The 2016 NHC - Results/Speculation Thread

[bob1852]

A simple speaker in the center would have done worlds of good. The sound system was the worst I've seen.

The BN webcast was great....

I wonder if they do their sound checks / adjustments when that giant banquet room is empty, and then when it fills up the audio gets bad...of the 3 I've been to, it's never been good...

 

[TobyG]

Congrats to all of you on this thread who placed!

The awards dinner was pretty disappointing though. Adults throwing food at each other and paper airplanes out of the menus. Not what I expected

Glad we weren't wherever you were. We were just sharing beers. The food was pretty meh, though.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Glad we weren't wherever you were. We were just sharing beers. The food was pretty meh, though.

It was just people throwing popcorn, that's all. I don't know for sure who started it but we were in the middle of it. Just harmless fun. Someone would throw a piece of popcorn at someone else and then they would return fire.

 

[TobyG]

It was just people throwing popcorn, that's all. I don't know for sure who started it but we were in the middle of it. Just harmless fun. Someone would throw a piece of popcorn at someone else and then they would return fire.

I had visions of underseasoned pork loins and overdone collard greens being flung around.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I had visions of underseasoned pork loins and overdone collard greens being flung around.

Not that I was aware of, unless people elsewhere were throwing it.

 

[mxstar21]

Pretty happy with my scores. I got a 37 on my coffee stout which took second in the first round and a 38 on Belgian golden strong which was admin advanced because they lost my first round entry. Still haven't won a medal in the final round, but I have placed in the first round ever since I started entering in 2014. Time to start planning for next year.

 

[bembel]

Anyone know how many entries would typically make the mini-bos in finals out of the 36 that start?

 

[ba-brewer]

Congratulation to the winner here.

I only had one beer to make it to the final, a dortmunder. I rebrewed but could tell there was something not quite right about but sent it anyway. Well it only got a 30. I had bottled enough of the beer from the first round to send in to the final but I decided to send the freshest. Live and learn I guess.

 

[brewshki]

finally was able to get in. i dont know what happened, but it is nice to close the book on this year. My sweet stout pulled a 32 and no mini BOS showing. for my first NHC, I am very happy, but the competitor in me is pissed and is itching to brew and perfect some recipes. i think ill finally have to brave joining a home brew club to get some feedback as it looks as though I have missed the local competitions until February (unless they are slow to updating the AHA site). any other suggestions for getting some good feedback to improve other than competitions?

 

[Qhrumphf]

Anyone know how many entries would typically make the mini-bos in finals out of the 36 that start?

Figure 5-6 judge pairs, 2-3 sent to mini-bos per pair, I'd say 10-15 entries.

 

[TobyG]

Anyone know how many entries would typically make the mini-bos in finals out of the 36 that start?

Depends on the category. For example, we struggled with whether we should even send one out of our flight of 7 in the morning (DIPAs and Specialty IPAs). Typically, each pair is going to send 1 or 2. We sent 2 amber Euro lagers because we had 2 40s. I also heard that there were a bunch of great American ales and they might have even advanced 3 in some judge pairs.

 

[SMPress]

Got in finally, looks like I scored a 42, but not good enough to medal...

 

[Spartan1979]

Where is everyone seeing their final round score? All I see is my first round scores.

 

[barrooze]

Where is everyone seeing their final round score? All I see is my first round scores.

You've got to log into the Final site. They've made it quite difficult to get from the first round site to the final site...

https://brewingcompetition.com/FINAL/

 

[Spartan1979]

You've got to log into the Final site. Not sure why it's so difficult to get from one to the other...

https://brewingcompetition.com/FINAL/

Thanks. My score was disappointing.

 

[mbbransc]

Got in finally, looks like I scored a 42, but not good enough to medal...

Wow! Really speaks to the level of competition.

 

[roxbob]

41 and Mini BOS for my light american lager, can't be unhappy with that, but oh so close! Probably didn't help that the same style won the gold (and he was the Ninkasi winner, to boot).

 

[mbbransc]

41 and Mini BOS for my light american lager, can't be unhappy with that, but oh so close! Probably didn't help that the same style won the gold (and he was the Ninkasi winner, to boot).

He lives near me, too! I shot him a FB message today to see if I can get together with him to pick his brain!

 

[fusa]

Scored 42 in the first round for my bochet, then got a 22 for the final. Hoping to get the score sheets soon to see what happened. It was the same batch as the first round so have no idea what happened to score that low.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Scored 42 in the first round for my bochet, then got a 22 for the final. Hoping to get the score sheets soon to see what happened. It was the same batch as the first round so have no idea what happened to score that low.

Well your spread was worse than mine at least.

Judging is ultimately subjective. It's gonna happen.

 

[mwilcox]

Scored 42 in the first round for my bochet, then got a 22 for the final. Hoping to get the score sheets soon to see what happened. It was the same batch as the first round so have no idea what happened to score that low.

I was head judge on that flight but didn't get to judge any bochet, sorry.

There was at least one other in that flight I believe should have gotten a medal based on my tasting it later, but I can't do anything if I didn't judge it and it didn't get sent to mini-BOS.

I've suggested a bit more focus on judge quality and not so much on short flights/getting done as fast as possible for next year. The person I was judging with was doing mead for the first time. While I'm very, very glad more people were learning about mead, I don't think the Finals are the place to learn.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I was head judge on that flight but didn't get to judge any bochet, sorry.

There was at least one other in that flight I believe should have gotten a medal based on my tasting it later, but I can't do anything if I didn't judge it and it didn't get sent to mini-BOS.

I've suggested a bit more focus on judge quality and not so much on short flights/getting done as fast as possible for next year. The person I was judging with was doing mead for the first time. While I'm very, very glad more people were learning about mead, I don't think the Finals are the place to learn.

I agree with everything about this. And I'd say that applies to all comps, not just NHC. As much as I love short flights as a judge, I'd rather see larger flights if the higher ranked judges aren't spread as thin. Would rather a n00b judge be paired with two than one. And half the time I think most of us Certified judges could use the experience of a Master or GM judge as much as the newbies.

 

[wonderbread23]

Cream Ale 35 - Mini BOS
Marzen 34

Both were way past their prime, so I'm happy with the scores. It'll be fun to read the scoresheets. Congrats to all the winners!

 

[stevo155]

Black Cherry Cider - 36
New World Cider - 40
Doppelbock - 42
Marzen - 37

Doppelbock and NW Cider got bumped in Mini-BOS, Marzen got a Silver (also mini-BOS).

 

[Braufessor]

Black Cherry Cider - 36
New World Cider - 40
Doppelbock - 42
Marzen - 37

Doppelbock and NW Cider got bumped in Mini-BOS, Marzen got a Silver (also mini-BOS).

That is a very nice showing

 

[the75]

37.5 for my Weissbier. Grabbed a gold & BOS. I'm happy.

 

[Qhrumphf]

37.5 for my Weissbier. Grabbed a gold & BOS. I'm happy.

I'm gonna go ahead and say you probably got underscored at a 37.5 if you got BOS lol.

Congrats.

 

[bembel]

37.5 for my Weissbier. Grabbed a gold & BOS. I'm happy.

Congrats, I was psyched that a hefeweizen won BOS, it's all I 'try' to brew.
Can you share your recipe?

 

[mwilcox]

37.5 for my Weissbier. Grabbed a gold & BOS. I'm happy.

Three beers quickly stuck out to me at the BOS round. The other two I had to protect/argue for a bit, but I don't think I ever heard anything non-complimentary said about yours. Congratulations!

cheers--
--Michael

 

[barrooze]

37.5 for my Weissbier. Grabbed a gold & BOS. I'm happy.

Excellent job! It's always fun to see what type of beer grabs BOS, and I never thought a weissbier would take it, but am stoked to see it did!

Congrats, I was psyched that a hefeweizen won BOS, it's all I 'try' to brew.
Can you share your recipe?

I can't second this enough! If you do share the recipe, please try to add as much process detail as you can!

 

[Braufessor]

Eventually all the gold medal recipes are shared in Zymurgy. Seems that the detail that accompanies them has been getting better in recent years (water profiles, etc.)

Here is a great resource for past gold medal recipes, in case some were not aware of it.
http://www.alternativecommutepueblo.com/2011/10/ahanhc-gold-medal-winning-recipes-for.html

 

[the75]

Congrats, I was psyched that a hefeweizen won BOS, it's all I 'try' to brew.
Can you share your recipe?

Thanks. I was psyched too, haha. The recipe will be shared with THE WORLD when Zymurgy's issue comes out. Happy to help wherever I can.

 

[the75]

Three beers quickly stuck out to me at the BOS round. The other two I had to protect/argue for a bit, but I don't think I ever heard anything non-complimentary said about yours. Congratulations!

cheers--
--Michael

That's a very nice compliment Michael & I appreciate it. Who else were the BOS judges? I've been working on this recipe for a few years now & each time, I've been fortunate enough to work out a little tweak here or there to get it closer to where I want it. It's been a fun progression.

 

[mwilcox]

That's a very nice compliment Michael & I appreciate it. Who else were the BOS judges? I've been working on this recipe for a few years now & each time, I've been fortunate enough to work out a little tweak here or there to get it closer to where I want it. It's been a fun progression.

Garafalo, Ruud, Joas, Scorby. 14 combined GM levels, with me the only lowly GM I.

...damnit, I could really use a pint of your beer right now in this heat.

Cheers
Michael

 

[Brewitt]

So interesting to get on HBT and know who is posting. Hey Mr. "Gold for wiessbier" and BOS. I won gold in Other American Ales and our club won HBCOTY I guess we know each other. To follow upon another question I saw here, how many go to mini-BOS from each style in final round?

 

[mwilcox]

So interesting to get on HBT and know who is posting. Hey Mr. "Gold for wiessbier" and BOS. I won gold in Other American Ales and our club won HBCOTY I guess we know each other. To follow upon another question I saw here, how many go to mini-BOS from each style in final round?

in both of the styles I judged there were 13 pushed to the medal round/mini-BOS.

 

[Robbienev]

Word is that scoresheets, medals and schwag have been sent off from the AHA mothership. Can't wait to check out my chunk of silver

 

[NervousDad]

Yep I got a UPS notification that they will deliver on Friday.

 

[carvetop]

Gordon Strong judged one of my entries and said he would pay money for it. I nearly cried.

 

[stevo155]

Yep I got a UPS notification that they will deliver on Friday.

I get mine on July 5th. I'm more interested in the scoresheets than the prizes but the canister filter system will be converted into a nice Randall.

I'm from New England....we don't filter our beers