SOBA National Home Brew Competition 2013

[Paul Jennings]

So what is everyone entering?

Going to send in a Vanilla Porter, Dark Mild, and possibly a Pilsner.  More for feedback than any aspirations of getting good scores.

[oliver]

I've got a maibock, munich dunkel, dark mild and some sort of imperial american brown/dark ale/pkb kinda thing :p

[Gareth D.]

What category does the iab/dark ale/pkb fit into?

[Paul Fraser]

Kiwi Pale Ale, Munich Dunkel, 80 shilling and Wee Heavy. Also got a few collab beers going with some other brewers from the Chch Homebrew Club.

[paul m]

just done my entries on the website- real easy- well done whoever made that website, real tidy. I'd say SOBA could sell it as template for other homebrew comps?? UK US AUSSIE?

I'm entering a dark mild to see if its worth entering the WBC this time and and oatmeal stout- see if its worth sharing on the case swap. I'm pretty happy with them- So based on that they are probably out of style!! but looking forward to some good feedback. I ended up bottling 2x plastic 750ml- seemed large in hindsight. Is there an optimum amount? 375ml seemed a bit mean to me. I'm thinking small volume means the judges cant give it a good nudge. Any thoughts / opinions?

[Gareth D.]

I sent mostly 330ml bottles but one of my beers I only had a 500 and 660 left, my meads are all 750ml wine bottles. I don't think it'd matter, I'm sure they only try the same amount of each

[Greig McGill]

330ml is plenty. The only reason to send larger is to make the stewards happy, as they get the leftover 2nd bottles if they are not required. :) When judging around 80 beers in a day (per table) sobriety is everything. Most samples are never finished. Contaminated samples are often nosed only and immediately zero scored with feedback of "fix sanitation" (though we always ask for a second bottle in these cases), and 'a good nudge' might only be given if the beer is of exceptional quality. ;) I think last year I finished 4 50ml samples in total.

Of course, you often get the feeling that some beers get very short changed. There have been many occasions where a beer simply doesn't present well in a small sample, but it might just be out of style or unbalanced, but you'll think "a pint of this would be quite good!" But hey, them's the breaks! :)

Oh, and the website is the work of Phil Murray, the tech guy behind Open2View and my business partner in Brewaucracy. There's not much he can't do with Ruby on Rails and a decent database. :)

[Rhys Williams]

Hi Grieg,

Is there any organised collection point in Auckland, or are going to have to rely on the couriers?

Cheers

Rhys

[Greig McGill]

Hrm, you're the second person to ask this. Please don't take this the wrong way, but why would there be an organised collection point in Auckland when everyone else in the country (well, except Hamilton, since it's based here) has to send them?

There's nothing to stop people organising a joint carfull and running them down, though probably too late to organise this now! :)

I'd not worry too much about the couriers. In the last three years, out of 1200ish bottles, maybe 2 have broken and 4 gone missing. Pretty good odds! :)

[Rhys Williams]

Just being a bit precious with my babies , and not wanting to trust a courier!

Shaken and not stirred - I've seen how some couriers treat packages!

[Crusader-Rob]

Speaking of couriers, Mine is showing as delivered this morning. Signed for by Sam?

How long does it take to log the entry receipt Greig?

[Gareth D.]

Yesterday mine were delivered in the morning and scanned into the nhc system at about 4pm

[Greig McGill]

Rob: We have day jobs! :) Alexandra picks them up from Energy Products each afternoon around 3:30pm, takes them home, unpacks and scans the QR codes which automatically emails you, then we ferry them to the AgResearch chiller.