[Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

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Keith
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[Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by Keith » Sat Jan 03, 2015 1:11 am

I know we have the talent and we can make a serious impact in the Canadian Homebrewer Comps. I say we find a means to get our entries into the comps and based on the following we score points and name a home grown "Brewer of the Year". I think it could spark some interest in the group to get out there, just for the sheer internal comp. I'd also like to find a means to reduce S&H so we can consolidate and get our entrees there together. It's a new year, we are 47? days away from our first comp. I think it would be a lot of fun.

Gold - 3
Silver - 2
Bronze -1
Honorable Mention .5
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by GuingesRock » Sat Jan 03, 2015 8:31 am

Keith wrote:I know we have the talent and we can make a serious impact in the Canadian Homebrewer Comps.
I know that too. It’s the best kept secret around.

Just Canadian Homebrewer Comps Keith? any other restrictions? do these competitions have to be on the brewer of the year circuit, or is it any Canadian competition? Are you having first and second runners up? Do co-brewers divvy up the points between them, or can a team compete as an individual? How many points for a BOS placing? are bos points in addition to the gold they won?


This is how the brewer of the year does it: http://www.breweroftheyear.com/results/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

1st Place

3 Points


2nd Place

2 Points


3rd Place

1 Point


Other

Free Hug


Please note that, in the case that a winning entry lists co-brewers, the above points are split evenly between them for that winning entry (i.e. 1.5 for first, 1 for second, .5 for third…we don’t split hugs, though. You each get one.).
-Mark
2nd place, Canadian Brewer of the Year, 2015
101 awards won for beers designed and brewed.
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by Keith » Sat Jan 03, 2015 9:24 am

I think the beer was thinking last night. Although great idea to entice participation. Be a fair bit of work to track and manage. With that being said. I would love to see the club make a noticeable mark on the homebrew scene.
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by GuingesRock » Sat Jan 03, 2015 9:33 am

But! anyone could win this, Keith. We're all starting at zero points for the year.
-Mark
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by RubberToe » Sat Jan 03, 2015 9:41 am

One problem that I see here is that it's expensive to compete. Unless we find some way to pay for this it's not really fair per se. I make a decent sallary and find it hard to justify entries a few comps into the year. There's a lot of good brewers here that can't afford to compete much or are just unwilling to part with their hard erned money (and beer).

An idea I had previously was to put ads back on the site and use the revenue to pay for Brewnosers' entries and shipping depending on what we make.

The guys out west mule their entries to most of the comps since the circuit is big out there and they're relatively close together. That's one reason they have larger participation.
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by amartin » Sat Jan 03, 2015 9:49 am

Yeah, we tasted a lot of good beers this month, but it is expensive. I'm probably going to be cutting back a bit myself, just to the beers I know are good.

One way we can can increase our medal count though, is to help with the 2015 brewnosers competition. If we can get that off the ground, it'll be a good opportunity to get in a lot of beers. .

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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by LeafMan66_67 » Sat Jan 03, 2015 9:56 am

Personally I brew once a month on average. Entering comps is not usually on my mind when brewing as I brew to what my family, friends and I like. The exception to that rule is the Big Spruce and Garrison competitions, where I will brew a specific style based on the requirements. Bottling for comps is another issue - I switched to kegs for a reason! :lol: Growlers are much easier to share amongst friends.

Like Rob said, competing does become expensive. I make a decent salary as well, but do have a "brewing budget". I would much rather save those competition fees and shipping costs and spend that extra cash on brewing ingredients, maintenance and upgrades of brewing gear as well as the odd specialty beer from our local brewing friends.

My two cents worth.
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by jeffsmith » Sat Jan 03, 2015 10:44 am

Same here as Derek. My brewing time is so limited that entering competitions isn't even on my radar at the moment. Perhaps when the kids are older and I hopefully have a bit more time on my hands.

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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by GuingesRock » Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:16 am

Cons …financial and time commitment.

Pros …it’s like paying university exam fees and sitting the exams. There’s no better way to keep improving your brewing. Without that you can become insular, stuck in a rut, and believe that your beers are the best there are, your friends will back you up. My first beers were the best in the universe and people who drank them agreed and asked for more of the wonderful beer. They had lots of light DME, to make them high alcohol, pounds of cascade leaf hops thrown in late and fermented at high temperatures with US-05.

After a year or two of brewing most of us have done enough book and field work to be the equivalent of a university degree.

The best feedback I got was from the Brewnoser’s review that time. It’s all done blind and honestly, and that’s priceless. We have the best judges.

There are areas where I could spend money and don’t. I very rarely buy commercial craft beers, just if I am in a pub, never took home a growler of Fathom even. I just drink my own. That isn’t good and is not helping my beer education. It was good for me to do the Advent and taste different styles.

I thought Keith might have a plan. He succeeded in getting us all off our buts with the Advent.
-Mark
2nd place, Canadian Brewer of the Year, 2015
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by Jimmy » Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:02 pm

I don't see myself entering enough comps to compete in something like this. I do, however, see myself entering more comps than I did last year (which shouldn't be hard, since I didn't enter any comps..well, except for the Big Spruce one).

I do like seeing people enter comps, and like to see the Brewnosers pulling out more medals. I suspect this past year has been our best year yet for medals since I've been involved, not sure how many comps the OB's (Original Brewnosers :lol:) were entering.

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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by AllanMar » Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:39 pm

I see and share the concern here, where most people simply will not be able to enter enough comps to have a reasonable chance (whether it be money or time).

What about trying some sort of way to factor points against comps entered? This does open up some other issues with how exactly to do this though...

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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by LeafMan66_67 » Sat Jan 03, 2015 1:08 pm

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against competitions, it's just not why I brew at the moment so, while I may hit the odd competition or two, I don't plan to brew to make competitions.

G-Rock does have a point - friends are going to love your beer, and not look for the small flaws. If feedback alone is what you are looking for, we can get plenty of that at the monthly meetings - Brewnosers are an honest bunch and will give feedback when asked.

If someone wants to organize something for Brewnoser Brewer of the year, that's great and I'm sure it will create some great friendly competition amongst ourselves.
"He was a wise man who invented beer." - Plato

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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by Keith » Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:07 pm

Why do a quarterly club only comp? Each quarter break the entries down to the specific styles? We could also do a peoples choice style of voting on each category.
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by GuingesRock » Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:16 pm

Based on Allan’s suggestion. How about averaging points per competition, with a minimum number of competitions to be entered of four.

As soon as you’ve hit your fourth competition, you are in the game.

The idea behind a minimum of four is to give your position more validity. Otherwise someone could get lucky on their first competition, sit back and win the thing at the end of the year.

With this averaging, there doesn’t need to be a restriction on where the competition was held. It wouldn’t matter if someone sent to the States for example, since it is the average score from competitions they entered.

A person who entered 100 competitions would have the same chance of winning as a person who entered four competitions, the 100 comp person may actually have less chance, depending how the 4 comp person’s luck was.
-Mark
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by GuingesRock » Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:26 pm

If this works for people, nothing further needs to be done.

People report their average scores as soon as they have results from their fourth competition. If they enter more than four competitions, they report their score after each additional competition, on this thread.
-Mark
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by Keith » Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:26 pm

But if it's the average points. What if I enter 2 beers in 4 comps. But you enter 10 beers in 15 comps. Still have 8 beers on that person.
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by GuingesRock » Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:39 pm

I had thought about that. My thought was you need to keep a few bottles from each brew in the fridge to send off to these things. Preparation is a big part of winning. If you make little effort to be prepared, you don’t as well as the person who makes a lot of effort. It isn't a lot more expensive to send 4 entries vs 1 entry. Averaging has already allowed people to keep brewing time and costs to a minimum.

The brewer who sends to 10 competitions has to do a lot more brewing, but may earn less average points.

Some effort has to be put into it I think. It could be designed so that someone who puts in minimal effort has the same chance of winning as someone who puts in a lot of effort, but that’s getting a bit like a 649 ticket.
-Mark
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by GuingesRock » Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:48 pm

Also the brewer who sends 6 entries is likely sending everything he has. The brewer sending three is probably cherry picking. The likelihood is that both will get three medals and both brewers have the same skill level.
-Mark
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by GuingesRock » Sat Jan 03, 2015 5:58 pm

Proposed rules:
1) As soon as you have competition results from 3 competitions, you may enter the Brewnoser’s brewer of the year contest, by posting your average score on this thread.
2) You must account for all competitions entered in your calculations of your average score.
3) If only one person enters, he/she will be declared the winner.
4) 3 points for a gold, 2 points for a silver, 1 point for bronze, 0.5 points for HM
5) A beer may earn extra points if it also places in the best of show. 3 points for first, 2 points for second, 1 point for 3rd and 0.5 points for HM.
6) A brewer may enter as many competitions as they want, wherever they want. They must however have entered a minimum of three competitions to be part of our brewer of the year contest.
7) A brewer may enter as a team. In that case, it is the team that places in the competition.
8) The winner is entitled to a hearty slap on the back by any Brewnoser within reach. If the slap on the back causes them to spill the beer they are drinking, so be it. First runner up gets a hearty slap on the back. Second runner up gets a hearty slap on the back, and all who compete get a hearty slap on the back, for getting the Brewnosers recognized out there.
-Mark
2nd place, Canadian Brewer of the Year, 2015
101 awards won for beers designed and brewed.
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by Keith » Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:10 pm

I say similar to the above rules, open it to anyone to entice more competition, and have the "Brewnosers Brewer of the year" awarded after the last comp. It would be good to break up the styles and judge the beers quarterly, and break the categories up, and consolidate if needed. Would definitely entice more of our members to participate, and would eliminate most cost associated.

Example (definitely not set by no means)
March
1. LIGHT LAGER
2. PILSNER
3. EUROPEAN AMBER LAGER
4. DARK LAGER
5. BOCK
6. LIGHT HYBRID BEER

June
7. AMBER HYBRID BEER
8. ENGLISH PALE ALE
9. SCOTTISH AND IRISH ALE
10. AMERICAN ALE
11. ENGLISH BROWN ALE
12. PORTER

Sept
13. STOUT
14. INDIA PALE ALE (IPA)
15. GERMAN WHEAT AND RYE BEER
16. BELGIAN AND FRENCH ALE
17. SOUR ALE
18. BELGIAN STRONG ALE

Dec
19. STRONG ALE
20. FRUIT BEER
21. SPICE / HERB / VEGETABLE BEER
22. SMOKE-FLAVORED AND WOOD-AGED BEER
23. SPECIALTY BEER
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by LeafMan66_67 » Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:11 pm

Gotta say I love the rewards!
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by GuingesRock » Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:15 pm

Keith, I like your idea. Can we run that as a separate contest? There's a clash. The more contests, the merrier.
-Mark
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by Keith » Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:16 pm

Mark is this the type of slap on the back you are referring to? Possibly a childhood video of yours?
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Re: [Challenge] Brewnosers Brewer of the Year

Post by GuingesRock » Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:17 pm

No :lol:

I need to work on the rules for the slap on the back. Stay tuned ...actually there are no rules. It's up to the slapper. Has to be hearty though.
-Mark
2nd place, Canadian Brewer of the Year, 2015
101 awards won for beers designed and brewed.
Cicerone Program - Certified Beer Server

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