www.nthba.org

Here is what we have heard about the Cactus:

The event and ceremony will be held Friday, September 18th, 2009, at a yet to be determined location, although we are considering the patio area at Murphy's Irish Pub.

Here are the style categories:
Category 8(English Pale Ale)
8A) Standard/Ordinary Bitter
8B) Special/Best/Premium Bitter
8C) Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)
Category 10(American Ale)
10A) American Pale Ale
Category 14(India Pale Ale, IPA)
14A) English IPA
14B) American IPA
14C) Imperial IPA
Category 16(Belgian and French Ale)
16B) Belgian Pale Ale

Also, Area 51, the most unusual Pale Ale

Deadlines for entries are August 10th through August 21st, 2009

Surprise! I didn't realize there would be so few categories. Is this normal or new? I've been trying to look at their site for days, and it is perpetually under construction.

I am not sure I like this change. If they are unable to get enough support to run a comp like last year it would be nice to have known that.

donniestyle wrote:Surprise! I didn't realize there would be so few categories. Is this normal or new?

It is new, they had alot more catagories last year. See: http://www.ale-iansociety.org/cactus/2008winners.htm

I guess these guys are kinda at a disadvantage, because they do not have any near by clubs that can support/help them w/ the contest. Imagine if we had to do the Limbo w/o the support of the Knights, C&H and all the others that help. It would be much more difficult.

They had 272 entries last year. It had to be a beating, for one club to judge all those entries. FYI for comparison the Limbo had 142 entries last year.

Orlando

I am planning to go to Lubbock this year for the competition. Anyone else want to go?

Also, the Celtic had 270+ entries this year. 7 NTHBA members were there judging, JD, LG, MG, JO, ST, DL, and myself. We knocked it out in short order. Maybe they just need a little more help.

Editing again .... How will they run this? Do they pre-judge the entries, or at the event? It sounds like it is going to be very small.

"jThe event and ceremony will be held Friday, September 18th, 2009, at a yet to be determined location, although we are considering the patio area at Murphy's Irish Pub.

I'd like a lot more information. Fortunately, they should be getting it all decided soon.

Guerra wrote:I guess these guys are kinda at a disadvantage, because they do not have any near by clubs that can support/help them w/ the contest. Imagine if we had to do the Limbo w/o the support of the Knights, C&H and all the others that help. It would be much more difficult.

Guerra wrote:They had 272 entries last year. It had to be a beating, for one club to judge all those entries. FYI for comparison the Limbo had 142 entries last year.

Yes, this has been a large part of the problem. We apologize for the limited entries this year; but it is best for the club and the sanity of the members working to keep the Cactus Challenge. I hope you understand.

Thank you.
Jerry

http://www.ale-iansociety.org/phpBB3/index.php


Entries can be shipped to:
Cactus Challenge
4901 40th Street
Lubbock Tx 79414

Thanks and Good Luck

Hello everyone! Please read below:

http://www.nthba.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=480

I am sorry for the mis-communication along the lines. We will accept the entries through August 28th. We had to do that because we had about 15-20 people TOTAL last year to help with judging. That is just too many entries for our small club, and we didn't want to limit it by size and step on the toes/originality of the Limbo contest, so the style limits was what we decided on. We e-mailed the Lonestar Circuit in late May to try and get that info and the styles out there as early as possible, but it seems all the info got cross between our meetings, our rep to the LSC, and the LSC itself. Again, I'll take the heat for that since I am the Cactus coordinator.

Again, please don't hesitate to e-mail me at craftydog@gmail or PM me here on your forum (or MattC on the Ale-Ian Forum as well), or call me at 806-438-6977 if I can be of an help.

Thanks!

Matt

Checking in to make sure you all have everything you need to be successful this year!

http://www.ale-iansociety.org/cactus/index.html

I'm here if you need me.