SOBA National Homebrew Competition 2012 - Official Thread

[Greig McGill]

I like writing "official thread". It makes me feel like I can now sue people wanting to use those words in combination a la Rugby World Cup or London Olympics! But no, we at SOBA don't really do evil too well. We do beer though, which brings me to:

 

After a lot of mucking about on my part (for which I humbly apologise) and the fact that most of you already know anyway, I'm officially announcing the SOBA NHC 2012. Head on over to the not-quite-done-yet-but-pretty-sexy website where you can log in using your SOBA login (if you're a member - that's the one you use at http://www.soba.org.nz/member/) or you can use facebook, twitter, or google+ to login. This competition is all cutting edge and social media, and other buzzwords!

One exciting thing about this year's competition is that we have no awards ceremony planned. They are always very regional, and Murphy's Law always dictates that they are as far away as possible from whoever took out Champion Brewer. Instead, we hope to offer value to our sponsors and remove stress from you, our competitors, by announcing the results live to the various social media platforms as they come in! Obviously the "big" winners will still have to wait until everything is tallied up, but medals will be announced as they are judged.

Another change (not yet on the website as we're still working on the points algorithm) is that points will be deducted from non-medal-winning beers. This won't matter to those not competing for the coveted Champion Brewer title, but to those who are, it will mean that entering twenty beers is only a good idea if you're sure they are nearly all of medal winning standard. We think this is a lot more fair to those who enter three beers, and all get gold, versus someone who enters ten beer, gets three silvers, two bronzes, and five drain-pours! ;) Good brewers, nay CHAMPION brewers are consistent brewers, and we want to reward that consistency this year.

A last point is that we've raised the entry fee. I know, I can hear the groaning! To get the top judges we need, we have to be prepared to get them to the competition. Flights ain't cheap, but we thought you'd all prefer judges who really know their beer, and we need to fund that. The good news is that if you are a SOBA member, even if you only join to enter this competition, you'll get a good chunky discount on your entry fee.

Right, that's all from me for now. Remember, you can enter your beers as soon as you like on the website, but official entries open October 13th. We can't accept delivery of beer prior to that date, so if any turns up before then, we'll just drink it! So, feel free to enter now, but don't send any bottles until the 13th!

Cheers,

Greig McGill

Organiser

SOBA NHC 2012

[Phil Murray]

Hi Paul,

You can use the 'Pay Now' option on the site (after selecting each entry), it'll take you to Paypal where you can pay with a credit card (Don't worry, a PayPal account isn't required!).

[Paul Fraser]

Ahh, I was a little poor sighted looking at the site on my ipod touch. All paid for now. Cheers

[Malcolm]

Got my four entries in :)

[Sam]

Oops, missed this post.

[Chad Keven]

Boom.....I'm in

[Hunt Moorhouse]

Got my 1 entry booked in - paid for and received - woo hoo!

[Greig McGill]

Here we go ladies and gentlemen... all entries are now in, catalogued, and awaiting the attention of the judges tomorrow. We were briefly over 400 entries, but courier incompetence (once again, our least reliable courier seems to be PBT), NZ Post failure, and a few late scratches due to infections and ass-not-in-gear-ness means we have the still formiddable total of 382 beers to plow through over the next two days.

Ben Middlemiss has had to stand down from judging at the last minute due to a personal bereavement. Allan Hawkes (former judge at the Blenheim based New Zealand International Beer Awards) has agreed to replace him. We apologise to our entrants for this last minute change, but ask that your thoughts are with Ben at this time.

For those who haven't seen it, there are a series of "behind the scenes" posts over on the NHC website. These give a little insight into running the competition. Expect at least another couple before all is said and done - one from the stewards perspective, and a general write-up of the competition itself.

Don't forget to follow @soba_nhc2012 on twitter tomorrow and Sunday for live tweeting of our medal, best in class, and prize winners. For those without a twitter account, you can simply view the twitter stream at https://twitter.com/soba_nhc2012

The very best of luck to all of you

[Greig McGill]

And here's SOBA president, judge, and all round nice guy Geoff Griggs on RNZ this morning.

[Ralph]

I think they may have just started!

[John H]

Is anyone else following the results on twitter? It's quite exciting.

I haven't seen any gold medals by anyone yet. Are the judges being strict or are the golds being held back for afterwards?

[John H]

Ignore that - Go Richard Deeble with the first gold!!! Congrats!

[Greig McGill]

Strict. Definitely strict! But fair. :)