What Do You Like Better, Christmas or Competition Season?

The answer in this case is in fact Christmas. Competition season has better rewards than new underwear, a few mediocre football games, and a ham dinner. But man it can be awful in the moment. In fact, brewing the beer might be the easiest part.

Tell Me Bout These Comps

Competition season, or at least homebrew competition season, is like the PGA tour. It kicks off in the middle of winter, there are an ungodly number of tournaments, and only a handful of majors. On second thought maybe it’s more like Nascar with the “super bowl” event (man I’m really twisting these sports metaphors in knots) to start the season and a list of lesser events through the year. Yes, lets settle on the Nascar analogy and run with that.

The grand-daddy in the homebrew world is the National Homebrew Competition (NHC) by the American Homebrewers Association (AHA). Registration has already begun (January) with national winners awarded late June in conjunction with the annual Homebrew Con (this year in lovely Providence, RI).

First, you have to register an application for the competition with the number of submissions you are requesting and the regional judging center(s) you’re willing to drive or ship to. Second step for NHC is to enter and pay for your beer submissions. This includes choosing the style categories, adding recipe notes, and settling up on entry fees. Then, if you’re like me, you have to bottle said submissions (since I almost exclusively keg my beers) and then package them for shipping (unless you really want to road trip to Sacramento just to drop off beer). I’ll come back to shipping beer a bit later, but for now lets keep on the comp timeline. After shipping your brews in March, and praying they arrive undamaged, you have to wait for judgement day in mid-April. You hope to get these Regional judging results back by early May. Finally, if you get through to the Finals you have to re-bottle, ship, pray, wait, and then final judgement in June.

It’s  exhausting.

So How Should I Get Beer to its Destination?

Now when it comes to shipping beer, particularly the homemade kind, your options are sub-optimal. Ideal is having a regional judging center close enough to you to just drop off and see your carbonated kids to the door. Next option is sending with a private shipper but some have a no alcohol clause and others require you to get a known shipper account set up to ship alcohol; and if you’re not a business it looks…interesting. Another option is to call in a favor/plead/beg a local brewery who likely has a FedEx/UPS/whatever account for shipping samples and ask to use their account. I think I’ve bought enough beers at the local breweries to call this one in for 2019. Last option, and probably used more frequently than anyone will admit, is USPS. And yes, it is illegal to ship alcohol with USPS. And no I will not say whether I’ve done this before- I plead the fifth your Honor. If you dare, USPS is a cheap, laid-back, and reliable (at least shipping non-beer things) way to do it in a pinch. But if the shipment gets caught; or if bottles break because you told them it’s not fragile; or if it’s skunked because you told them it’s not perishable; or they smell your lies, Well, you’re just f*cked.

It’s stressful.       

But getting results back, seeing your scores, and reading judging notes is really gratifying even when they call out flaws. “Very estery. Watch your fermentation temperature.” And if you’re lucky enough to get a great score, maybe a ribbon, and on through to nationals, it’s even better. “A very enjoyable beer and great example of the style.”

It’s rewarding.

So that’s the NHC in a nutshell. Then there is the CA State Fair, the regional fairs, other state competitions, local and regional homebrew club competitions, ProAms, etc. etc. etc. Each follow similar registration-entry-ship-wait-judging-wait-results flow. Sometimes strung out over days and sometimes over weeks.

Lessons Learned

Be selective- with the number of annual competitions it can feel like one of those restaurant menus that has 85 items and every type of cuisine. Work to find the few items that look really good to you.

Plan ahead- depending on the style, gravity, and packaging you may need a good deal of time for that lager to actually lager, the robust porter to mellow, or a Belgian to bottle condition. Use google calendar or similar to keep it all straight. I just punch in the entry, submission, shipping and judging dates at one time so I don’t stress. The reminder will pop up in my email and I’ll know when it’s go time.

Keep packing materials on hand- specifically bubble wrap, packing tape and gun, rubber bands, and some different size corrugated boxes. Save the hassle of running to Office Depot or hoping your Prime order shows up on time. Just keep it on hand.   

My 2019 Game Plan

Like I said at the top, we’re just entering the start of comp season and it can be overwhelming. What am I going to brew? What categories may be most and least competitive? Do I have enough bottled up to submit this beer to X, Y, and Z competitions? Should I re-brew this beer now in case I do get it through to nationals? Keeping entry deadlines straight. Keeping ship deadlines straight. Making sure there’s enough bubble wrap and packing paper on hand. It can be as taxing as you want it to be.

This year I’ll be strategic about competitions. NHC and CA State Fair are musts. Beyond that I’d like to enter one or two SoCal competitions and enter a few style specific competitions. For example, a club up in Washington put on a lager-only competition last year. I found another that was strictly Belgians.  

It’s exhausting. It’s stressful. It’s a time suck. It’s rewarding. Focus on that last one and it will make the rest worth the effort.