Toronto Beer Week 2012 Home Brew Competition Info
UPDATE: Entry deadline has been extended to Saturday, September 8th, 2012.
The purpose of the TBW Homebrew Contest is to encourage homebrewers in the Toronto area and nearby regions of the Province to participate in Toronto Beer Week by submitting their beers for judging and having some fun along the way. TBW values the contribution that homebrewers make to the Toronto beer scene. TBW also seeks to encourage collaboration among the homebrewing community and Ontario craft brewers as some winning beers will be selected by participating breweries to be brewed up as a pilot or a production beer and served during Toronto Beer Week.
Who can enter the Contest?
The Contest for 2012 will be a regional contest. If you are a homebrewer who is over the legal drinking age and resides in Southern Ontario, you are eligible to enter the contest. [Note: For greater clarity, TBW will deem you to reside in Southern Ontario if you reside anywhere in the territories covered by MTO Southern Ontario Maps 1-11: http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/traveller/map/southindexpdf.shtml
These maps will cover you if you’re within a 400 km radius of Toronto. That generous definition of Southern Ontario will capture the overwhelming majority of people who entered what was, by default, a Canada-wide contest in previous years.] The contest has now grown and offers a significant number of pro-am brewing opportunities as prizes. We will need to manage the growing number of entrants/entries and would like to ensure that pro-am prize winners are within reasonable driving distance of their pro-am brewing venue.
Registration is required
The Contest has become big and we are automating the process this year. Every homebrewer who wishes to participate in the Contest must register on the TBW Homebrew Contest Website, by following the instructions, complete the online form and pay the registration fee of $10 through the TBW Online Store. Payment of the registration fee will permit you to enter up to 4 beers for the contest. If you want to enter more, then simply pay an additional $10 fee that for each additional group of up to 4 beers. We will be tracking registration/payment and entries through your email address. Registration/additional entry fees are non-refundable. Once you are registered, you will have a login/password to access your profile and entry details. You should also be able to print entry labels. If you are a member of a local homebrew club, let us know. If you are a first time entrant, let us know that too.
Entering Beers
Complete an on-line entry form for each beer. The entry can be submitted for a BJCP category, the 1812 Beer category (see below), or the Domesday category sSee below). If you collaborated with other brewers to make the beer, list their names on the entry form. Every brewer who helped make the beer should be listed. If you are entering as a Conflicted entrant (see below), please indicate this on the entry form. To provide for anonymity and to ensure that candidate beers are in the best possible condition for judging, all entries must be submitted in standard 12oz (approx) amber/brown glass tall neck bottles (free of any labels and distinguishing marks). 500ml and 650ml will also be accepted. Entries received in swing-top bottles, plastic bottles, or growlers, etc. will be disqualified.
Please submit 3 bottles for each entry to cover contingencies such as an off-bottle, a gusher, the need to run-off closely competing entries, or so that we have enough bottles for final round judging should your entry advance. Each entry should have a completed Contest entry form label attached with a rubber band. You may wish to reserve a few extra bottles of each of your entries and keep them cold, just in case we need an extra bottle or two.
Special Contest Entry Categories for 2012
TBW has added 2 special categories for the 2012 Contest:
1812 Era Beers
To celebrate the bicentennial of the War of 1812, TBW is inviting homebrewers to brew up their interpretation of an 1812 era beer. (We wonder if our guys stopped for a beer after burning down the White House? If so, what would that beer have been like???). You are free to show us what they might have drank by basing your brew on an authentic recipe of the era, or by using local ingredients that were available in Toronto at the time, or by simply brewing up something that is inspired by beers of that era. For some useful information to help get you started, check out: http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=7775
Domesday Beers (Imperial Everything)
So, now the media is now telling us that the Mayan calendar does not end on December 21st, – it’s only a calendar change! So, what if the world did end on December 21, 2012? What would your last beer be? The only qualifier is that it must be an Imperial. Get brewing this one now!!!
Conflicted Entrants (No Prizing)
If you have an affiliation with TBW, or if you are employed by a brewery or an establishment that participates in TBW, then you must indicate that you are “Conflicted” on the entry form. This will allow your beers to be judged in the contest, and you will receive feedback from the judges, if you wish, but you will not be entitled to win a prize in the contest. Depending on the number of “Conflicted” entries that we receive, we may judge the “Conflicted” beers as a separate group, or the conflicted entries may be judged with the non-conflicted homebrewer entries. This category was added for fun and to open the contest up to homebrewers who would normally be disqualified. No prizes, just gloating privileges.
Ineligible Entries
Beers produced in commercial breweries/brewpubs are not eligible for the Contest. This contest is about beers brewed by homebrewers using their own homebrew equipment.
Entry Drop-Off Location
The entries must be registered online before dropping off/shipping them. The Amsterdam Brewery has kindly offered to be the official drop- off location for this year’s contest. This assures that once the beers are received, they will be placed on a skid in their cold room until judging. The Amsterdam Brewery is located at 21 Bathurst Street in Toronto and you can drop the entries off in person at their retail store. See: http://www.amsterdambeer.com/contact/contactus [Note: If you are dropping something off, remember how generous the Amsterdam folks are to the homebrew community and show your thanks by picking something up from their retail store to quench your thirst. For those residing within the GTA, we strongly urge you to drop off your entries in person as this will ensure that your beers are maintained in the best possible condition for judging].
For those residing outside the GTA, courier/Postal shipments will be accepted by the Amsterdam Brewery, provided that all charges have been prepaid by the entrant, and that no receipt signature is requested. The entries should be well packaged and protected from breakage (i.e., use a sturdy box and line it with a plastic garbage bag and partition/wrap each bottle with sufficient protective packaging material. Please do not use styrofoam packaging peanuts). The package should be addressed to:
Toronto Beer Week Homebrew Contest
c/o Amsterdam Brewery
21 Bathurst Street
Toronto ON M5V 2N6
Note: Entries will not be checked by Amsterdam staff upon delivery/drop-off. However, If it appears that any of your entries were damaged in transit, we will do our best to contact you so that you can make arrangements to get us replacement bottles in time for judging.
Deadline for Entries
To be eligible for the Contest, entries must be received by the Amsterdam Brewery retail store by 6pm on Saturday, September 8th, 2012. Entries received after the deadline will be disqualified.
Judging
Contest judging sessions will take place in September 2012 as contest judges and facilities become available. Details on the final round judging session will be announced on the TBW website, once arrangements have been confirmed. The Contest is not BJCP sanctioned and will not be judged solely on BJCP criteria.
Given that contest prizes will include pro-am brewing opportunities for winning beers/brewers, the brewers from the breweries that will be awarding the prizes will have other considerations including whether the beer could be brewed at their brewery, on a production or pilot scale. A judge who has entered beers into the contest will be screened from judging activity respecting his or her entries. All decisions of judges and TBW are final. Feedback will be provided to the entrant by email, after the contest. If you would like feedback from the judges, please indicate this on the entry form and provide your email address.
Note: Please be patient on receiving feedback as the contest is operated by volunteers who will endeavour to get feedback to you as soon as they can. If there are hundreds of entries, that can take time.
Prizes
Winning beers will be awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for each category, or grouped category, depending on the circumstances. Beers awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for each category, or grouped category will be eligible for final round judging. Prizes will be announced on the TBW Website once we are able to confirm prize information with the prize donors. Where more than one brewer is listed on the form, the prize will be awarded to the person who entered the beer.
If the prize is a pro-am brewing opportunity, transportation and accommodation costs are the responsibility of the winner. The prize winner will be expected to follow any direction received from the prize donor, including any requirements to sign waivers, wear protective equipment, or to be available at a specified date/time/location in order to participate in a pro-am brewing session, which may not be negotiable due to brewery production scheduling. TBW will post an announcement listing all of the Contest winners shortly after final judging takes place.
For full competition details and to register your Toronto Beer Week beer entries please visit: http://www.brewcompetition.ca
UPDATE: Entry deadline has been extended to Saturday, September 8th, 2012.
The purpose of the TBW Homebrew Contest is to encourage homebrewers in the Toronto area and nearby regions of the Province to participate in Toronto Beer Week by submitting their beers for judging and having some fun along the way. TBW values the contribution that homebrewers make to the Toronto beer scene. TBW also seeks to encourage collaboration among the homebrewing community and Ontario craft brewers as some winning beers will be selected by participating breweries to be brewed up as a pilot or a production beer and served during Toronto Beer Week.
Who can enter the Contest?
The Contest for 2012 will be a regional contest. If you are a homebrewer who is over the legal drinking age and resides in Southern Ontario, you are eligible to enter the contest. [Note: For greater clarity, TBW will deem you to reside in Southern Ontario if you reside anywhere in the territories covered by MTO Southern Ontario Maps 1-11: http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/traveller/map/southindexpdf.shtml
These maps will cover you if you’re within a 400 km radius of Toronto. That generous definition of Southern Ontario will capture the overwhelming majority of people who entered what was, by default, a Canada-wide contest in previous years.] The contest has now grown and offers a significant number of pro-am brewing opportunities as prizes. We will need to manage the growing number of entrants/entries and would like to ensure that pro-am prize winners are within reasonable driving distance of their pro-am brewing venue.
Registration is required
The Contest has become big and we are automating the process this year. Every homebrewer who wishes to participate in the Contest must register on the TBW Homebrew Contest Website, by following the instructions, complete the online form and pay the registration fee of $10 through the TBW Online Store. Payment of the registration fee will permit you to enter up to 4 beers for the contest. If you want to enter more, then simply pay an additional $10 fee that for each additional group of up to 4 beers. We will be tracking registration/payment and entries through your email address. Registration/additional entry fees are non-refundable. Once you are registered, you will have a login/password to access your profile and entry details. You should also be able to print entry labels. If you are a member of a local homebrew club, let us know. If you are a first time entrant, let us know that too.
Entering Beers
Complete an on-line entry form for each beer. The entry can be submitted for a BJCP category, the 1812 Beer category (see below), or the Domesday category sSee below). If you collaborated with other brewers to make the beer, list their names on the entry form. Every brewer who helped make the beer should be listed. If you are entering as a Conflicted entrant (see below), please indicate this on the entry form. To provide for anonymity and to ensure that candidate beers are in the best possible condition for judging, all entries must be submitted in standard 12oz (approx) amber/brown glass tall neck bottles (free of any labels and distinguishing marks). 500ml and 650ml will also be accepted. Entries received in swing-top bottles, plastic bottles, or growlers, etc. will be disqualified.
Please submit 3 bottles for each entry to cover contingencies such as an off-bottle, a gusher, the need to run-off closely competing entries, or so that we have enough bottles for final round judging should your entry advance. Each entry should have a completed Contest entry form label attached with a rubber band. You may wish to reserve a few extra bottles of each of your entries and keep them cold, just in case we need an extra bottle or two.
Special Contest Entry Categories for 2012
TBW has added 2 special categories for the 2012 Contest:
1812 Era Beers
To celebrate the bicentennial of the War of 1812, TBW is inviting homebrewers to brew up their interpretation of an 1812 era beer. (We wonder if our guys stopped for a beer after burning down the White House? If so, what would that beer have been like???). You are free to show us what they might have drank by basing your brew on an authentic recipe of the era, or by using local ingredients that were available in Toronto at the time, or by simply brewing up something that is inspired by beers of that era. For some useful information to help get you started, check out: http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=7775
Domesday Beers (Imperial Everything)
So, now the media is now telling us that the Mayan calendar does not end on December 21st, – it’s only a calendar change! So, what if the world did end on December 21, 2012? What would your last beer be? The only qualifier is that it must be an Imperial. Get brewing this one now!!!
Conflicted Entrants (No Prizing)
If you have an affiliation with TBW, or if you are employed by a brewery or an establishment that participates in TBW, then you must indicate that you are “Conflicted” on the entry form. This will allow your beers to be judged in the contest, and you will receive feedback from the judges, if you wish, but you will not be entitled to win a prize in the contest. Depending on the number of “Conflicted” entries that we receive, we may judge the “Conflicted” beers as a separate group, or the conflicted entries may be judged with the non-conflicted homebrewer entries. This category was added for fun and to open the contest up to homebrewers who would normally be disqualified. No prizes, just gloating privileges.
Ineligible Entries
Beers produced in commercial breweries/brewpubs are not eligible for the Contest. This contest is about beers brewed by homebrewers using their own homebrew equipment.
Entry Drop-Off Location
The entries must be registered online before dropping off/shipping them. The Amsterdam Brewery has kindly offered to be the official drop- off location for this year’s contest. This assures that once the beers are received, they will be placed on a skid in their cold room until judging. The Amsterdam Brewery is located at 21 Bathurst Street in Toronto and you can drop the entries off in person at their retail store. See: http://www.amsterdambeer.com/contact/contactus [Note: If you are dropping something off, remember how generous the Amsterdam folks are to the homebrew community and show your thanks by picking something up from their retail store to quench your thirst. For those residing within the GTA, we strongly urge you to drop off your entries in person as this will ensure that your beers are maintained in the best possible condition for judging].
For those residing outside the GTA, courier/Postal shipments will be accepted by the Amsterdam Brewery, provided that all charges have been prepaid by the entrant, and that no receipt signature is requested. The entries should be well packaged and protected from breakage (i.e., use a sturdy box and line it with a plastic garbage bag and partition/wrap each bottle with sufficient protective packaging material. Please do not use styrofoam packaging peanuts). The package should be addressed to:
Toronto Beer Week Homebrew Contest
c/o Amsterdam Brewery
21 Bathurst Street
Toronto ON M5V 2N6
Note: Entries will not be checked by Amsterdam staff upon delivery/drop-off. However, If it appears that any of your entries were damaged in transit, we will do our best to contact you so that you can make arrangements to get us replacement bottles in time for judging.
Deadline for Entries
To be eligible for the Contest, entries must be received by the Amsterdam Brewery retail store by 6pm on Saturday, September 8th, 2012. Entries received after the deadline will be disqualified.
Judging
Contest judging sessions will take place in September 2012 as contest judges and facilities become available. Details on the final round judging session will be announced on the TBW website, once arrangements have been confirmed. The Contest is not BJCP sanctioned and will not be judged solely on BJCP criteria.
Given that contest prizes will include pro-am brewing opportunities for winning beers/brewers, the brewers from the breweries that will be awarding the prizes will have other considerations including whether the beer could be brewed at their brewery, on a production or pilot scale. A judge who has entered beers into the contest will be screened from judging activity respecting his or her entries. All decisions of judges and TBW are final. Feedback will be provided to the entrant by email, after the contest. If you would like feedback from the judges, please indicate this on the entry form and provide your email address.
Note: Please be patient on receiving feedback as the contest is operated by volunteers who will endeavour to get feedback to you as soon as they can. If there are hundreds of entries, that can take time.
Prizes
Winning beers will be awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for each category, or grouped category, depending on the circumstances. Beers awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for each category, or grouped category will be eligible for final round judging. Prizes will be announced on the TBW Website once we are able to confirm prize information with the prize donors. Where more than one brewer is listed on the form, the prize will be awarded to the person who entered the beer.
If the prize is a pro-am brewing opportunity, transportation and accommodation costs are the responsibility of the winner. The prize winner will be expected to follow any direction received from the prize donor, including any requirements to sign waivers, wear protective equipment, or to be available at a specified date/time/location in order to participate in a pro-am brewing session, which may not be negotiable due to brewery production scheduling. TBW will post an announcement listing all of the Contest winners shortly after final judging takes place.
For full competition details and to register your Toronto Beer Week beer entries please visit: http://www.brewcompetition.ca
