Tag Archives: BJCP

Announcing Canadian Homebrew Championship (CHC) 2022

BJCP, Competitions, , ,

This is an Invite-Only Homebrew Competition for BOTY Final Round

Email questions to: comp@gtabrews.ca

Competition Details

Entrant/Volunteer Registration: Oct 24th, 2022, 12:00 PM
Entry Registration Opens: Oct 24th, 2022, 12:00 PM
Entry Deadline: Nov 11th, 2022, 4:00 PM
Judging Date: Nov 20th, 2022
Judging Location: Amsterdam Brewhall (45 Esandar Dr)
Results/Awards Ceremony: TBD

Cost of Entry: $10 per entry
– 2 bottles per entry
Payment: Paypal Only
Styles Accepted: All BJCP Beer styles (BJCP 2021 Guidelines)
Styles Limits:
– 1 entry per classic style subcategory (1-26)
– 2 entries per specialty subcategory (21B, 27-34), must be different beers
Entry Limits:
– Total cap: N/A (Invite Only)
– Per-entrant cap: 6 per person

Competition Overview

The Canadian Homebrew Championship (CHC) is a collaboration between the Canadian Brewer of the Year Circuit (BOTY), the Canadian Homebrewers Association (CHA), and the local organizing homebrew club (GTA Brews for 2022). This is an invite-only homebrew competition, where only the top 3 winners of each local club’s qualifier competition are invited to submit entries.

This competition acts as a Final Round for the BOTY circuit, where BOTY 2022 titles will be awarded:

  • 2022 Canadian Homebrewer of the Year
  • 2022 Canadian Homebrew Club of the Year
  • 2022 Canadian Homebrewed Beer of the Year
Continue reading Announcing Canadian Homebrew Championship (CHC) 2022 →

Announcing Summer Showdown 2022 – Homebrew Competition

BJCP, Competitions, , ,
Click Here to go to the main competition page and register!

Our popular seasonal homebrew competition is back for 2022, in person! We will be accepting all styles of beer, and for the first time we will be using the new BJCP 2021 Guidelines! Since this is our small competition, entry will be restricted to GTA Brews members only.

This seasonal competition is designed to be a “low stakes” introduction to BJCP competitions for club members to enter their beers for feedback and fun. The focus is on providing excellent feedback, so we keep the entry cap low. Our hope is that lots of first-time entrants will find themselves on the winners list and be motivated to continue entering competitions. This competition will be judged by BJCP Judges according to the newly released 2021 BJCP Guidelines.

If this if your first competition, please read our BJCP Competition Guide for tips on entering. If you aren’t sure which category to enter your beer, bring it to a club meeting, or email comp@gtabrews.ca.

Continue reading Announcing Summer Showdown 2022 – Homebrew Competition →

Announcing Summer Showdown 2021 – Homebrew Competition

BJCP, Competitions, , ,
Click Here to go to the main competition page and register!

Our popular seasonal homebrew competition is back for 2021, in virtually judged format! As usual, we will be accepting all styles of beer, mead, and cider. Since this is our small competition, entry will be restricted to GTA Brews members only.

This seasonal competition is designed to be a “low stakes” introduction to BJCP competitions for club members to enter their beers for feedback and fun. The focus is on providing excellent feedback, so we keep the entry cap and fee low. Our hope is that lots of first-time entrants will find themselves on the winners list and be motivated to continue entering competitions. This competition will be judged by BJCP Judges according to the 2015 BJCP Guidelines.

If this if your first competition, please read our BJCP Competition Guide for tips on entering. If you aren’t sure which category to enter your beer, bring it to a club meeting, or email: comp@gtabrews.ca

Continue reading Announcing Summer Showdown 2021 – Homebrew Competition →

Announcing Brew Slam 2019 – Homebrew Competition

BJCP, Brew Slam, Competitions, News, , , ,
Click Here to go to the main competition page.

Press Release

August 26th, 2019 – Toronto, ON

Inquiries about Brew Slam 2019 should be sent to: comp@gtabrews.ca

GTA Brews is excited to announce our fifth annual, nation-wide, homebrew competition for beer, mead, and cider; Brew Slam 2019 (#BrewSlam)! We are excited to build on last year’s massive success which saw 826 entries, from 191 entrants, in 8/10 provinces, judged by 75 judges, over just 3 days, making this the largest homebrew competition in Canada! We are ecstatic to have John Palmer attending as our guest of honour (Nov 8-10) to help ring in our 5th year!

This is a BJCP sanctioned competition, and also part of the Canadian Brewer of the Year (BOTY) circuit. The judging will take place at Amsterdam Brewery (Leaside) from Nov 8th to 10th. Judging will be performed by BJCP ranked judges and pro brewers, using the BJCP 2015 Guidelines and Provisional Styles.

Continue reading Announcing Brew Slam 2019 – Homebrew Competition →

Announcing Spring Showdown 2019 – Homebrew Competition

BJCP, Competitions, , ,
Click Here to go to the main competition page and register!

Our popular seasonal homebrew competition is back for 2019! As usual, we will be accepting all styles of beer, mead, and cider. Since this is our small competition, entry will be restricted to GTA Brews members only.

This seasonal competition is designed to be a “low stakes” introduction to BJCP competitions for club members to enter their beers for feedback and fun. The focus is on providing excellent feedback, so we keep the entry cap and fee low. Our hope is that lots of first-time entrants will find themselves on the winners list and be motivated to continue entering competitions. This competition will be judged by BJCP Judges according to the 2015 BJCP Guidelines.

Continue reading Announcing Spring Showdown 2019 – Homebrew Competition →

Brew Slam 2018 – Entry Registration Now Open!

Brew Slam, Competitions, , ,

Entry registration is now open, and spots are already filling up quickly! Visit the Brew Slam 2018 page to learn more, and register your entries.

Entry Registration and Drop Off

Registration will close on Nov 3rd, or when the 850 entry cap is hit. Entries will be accepted at drop off and shipping locations beginning on Oct 11th. If you need to drop off earlier for any reason, please email us.

If the cap is hit, the site won’t allow any more entries to be registered. In this case we will do our best to follow up on unpaid entries, and verify if the entrants still need the spot(s).

Please do everyone (especially our Registrar) a favour, and only register entries you actually plan to submit, then pay for them right away. We will provide regular entry registration updates on social media.

Volunteering

Brew Slam is a volunteer driven competition, so please consider donating a bit of your time to help this competition happen. The Brew Slam 2018 comittee has been hard at work for months laying the groundwork for another fantastic year, please help us out by registering as a volunteer.

We need help with Bottle Sorting (Nov 4th), and Stewarding/Judging (Nov 9-11th), learn more on our Brew Slam Volunteer page. If you have a friend that is a BJCP judge, please encourage them to attend!

Announcing Brew Slam 2018 – Homebrew Competition

Community, Competitions, Event, , , ,
Click Here to go to the main competition page.

Press Release

August 10th, 2018 – Toronto, ON

GTA Brews is excited to announce our fourth annual, nation-wide, homebrew competition for beer, mead, and cider; Brew Slam 2018 (#BrewSlam)!

Last year saw 804 entries, from 8/10 provinces, judged by 73 judges, over just 3 days, making this the largest homebrew competition in country!

This is an AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition, and also part of the Canadian Brewer of the Year circuit. The judging will take place at Amsterdam Brewery (Leaside) from Nov 9th to 11th. Judging will be performed by BJCP ranked judges and Continue reading Announcing Brew Slam 2018 – Homebrew Competition →

Announcing Spring Showdown 2018 – Homebrew Competition

BJCP, Competitions, , ,
Click Here to go to the main competition page and register!

The sixth competition in this small competition series will take place in May, and since we skipped Winter Warmer, we will be accepting all styles of beer, mead, and cider!

These seasonal competitions are designed to be a “low stakes” introduction to BJCP competitions for club members (and anyone else) to enter their beers for feedback and fun. This competition will be judged by BJCP Judges according to the 2015 BJCP Guidelines.

Continue reading Announcing Spring Showdown 2018 – Homebrew Competition →

BJCP Exam Prep Tips from Eric

BJCP, Learning Material,

Online Exam Tips

Tasting Exam Prep Tips

Tasting Exam Outline

  • Exam consists of writing scoresheets for 6 beers, with 15 mins given per beer
  • Bring mechanical pencil, erasers, and other writing items you want
  • Only basic calculators can be used, no smartphone apps
  • This is a closed book exam, referring of the guidelines is not allowed
  • The exam only covers categories 1-26, specialty categories are not included
  • Be prepared to write neatly and firmly to ensure the graders can read your writing clearly when scanned, also do not write to the edges or on the back of the pages

Brew Slam 2016 – Wrap Up

Community, Competitions, Event, , , ,

Brew Slam 2016 Awards wrapped up just over a week ago, results have been announced, scoresheets were posted, and prizes will be mailed (and emailed) out soon. I think it’s safe to finally start writing this wrap up post after what seems like almost a whole year of prep!

img_20161001_125947

Some notable accomplishments and improvements we made this year:

Cask Days Homebrew Comp 2016 – BJCP Results

Cask Days, Competitions, , , , ,

CDHC16_Results

Announcing the results from the BJCP component of the 2016 Cask Days Homebrew Competition! Please check the PDF link above for the list of winners. Congratulations to everyone that placed in the competition!

Judges were asked to nominate 1-3 beers from their table to move onto the selection component of the competition where the 10 brewers were selected. In total 21 beers were nominated for the selection round, and it was very difficult to pare that list down to only 10 beers. The selected brewers have been notified privately so we can begin planning, but their names won’t be announced publicly today. Cask Days will announce their names in early August.

Scoresheets containing the judge’s feedback and scores are still being sorted, but they will be sent out very soon.

In total we had 79 entries from 44 brewers submitted. Thank you to our 16 judges, and 5 stewards for their hard work on the judging day, we couldn’t have done this without you. There were plenty of excellent beers submitted and we wish we had enough capacity to brew more, but we we’re only able to select ten.

Don’t forget that Brew Slam 2016 is coming up in September! If you enjoyed this competition, you’ll enjoy Brew Slam even more since it is our flagship homebrew competition. We have thousands of dollars in prizes up for grabs, plus several Pro-Ams!

Thanks for Cask Days and Toronto Brewing for their partnership on this competition!

Here’s a few pictures from the final round to tide you over!

BOS cup mats

BOS discussion 1

BOS soo many glasses 21 beers each

Announcing Brew Slam 2016 (#BrewSlam2)

Community, Competitions, Event, , , , , ,

Click Here to go to the main competition page.

Press Release

July 5th, 2016 – Toronto, ON

 GTA Brews is pleased to announce the dates and details for our Brew Slam 2016 Homebrew Competition in Toronto. These dates might seem like a ways away, but it’s actually under 3 months away so get brewing and mark the deadline in your calendar!
 
Entry Deadline: Sept 24th, 2016
Judging Dates: Sept 30th – Oct 2nd, 2016
Account registration is open now! Visit the Brew Slam 2016 page for rules and entry details!
brewslam small fb-01

Brew Slam 2015 (recap) was our club’s first big competition. It was a huge success with 318 entries judged in only 2 days, almost 50 amazing volunteers, and thousands of dollars in prizes!

We are excited to build on last year and make Brew Slam 2016 bigger and better. Our goal is to make this the premier competition in the area for both judges and entrants. Toronto has the largest pool of BJCP judges in Canada which allows us to focus on the best quality judging and feedback possible. We are also excited to work with some fantastic sponsors for even better prizes than last year!

About GTA Brews
We are Toronto’s local homebrew club. Since establishing our club in 2013 we have gained momentum and grown into Canada’s largest homebrew club with well over 200 Paid Members. We bring Toronto area homebrewers together in person, and online, to create a friendly community where we share knowledge, talk shop, and provide feedback on each others homebrews. We welcome members of all experience levels including; potential brewers, new brewers, experienced brewers, and pro brewers.

Spring Showdown 2016 Results!

Competitions, ,

Spring Showdown judging happened yesterday April 27th. Scoresheets will be emailed out in the next week or two.

First of all, a huge thanks to all the volunteers for their hard work yesterday. Without the hard work of the judges and stewards this wouldn’t have been possible! I believe this competition was a huge success!

Also a huge thanks to Jordan and Rainhard Brewing for hosting the judging! Also thanks to Patrick Brown, Mark Verok, Andrew Byer, and Eric Cousineau for acting at drop off locations!

DSC_4523
View of the judges hard at work!

The results are posted in pdf below:
BOS
We had 63 entries, 16 judges, and 6 stewards. I believe the judging quality was overall high, and from where I was it seemed like judges felt comfortable and were able to focus on writing the best sheets possible.

Continue reading Spring Showdown 2016 Results! →

Announcing Spring Showdown – Homebrew Competition!

Competitions, , , ,

Full details are posted here!
http://www.gtabrews.ca/competitions/seasonal-competition/

Entries Deadline: Sunday April 24th, 2016
Judging: Wednesday, April 27th, 2016 at Rainhard Brewing Co.

The third competition in this series will take place in April and have the theme, Spring and Warm Weather Beers! We’ve also added cider for the first time!

Also, we have updated our software to BCOE&M 2.0.1! Check out the slick new UI!

Brew Slam 2015 Wrap Up

Community, Competitions, Event, , , ,

12094969_10100985846529330_1334500711766583317_o

Brew Slam 2015 judging and awards wrapped up last weekend and it was quite a whirlwind of activity. If you haven’t noticed yet, results from Brew Slam 2015 have been posted to the site. We ended up with 318 entries, 31 judges, and 9 stewards over both days of judging. Pretty great turnout for a first year competition!

PDF version of Brew Slam 2015 Results

Congratulations to everyone that placed in the competition. We already distributed many Continue reading Brew Slam 2015 Wrap Up →

Brew Slam 2015 – Judging This Weekend!

Competitions, ,

Our first annual BJCP-sanctionned competition, Brew Slam 2015, is here and we are very excited. The entries are all in and we are working on unpacking and sorting them all before the first judging day on Friday. We will update when we have a final tally of entries. We are adding sponsors constantly and already have a few Pro-Ams lined up for winners! This competition is part of the Brewer of the Year circuit has entrants from all over Canada.

Deadline: September 25th, 2015
Judging Dates: October 2nd-3rd, 2015
Pop-Up Bar and Award Ceremony: October 4th, 2015 @ Lansdowne Brewery

Tickets are now on sale for the Brew Slam Pop-Up Bar, where the awards for Brew Slam 2015 will be presented.

Check out the Brew Slam 2015 page for details.

Judges and stewards we need you! Please register here. Every judge and steward will receive $20 in ZackBucks to be used at Toronto Brewing.