Buffalo-Niagara Zoom Judging
Thank you for your interest in the Buffalo-Niagara Zoom Judging organized by .
You only need to register your information once and can return to this site to enter more brews or edit the brews you've entered. You can even pay your entry fees online if you wish.
Entry Registration is Open
30 entries have been added to the system as of 2:28 AM, Saturday, June 6, 2020.
To add your entries into the system, please proceed through the registration process or log in if you already have an account.
Judge Registration is Open
The limit of registered stewards has been reached.
If you have not registered and are willing to be a volunteer, please register.
If you have registered, log in and then choose Edit Account from the My Account menu indicated by the icon on the top menu.
Rules
Welcome to the First Ever Virtual Waves of Grain Homebrew Competition organized by the Niagara Association of Homebrewers!
Please register once to enter a brew, edit details, and/or judge in the competition. You may also pay the entry fee online if you wish.
This competition is AHA sanctioned and open to any amateur homebrewer age 21 or older.
All mailed entries must be received at the mailing location by the shipping deadline - please allow for shipping time.
All entries will be picked up from drop-off locations the day of the drop-off deadline.
All entries must be handcrafted products, containing ingredients available to the general public, and made using private equipment by hobbyist brewers (i.e., no use of commercial facilities or Brew on Premises operations, supplies, etc.).
The competition organizers are not responsible for mis-categorized entries, mailed entries that are not received by the entry deadline, or entries that arrived damaged.
The competition organizers reserve the right to combine styles for judging and to restructure awards as needed depending upon the quantity and quality of entries.
Qualified judging of all entries is the primary goal of our event. Judges will evaluate and score each entry. The average of the scores will rank each entry in its category. Each flight will have at least one BJCP judge.
Competition cap of 40 entries. $3 entry fee to cover a prize for BOS (Best of Show) winner, 2nd and 3rd place.
The competition committee reserves the right to combine overall style categories based on number of entries. All possible effort will be made to combine similar styles. All brews in combined categories will be judged according to the style they were originally entered in.
The Best of Show judging will be determined by a Best of Show panel based on a second judging of the top winners.
The competition organizers reserve the right to combine styles for judging and to restructure awards as needed depending upon the quantity and quality of entries.
Qualified judging of all entries is the primary goal of our event. Judges will evaluate and score each entry. The average of the scores will rank each entry in its category. Each flight will have at least one BJCP judge.
Brewers are not limited to one entry in each category but may only enter each subcategory once.
The competition committee reserves the right to combine overall style categories based on number of entries. All possible effort will be made to combine similar styles. All brews in combined categories will be judged according to the style they were originally entered in.
Judges
If you have registered, log in and then choose Edit Account from the My Account menu indicated by the icon on the top menu.
If you have not registered and are willing to be a judge, please register.
Two BJCP-ranked Judges will be paired with a Novice Judge to judge an assigned flight. Flight Judges may utilizing Zoom or other web-based virtual meeting hosting site, and standard BJCP scoresheets and one Flight Summary Sheet per group, available for download from the BJCP website. Flight Judges should coordinate a time and date to engage in judging the assigned flight. Commence judging on days beginning Tuesday, June 9, 2020. 1st place winner of each flight advances to Best of Show Round Saturday, June 20th 2020 at 1 PM. Broadcast via Zoom and Facebook. Specific Guidance below:
1. This will require all flights be completed by Friday June 19th, and Competition Organizer identify flight winners to get requisite beers to Niagara Tradition at 11AM. This affords BOS judges time to retrieve bottles prior to BOS event. Ideally, judging rounds will be completed in a timely fashion to allow registrar to forward the correct beers with appropriate identification for BOS judging.
2. Judging rules should follow standard BJCP rules otherwise – given this is obviously a pilot competition on a virtual format, there are going to be limitations. For example, if judges cannot assign a reasonably close score, or if one bottle ends up being a gusher or unlike the remaining bottles from an entry, improvisation will be necessary. If it boils down to anyone clearly getting upset, note the entry number, and the entry will be judged by our BOS Judge Panel from the remaining 3 available bottles, as a prelude to the actual BOS round. As much as possible, we will need our judges to work collaboratively to problem-solve. This is for fun; nobody is supposed to get hurt!
3. Competition Organizer will make flights available for each Judge to retrieve from Niagara Tradition prior to agreed-upon judging session. Please contact Niagara Tradition to notify of pick-up time.
4. Each Judge should e-mail a scanned or photographed picture of all scoresheets once complete to the Competition Organizer. Similarly, the Head Judge for each flight should forward the Flight Summary.
5. Web-based meetings via Zoom or other formats may have meeting time limits. Options include re-initiating meetings when each expires in consecutive fashion, or request Competition Organizer to host meeting. Competition Organizer will not be a participant in meeting, but will act only as host for sake of convenience. If all judges on a flight agree to do so, the meeting can be recorded for educational purposes.
6. Each Judge will be responsible for appropriate beer serving temperature and pour. Clear plastic cups will be available for pick-up at Niagara Tradition with each flight assignment.
Competition Officials
You can send an email to any of the following individuals via Contact.
- Tim Belczak — Web Support
- Keith Curtachio — Virtual Meeting Support
- Mark Zambron — Competition Coordinator