
Avg Score: 30.4
# of Entries: 33

3 21a Shilpi Halemane of Princeton, NJ, The Brewing Network

This is my Ginger Bread Brown Ale. Base beer is similar to Janet's Brown Ale with some different hop additions early on, then spiked with ginger .

 

[Bobby_M]

I don't get all the arguing. Your brewing club is who you identify with the most and/or who you give most of your brewing knowledge the credit for (or you can base it off of whatever criteria you like). I suppose you can petition the AHA governing committee to start shutting the door to virtual clubs but I don't think you'll get anywhere with that because it's counter to the mission of the HBA. I am a member of the HBT "club" but I'm a freakin officer in my local club and it likely wouldn't be cool to put HBT over the local club.

What real world tragedy would occur if club of the year was TBN, HBT, then an actual brick and mortar club?

 

[JayInJersey]

What real world tragedy would occur if club of the year was TBN, HBT, then an actual brick and mortar club?

Yes there would be a tragedy...HBT should be first!

 

[dreadnatty08]

Scored a 41 for my Sour Belgian Stout but didn't move on in the East Region. I little bummed, but glad with the score overall. Must have been a bang up of a category.

 

[saq]

Took first place in NHC SW Cat18 with https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/devout-golden-quad-155759/, advancing on to the finals.

 

[Doog_Si_Reeb]

Looks like I'm moving on from the Southwest region. I took 3rd in category 23 with my hopless Yule Gruit Ale. Of all the beers I entered, I honestly thought that would do the worst.

I haven't received my feedback yet, but I'm looking forward to the judges' comments for the others that I entered.

Oh yeah, and no offense to the HBT'ers, but I put Dukes of Ale as my club.

 

[maskednegator]

Just got my scores back on my 16E Belgian souced xmas strong saison. 22/50, dinged for significant esters and some peppery phenols and a lingering bitterness in my SAISON, a fruity, peppery style with a lingering bitterness (per the bjcp guidelines)! Not happy about my judges at all.
One suggested I watch my fermentation temps to correct my ester and phenol problems, and the other noted "bitter esters" in the aroma and dinged me for high carbonation.

 

[carnevoodoo]

Ugh, I didn't get my scores back today, but lots of people did. Sucks.

 

[carnevoodoo]

Just got my scores back on my 16E Belgian souced xmas strong saison. 22/50, dinged for significant esters and some peppery phenols and a lingering bitterness in my SAISON, a fruity, peppery style with a lingering bitterness (per the bjcp guidelines)! Not happy about my judges at all.
One suggested I watch my fermentation temps to correct my ester and phenol problems, and the other noted "bitter esters" in the aroma and dinged me for high carbonation.

I'd email the judges and see if they can ease your concerns with what they said. I mean, the judges are typically very well versed in styles and there might have been something that was beyond the style.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Per the R&R:

Final Round entries must be received at the appropriate site between Monday, May 24, and 5 p.m. on Monday, June 7, 2010. If your entry advances to the Final Round, additional instructions will be mailed to you by the third week of May.

What should we expect in this mailing? Labels and the address to ship to? I didn't print extra labels.

I thought I was gonna be a bottle short but found two more bottles so I have exactly 4 bottles of my ESB left. 3 for the final round and one to drink as I read the scoresheet.

 

[remilard]

Brewing Network is in first place going into the final round...

DOZE is the top single region club.

 

[Yooper]

How? They registered with the AHA

Where? On the internet

Do they hold club competitions? No, but lots of local clubs don't either.

Nobody complained (at least not loudly) for ten years when Jamil Z brewed for QUAFF and when Gordon Strong brewed for St. Paul. If we are okay with effectively national clubs that have a local base, why are we not okay with a national club with no local base?

.........................................

I ended up winning category 16 in the east region with my Grapes of Wrath clone (thanks Brewtopia!). 41.5 average, 47 entries.

Good job OB! That's a great beer to clone, and I'm happy yours did well!

Anoldur- congrats to you too! Great news.

I don't understand the arguing about homebrew clubs. I live in the middle of nowhere, but I am an ok brewer. When I entered the national comp (not this year), I use homebrewtalk.com as my club. Should I not have a club identity because I don't happen to live within 100 miles of a "real" brew club? I've learned more from HBT than anyplace, and I still learn everyday. I've met new friends, some of whom became my friends in real life after meeting here. If your identity is with another club, that's fine. But please don't bash those of us who choose THIS club.

 

[AnOldUR]

Anoldur- congrats to you too! Great news.

Thanks. Also sent the latest version of my oaked beer from the HBT competition. Didn't fare so well this time when up against beers like Bobbby_M's 2 year old Bourbon Oak Aged English Barleywine.

For anyone following this thead. I did a compilation of the HBT winners here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f20/nhc-2010-results-175864/

 

[Sedge]

Any NJ or Northeast people get scoresheets yet?

 

[osagedr]

Don't have my scoresheets for my four entries yet but got the scores emailed. Highest was 37 for my Schwarz. No medals. It was my first NHC; I'll be better next year!

 

[AnOldUR]

Don't have my scoresheets for my four entries yet but got the scores emailed. Highest was 37 for my Schwarz. No medals. It was my first NHC; I'll be better next year!

Are you Northeast? No emails here.

 

[osagedr]

Are you Northeast? No emails here.

No, I'm not in the NE and emailed the competition organizers asking for scores to help me decide what to enter in a local competition where we are limited in the number of entries we can put in. They took pity on me and sent me my scores along with notification the sheets would be sent this week.

Is 37 a decent score?

 

[passedpawn]

No, I'm not in the NE and emailed the competition organizers asking for scores to help me decide what to enter in a local competition where we are limited in the number of entries we can put in. They took pity on me and sent me my scores along with notification the sheets would be sent this week.

Is 37 a decent score?

37 is an excellent beer. 40's usually win, though. However, that 37 might be a 40 in another comp. I'd definitely submit it.

 

[Bobby_M]

My 1st place barleywine at this year's NHC scored a 39.5 last year and didn't even place.

 

[JayInJersey]

Any NJ or Northeast people get scoresheets yet?

Nope still haven't seen mine yet either....so until I do I'm claiming 4th place in the Irish and Scots category.

 

[remilard]

At a lot of competitions in a lot of categories, 37 would place.

It probably won't place in stout, IPA, american ale, belgian strong, strong ale and other competitive categories.

You never know that and even with uniformly good judging a 37 one week could be a 32 or a 42 the next.