Brewer of the Year

[Tony L]

Hi guys, a recent E-mail to me I thought I would pass on.

Hello,

I am writing to introduce you to  http://www.breweroftheyear.com/ .  This is a competition results website that has been set up with the intention of tracking registered homebrew competition results across Canada.  We track individual homebrewer results, as well as homebrew club point totals.  This site has been developed in consultation with several different individuals from across the country, including homebrewers, homebrew club presidents, and competition directors – people with whom we had been in conversation regarding filling a developing need in the competitive homebrew community.

Our hope is that breweroftheyear.com will be accurate, efficient, easy to use, and quickly updated.  Furthermore, we are in the process of developing some pretty sweet prize packages for the top three homebrewers and the top homebrew club in the country.  In addition to that, we are working on detailing an Invitational Competition that would be open to the top 25 ranked homebrewers in the standings at the end of the competition season.  Our seasons will run according to the calendar year – January 1 – December 31 (this season will also include the National Capital Homebrew Competition results from 2012, as many competitive homebrewers entered this competition with the expectation that this would count towards their standings).

We invite you to check out the website.  Our results are up to date and include all of the main homebrew competitions run so far this year.  We will also be including results from the other main competitions this year.  While there has already been a great deal of development on the site, I would like to hear feedback from any interested parties.  One thing you won't be able to see yet is the results submission form, which is an efficient and streamlined process for competition organizers.  This consists of simply plugging in the first and last name of winning brewers, as well as their stated homebrew club, in fields that are organized first through third by the BJCP categories.  Having tried it out myself, I have to say it is rather quick and easy to complete and automatically submit on the site.

As mentioned on the site, if you note any errors (the main possibility at this point is a brewer not having his or her club listed – and the greatest potential here is from the results from the Vanbrewer Awards and NCHC (mined from their websites), as I noticed some individuals where cities were given, even though I know they are members of certain clubs...I gave due club credit where I was able) please let me know, and I'll rectify the situation as quickly as possible.  I want all clubs to receive their due credit!  I am looking forward to next year's full season, with all results submitted through the site from the beginning...as it will be far quicker to get results posted and uniform!

Please take a look and let me know what you think.  I would appreciate any feedback you can provide on this, as we are trying to make this as effective and user-friendly as possible...and the prizes certainly don't hurt, either!  If you have any questions, I'd be very happy to answer anything I can.  If there are any issues you would like to introduce, please let me know.  One thing that we are kicking around is the possible inclusion of mead/cider/perry results in the standings for next year.  We are asking clubs for feedback on that area, for sure – which clubs accept them, roughly how many entries they get, and whether or not they feel competitions will benefit by counting those points (we were thinking about potentially counting a 24-26 and a 27-28 category...or maybe all lumped into just one...this is up for some debate).

Thank you very much for your time, and we hope to hear your thoughts on breweroftheyear.com!

Warmest regards,
Jeremy Cowan

[Richard]

Sounds excellent, I'm sure the exec will touch base with their crew and get us online

[fakr]

sounds really interesting.