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

[Kelly Milligan]

Hey Phil,

Is there somewhere we can drop them off after business hours?

[Phil Murray]

No sorry, unless you want to leave them to brave the elements and/or the local drunks.

[Kelly Milligan]

Crap.. how about on Saturday? The cut off is at 6pm, will there be someone at the address taking deliveries throughout the day?

[Greig McGill]

Kelly, aren't you stewarding? You can drop off on the day! :P

[Kelly Milligan]

6. All entries must be registered online by Saturday 27th October 2012 at 18:00 and received by the SOBA Event Organiser by this deadline also.

Does this not apply to stewards? ;)

[Greig McGill]

It's a perk. Encourages volunteers! ;) That said, you'll probably want them there and at temperature before then, so I'd ship if I were you. I don't know if anyone will be at Phil's office on the Saturday, but I seriously doubt it.

[Kelly Milligan]

Sweet! Thank you sir :)

[Greig McGill]

Phil, you ARE the local drunks!

[Damon Colbert]

Hi Greig,

Is the 'Received' check for our entries being updated in real-time?

[Phil Murray]

Hi Damon,

(I'm one of the volunteers helping out, so...) No they're not, every few days they get processed (unpacked, organised and prepared for shifting to competition location) by some helpful gophers. However with the long weekend and people going away, there's been a longer period between batches than normal.

There should be a large batch processed tonight, and the system will send you an automatic email when we mark it off.

Additionally, we'll contact anyone directly if their entry arrives damaged in any way.

Hope that helps!

[Damon Colbert]

Yeah, that's great thanks Phil.  Sounds like you are all doing a bang-up job.

I was mostly curious, I sent my entries via ParcelPost, which I learnt today was untrackable until it has actually been delivered. So, as per my nature, I find something to get anxious about.

Cheers!

[Paul Fraser]

My entries have been received. Woo hoo. Now just went to do a bank transfer from my ANZ account but it didn't give me a particulars, code or reference field to enter my details as stated in "the rules". There is no room to put in my entry id's. can I pay by credit card instead? How do I do this?