List of New Zealand Home Brew Competitions?

[John Austin]

Just wondering if there is a list or calender of NZ home brew competitions somewhere? I've been doing some searching but having a hard time finding much other than a few specific sites for single comps. 

[Tilt]

As far as I'm aware there isn't a comprehensive list of all events. 

As you've probably noticed there is a range of national and local comps organised by different folks  (at times as an add on to other events) over the year.  Each seems to have a different focus and level of judging/ rigour/ feedback/ prizes etc.

I tend to watch posts on here to catch the news over time.  Probably not the answer you were looking for, sorry mate.

[John Austin]

Not a problem. I work online, perhaps I should put together a site just for this purpose. Do you know any off hand that are annual that I could look for as a starting place? Any coming up?

[Tilt]

Great idea - I'm sure brewers would appreciate your efforts if you were interested in pulling something together. 

Being Auckland based, the one's I'm interested in are the formal annual SOBA NHC, and the less structured quarterly Western Brewers Conference and the intermittent Limbo Beer Comp

I'm pretty sure Wellington and Christchurch have an intermittent comps run by groups of brewers  - its worth checking through the "Groups" section on here for any more.  Some are more active than others though.

I think Beervana has an offshoot homebrew comp, and there was an IPA challenge a while ago....here's where my knowledge fades and I need to hand over to someone else...

[Greig McGill]

The SOBA NHC is annual, and will always fall at the very end of October or beginning of November. Our goal is to be the biggest national challenge for homebrewers in NZ, with the highest levels of judging skill. Our judges are often those with World Beer Cup or GABF judging experience, or have been apprenticed in under those experienced judges, so entrants can be sure their beers are being critiqued by some of the best and to an international standard.

It's all about style accuracy, and consistency/quality as brewers accrue "points" over multiple entries, with poor quality entries losing them points. We have a history of being a birthing ground for new breweries. Of course, brewers are welcome to just enter for the quality judging and feedback without attempting to take out the champion brewer or champion beer prizes. All are equally judged!

I'm sorry for the lack of timely info so far this year guys. The dates are on the website so you can plan, but the details of the new structure to fully align with the above goals are still being tweaked.

[Tilt]

Too right Greig.  As a past entrant I can vouch for the high participation rates and quality judging/  feedback of the SOBA NHC.  This is the NZ comp with the biggest kudos for the winners. To counter  any misinterpretation of my earlier post - the NHC is definitely national too - not just Auckland based.

[Peter Smith]

Do you have to enter in a plastic bottle or can you submit 745ml glass abc bottles?  I ask as I will do a few plastic bottles in the next few brew days if thats the only way you can enter.

[Greig McGill]

Do you mean the NHC? What made you think you can only enter plastic? The requirement is two bottles, 330ml or greater in size. The bottles can be any material you like! :)

[Peter Smith]

Yeah I found the rules didn't mention plastic only, I just remember Beervana comp mentioning they didn't really want glass, its just I don't really use plastic, I will make sure I do a few 500ml glass brews of the next few brews and if they turn out ok enter to get the judges to confirm the mistakes, I should have a milk stout, stout and a super hoppy ipa ready by the end Oct.   Maybe even a Hefe as these seem best young.

[oliver]

No worries Greig, for what it's worth I was really happy with the way the comp ran last year and the feedback I got (the twitter feed was cool too).

[oliver]

Would be awesome if you could start one John (and somehow make it easy for people to add comps to it). We had a twisted/yourshout comp down here in Christchurch a while ago that was really popular, hopefully they do another one next year, http://browse.feedreader.com/c/SOBA_Society_of_Beer_Advocates/29653.... 

Kinda aside but for some comps you might only get a couple of months notice which is a bit short for some beer styles, especially if you've already got some other brews planned, not sure if there's much we can do about that though. But yeah, a reasonably complete, calendar style overview of all the homebrew comps throughout the year would be really helpful.

These guys have run two comps recently: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NZ-Amateur-Brewer-Battle-Black-IPA/4...

Beervana: http://www.beervana.co.nz/hbcomp

[John Austin]

Great. I think I'll put it together then. I'll come back and post as soon as I have it up. Could be a cool way of building a nice community of NZ homebrewers in the offline world.

[Rhys Williams]

Hi John,

The Auckland Guild of Wine makers and Brewers have monthly competions. For September, it is to clone Pot Kettle Black.

http://agwb.org.nz/

The Dunedin Amateur Winemakers and Brewers Club are hosting nationals on 11-13th of October, details here:

http://agwb.org.nz/member/2013-nationals/

Cheers

Rhys