From the Judges Table
Matt Brown
Kaptain's Kup You probably know already that the winner of this year's Kaptain's Kup award will have the opportunity to help brew Four Peaks award-winning K�lsch Sunbru with lead brewer Jim Roper. You can probably also guess that, with a prize like that, there are going to be a lot of entries in this year's competition. That means we need a lot judges - fifteen, to be exact. If you are not entering a beer in the competition and are willing to help judge, go to the Kaptain's Kup Judges discussion in the Competition Committee group and say so. You should plan on being ready to judge shortly after noon, and we can probably get it done pretty quickly if we have enough judges. Although it will not get you any BJCP points, it will be much more structured than in years past. You also do not have to be BJCP or have any experience to help out, so it might make for a great first experience if you're thinking about seeing what beer judging is all about. For those of you entering the competition, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind. First, your beer must be in a keg or other non-glass container because glass is not allowed at the park. You should also bring two gallons or more. The whole point of this particular competition is to encourage ASH members to brew and share with other members the style of beer that longtime ASH member Mark Helms loved the most. We aren't going to measure, but bringing a tiny sample for a few judges to try in hopes of winning a cool prize isn't what this particular competition is about at all. Finally, when you arrive, you need to find me or Krystal Bittner to register and receive your entry label, and your beer needs to be ready to serve by noon. If you have any questions, the K�lsch Kup page has some additional details. You are also welcome to contact me directly. Next Year's Springfest Competition I've started a discussion with Brewmeisters Anonymous about ASH doing another big competition earlier in the year. If we do it right, I think we can both come out on top. There are still a lot of things up in the air, but I think our best bet is probably going to be a competition a good bit earlier than theirs with the results announced at Springfest. If you want to be involved in the planning process, you should join the Competition Committee and start a discussion in the group. Homebrewer of the Year / AHA Club Only Competition A more complete 2013 HBOY schedule is now available online, but here are the firm deadlines for what you need to brew for the rest of the year if you want to participate: 2/24 -Barleywine* 3/19 -Light Hybrid 4/16 - Extract Beer* 5/21 - English Brown 6/18 - Fruit Beer 7/16 -Pilsner 8/20 - European Amber Lager* 11/19 - IPA I'd recommend you save some of the K�lsch you brew for Springfest to enter in the Light Hybrid competition. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what to brew in October and December for HBOY because AHA has yet to announce the styles. The dates with an asterisk are the competitions where the winner is going to be entered in the AHA COC. You can drop off all entries either at Brewer's Connection or at the ASH general meeting. The new weighted scores and rules for HBOY are designed to encourage brewers to enter as many of these smaller competitions as possible. In order to encourage even more entries, though, there are also going to be some prizes for the English Brown and IPA competitions specifically. I should be able to announce them next month, but trust me when I say it will be well worth your while to enter those two. That will hopefully drive up participation too, so I intend to register those two competitions with the BJCP. Salt River Fields Oktoberfest Salt River's Oktoberfest is going to be on 10/12 this year. Big plans are already in the works for a prize that will make last year's tour of the Leinenkugel Brewery pale in comparison. We are getting started with this very early, so it is going to be much more organized. It could also give ASH a great opportunity to reach out to a wide audience of people who don't know about homebrewing, and Salt River is giving us a lot of flexibility to structure the competition in a way that builds ASH's membership numbers and makes some money for the club. They are expecting more than 10,000 people at the event. If you have any big ideas about what we should do with our judging and our presence generally, join the Competition Committee and start a discussion in the group. ASH Oktoberfest With their event the week before ours, that means we need to do the judging for our Oktoberfest on a different weekend. I am going to aim for judging on 10/5 and 10/6 (if necessary). Mark it in your calendars now. Here is the deadline for this year's competition: 10/4 - Oktoberfest Entry Deadline Everything about the registration system and judging should be pretty much the same as last year, but I will be confirming all the details and putting it on the website as it gets closer. Other Events There are tons of other competitions all around the country, and BJCP lists a registered Competition Schedule. There are also other big events like Sam Adams Long Shot, which has yet to announce its entry deadline for 2013, and of course the National Homebrew Competition, with online registration 2/26 at 1pm and entries due from 3/18 to 3/27. Also, Brewmeister's Anonymous is judging its Great Arizona Homebrew Competition and Arizona Mead Cup on 4/27 and 4/28. The BJCP currently lists the wrong dates, so ignore those. The best-of-show prizes this year will be a complete all-grain brewing system and a co-op brew with Moonlight Meadery, respectively. Entries are due on 4/16. If you want to judge, this is a great opportunity for points too. Flyers for the events should be coming out soon, but contact Sonja Lockhart at (602) 770-1535 if you have any questions. BJCP Class Finally, Krystal Bittner is running the BJCP class this year, and it is scheduled to begin on 4/15 at 7pm. You can join the group here. This is going to be a great year of competitions and other opportunities! | 
