Not selected for AHA natl homebrew comp

Write them an angry letter so that your name stands out next year.

 

Go to the headquarters and burn that mother down!

Just kiddin' I don't wanna be placed on any type of watchlist

 

I you want to be guaranteed a spot next year go volunteer as a judge or steward at one of the regional judging centers. You get a guaranteed spot by doing so for next year.

 

when you registered did you select all regions as places you'd willingly ship?

 

They are still assigning some to judging sites with openings. One guy in our club just got an e-mail saying he was in.

Too much demand, not enough judges to evaluate the beers.

 

Despite many glitches and disappointments over the years I think the AHA did a pretty good job of explaining the thought process this year. 124 out of 3557 missing out is pretty good; not that that makes those 124 feel much better.
if they had lowered limits to 3 entries most of those people would be in, but other regions would be 60% full. Should they allow those regions 4 or 5 entries when others only get 3? Seems like more than 124 people would be upset in that case.

Basically the demand in some regions was very very high, and not enough people in those regions selected enough alternate regions. After initial registration KC still had 143 empty spots, so anyone that selected Kansas City as a region they would willingly ship to should have gotten into the competition. If they did, and did not get in, then it would seem obvious that there's another glitch...

 

I wonder what the standards were. I admittedly haven't paid attention to anything the AHA may have emailed/written on their website addressing this. Any chance people who attended NHC last year got preferential treatment?

 

No, not for attending, and not for entering the competition. If they judged or stewarded at one of the locations, they got 1 entry. Some reward for working the competition is fine by me.

 

Yup me too.. I signed up that morning the registration was available online. Gotta drink all this cascade pale ale now !! Bastards.. I wanted to compete as well. I am in a local one now for an irish red but I wanted to do the big show.

 

Since I sit on the GC right now (I'm up for election like hopfenunmaltz and dkfick), I can tell you that there have been countless hours devoted to figuring out how best to approach the growth of the competition and the conference.

The immediate concern: getting everyone who's interested a chance to register. This has the benefit of not only generating a clear picture of demand, but also spreads out the rush to register. This has meant that you don't have to be sitting there on your computer (if you have access to one while at work!) with your boss possibly staring over your shoulder all while cursing as the site goes "kablooey".

With everyone who's interested registered, the data allows Janis and company to dynamically alter the competition to maximize the entry and judging load. Even doing this the comp wasn't able to accommodate everyone (sorry mugs!), but getting ~3400 entrants in beats the pants off of the ~2200 from the previous year.

I also heartily endorse the policy that if you help judge/steward you get an entry. The whole reason the comp has to be limited is the resource constraint of available active judges willing to take a Saturday (and Sunday or Friday - 1 week or 2 in some cases) and spend it judging and scribbling semi-coherent thoughts about a beer that they know an entrant cares deeply about. If the comp can attract more judges, then the comp will be able to host more entries.

I've had others ask: "What about a qualification round - like you have to medal in a BJCP competition - before you register for the NHC?" The thought driving that approach is that only serious competitors should get a shot at the NHC making it the best of the best. Aside from the logistics challenge (which is formidable, but not insurmountable), that approach runs counter to the data we got back from the membership survey which was to make the competition inclusive. (By the by.. one of my favorite changes has been to see the org acting more on data from the members and the hobby and less by "that seems to be about right")

 

I like the lottery solution implemented this year. I think you guys did a great job adapting to increasing demand while keeping it fair. Unfortunately it is a national competition with limited resources, which means you wont be able to accommodate everyone.