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As mentioned at the meeting last night, the AHA has decided to no longer publish a COC schedule. However, there is plenty of interest to continue the COC within our club and award a Brewer Royale trophy at the end of the year.

The officers chose German Wheat and Rye as the August COC and Christmas/Winter Specialty Spiced beer for October/November.

What would you like to see for categories in 2014?

Octoberfests seem very popular in the club, that could make a fun august/september comp.
A lof ot people just got barrels so maybe a wood aged specialty sometime next year?
I think it would be smart to have an early in the year comp for Belgian Pale Ale so we can get a little feedback on this style and try to dominate at the Big Batch Brew Bash next year.

Well to the extent that part of the reason for doing these is to get the new members/brewers involved in competitons; I would suggest going light on the lagers or soured/wood aged beers. I really don't know what percentage of the membership does beers like that but I suspect they are a relatively small minority. If you decide to include a lager next year though, an Octoberfest for fall is a good choice since besides competing in the Brewer Royale the members can bring the beer to the annual fall party. I would also suggest having at least a couple of styles that work well with extract brewing. Most of the guys/ladies that have been around for a while do all grain brewing but you want the extract brewers to be competative (you know, pale ales, porters, stouts etc). You might also consider somehow combining these contests with whatever educational stuff you are doing so the newer folks can learn about a style then learn how to make it (which might lead to better results in the large contests like the Bluebonnet for instance).

Finally, as I alluded to last night, if you want to contest anything that is really big, it would be best to have that later in the year so that the competators have an opportunity to age their entries. Unlike other clubs, we really don't want to give people a month to brew a Barley Wine, you know?

Bill Lawrence wrote: Finally, as I alluded to last night, if you want to contest anything that is really big, it would be best to have that later in the year so that the competators have an opportunity to age their entries. Unlike other clubs, we really don't want to give people a month to brew a Barley Wine, you know?

We'll give folks plenty of time to brew a barley wine, but for malt liquor, we'll only give you a few weeks notice.

Fair enough.