(BJCP and AHA sanctioned competition)

Getting around quickly...

• Receipt and Registration
• Preliminary Judging
• Final Judging
• Appreciation
• More information for the Alameda County Fair...

Receipt and Registration

There are 28 recognized beer, mead and cider style catagories by the BCJP (Beer Judge Certification Program at www.BJCP.org) each with a number of sub-categories totalling 114 in all. In 2007 the BJCP and AHA sanctioned Alameda County Fair homebrew competition recieved 80 entries.
Each entry includes:

• a form for the exhibitor (detailing the entries),
• three labeled bottles of beer
  
  • one for the preliminary (or diqualification) round of judging,
  • one for the final round of judging and
  • one for Best of Show.

This year we did the receiving, registering and sorting at the Alameda County Fairground Livestock Office (unfortunately it was too early to take a tour of the live-stock!!!).  We accepted over 80 entries (240 bottles were processed!).  It was a great turnout with 20% more entries then last year.

• Here you can see Roger and Randy registering the beers after they have been received by the fair.
  • Randy blacks out uniquely identifiable bottle caps, removes the rubber banded labels for Roger and puts a preprinted, self-sticking label dot on the bottle cap including: BJCP category, sub-category and entry number.
  • Roger staples the exhibitor's label on a page and puts the 4th preprinted label on this page so all this beer entries information is recorded in one place. Roger also writes up a self-sticking labels with any ingredients or other information judges may need and attaches them to the bottle.
  
  
  
  
• The bottles are then moved to another table where they are sorted by Fair DIVISION and BJCP categories. Once complete we will be able to determine the number of flights for preliminary judging. We will also be able to pull all those prelim bottles to send them to the waiting prelim organizer.
  
  
  

Preliminary Judging

We like to keep final round judging to 10 entries or less, in order to not fatigue judges palettes and maintain a high quality of feedback for the competitors. Preliminary judging is required for DIVISIONS containing more than 10 entries.

This year we held prelims at the Brewmaster homebrew supply store and at John Watson's apartment complex rec room in Sunnyvale. Holding prelims in different areas allows us to involve a greater number of qualified judges to evaluate and score the beer entries.

• Lewis reviewing and tallying scoresheets at the Brewmaster
  
  
  
  
• Bryan and Paul diligently focussed on providing valuable feedback to an exhibitor.
  
  
  
  
• Nic, Paul, and Roger going the extra mile evaluating an entry. I wonder what Nic has just tasted?
  
  
  
  
• Lewis insuring a constant supply of bread to help judges clear their palettes.
  
  
  
  
• Randy and Rodger Davis intently sensing a beer entry.
  
  
  
  
• Randy and Rodger Davis in the groove.
  
  
  
  
• Paul, Bryan and Cheryl finishing up another entry. Note the water, bread, dump bucket and forms. As you can see prelim judging requires as much effort as final round judging.
  
  
  
  

Final Judging

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Appreciation

Competition organizers appreciate the seriousness and dedication of judges like these, giving up an evening to evaluate and write up scoresheets for all these beers. We take our responsibility seriously.

Thank you Charlie Webster for documenting the various aspects of our homebrew competition.

More information for the Alameda County Fair...