The National Homebrew Competition (NHC) is purported to be the “world’s largest international beer competition recognizing the most outstanding homebrewed beer, mead, and cider produced by amateur brewers worldwide.”
The competition consists of two rounds, the first of which is held in 9 regions of the U.S. plus Canada. Regional winners who place in each of the BJCP Style Categories will then move on to the Final Round to be held on June 17th at the National Homebrew Conference in Minneapolis, MN.
This year there were 6281 entries from almost 1600 homebrewers. First round results have been released, so at the risk of branding myself a geek, I thought it might be interesting to punch them into a spreadsheet and crunch the numbers. Here’s what I discovered.
Total Number of First Round Winners: 810
Number of First Round Winners by Region
- 84 – Northeast
- 84 – Old West
- 84 – South West
- 83 – Northwest
- 83 – South
- 82 – Great Lakes
- 81 – East
- 81 – Midwest
- 80 – West
- 68 – Canada
With a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place awarded in each of 28 BJCP categories in each of 10 regions, there are a maximum of 840 possible first round winners. The number of actual winners is less for two reasons.
First, Canada ended up collapsing a number of categories due to the limited number of entries received.
Second, there is a minimum score of 30 (out of 50) to place in any category. E.g., if a category only had two entries judged higher than 30, then there would be no 3rd place awarded in that category. Out of 10 regions, only 3 awarded places in all 84 possible slots.
My own region, West, passed only 80 winners as we apparently couldn’t award all 3 places in some of the mead categories. (Let me be the first to say it: let’s get out there and make some mead!)
Top States by Number of First Round Winners
- 147 – California
- 47 – Ohio
- 44 – Minnesota
- 38 – Colorado
- 37 – Texas
- 32 – Saskatchewan, Canada
- 30 – Illinois
- 28 – Florida
- 26 – Indiana
- 26 – Michigan
- 26 – Oregon
- 25 – Washington
The most obvious take-away is that CA had more winners than the next 3 states combined! (It might be a bit more fair to look at these numbers per capita, but I’m not THAT much of a stats geek!) There certainly are a lot of great brewers here in the Golden State.
Top Homebrew Clubs by Number of First Round Winners
- 51 – The Brewing Network (various locations)
- 45 – Saint Paul Homebrewers Club of MN
- 43 – Diablo Order of Zymiracle Enthusiasts (DOZE) of CA (Northern)
- 30 – Ale and Lager Enthusiasts of Saskatchewan (ALES) of SK
- 25 – Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity (QUAFF) (Southern)
This is an interesting result. I never really thought of the Brewing Network as a homebrew club, but apparently there are quite a few people out there who do.
The top brick-and-mortar club was in Minnesota with 45 first round winners. But, wait! Minnesota only had 44 of the top winners by state. Well, it seems Gordon Strong of Beavercreek OH is actually affiliated with the Saint Paul Homebrewers and helped tip the scales in their favor. Read on to find out why this is worthy of note.
Since I’m in Northern CA, I have to mention that DOZE, a Bay Area club based in Walnut Creek, took home almost 1/3 of the total CA winnings. These guys are obviously rockin’, so my hat is off to them!
Top Number of Awards by First Round Winners
- 14 – Gordon Strong of Beavercreek OH
- 10 – Kristen & Orsolya England of St Paul MN
- 8 – Louis de Bourbon of Mississauga ON
- 8 – Mark Heise of Regina SK (Saskatchewan)
- 7 – John Jurgensen of San Antonio TX
- 7 – Nathan Smith of San Leandro CA
- 7 – Steve Kirby of Tucson AZ
For those of you who don’t know the name Gordon Strong, he is currently President of the BJCP and has been the Ninkasi Award winner for the past two years running. The Ninkasi Award (arguably THE Holy Grail of homebrew competition awards) is given to the brewer who takes the most Final Round points in the NHC.
Since Gordon has the most First Round entries advancing to the Final Round, he has the best shot of getting the Ninkasi again this year. If he does, he’ll be the first person to do so 3 times, and he’ll do it 3 years in a row. Good luck Gordon!
Top First Round Points
- 52 – Gordon Strong
- 40 – Kristen & Orsolya England
- 30 – John Jurgensen
- 30 – Nathan Smith
- 30 – Steve Kirby
Here is another way to look at the top winners using the NHC point assignments of 6 points for 1st place, 4 points for 2nd, and 2 points for 3rd.
Although these First Round point totals only become relevant in the case of a Final Round tie, seeing Gordon yet again on top indicates he’ll likely do well in the Final Round as well.
So there you have it. A Competition Geek’s look at this year’s NHC First Round results.
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What?!? No shout out for Worts of Wisdom in the BayArea? We’re a small club but actually advanced 5 in some of the most contested categories: American Ale, Stout, Indian Pale Ale, and Spice/Herb/Vegetable Beer.
dWiGhT
Ha! I’ll make sure to let Brian know. What was the Spice/Herb/Vegetable beer?
Worts of Wisdom shout out:
* 1st Place American IPA – Dwight Mulcahy
* 1st Place Stout – Jason Komadina
* 1st Place American Pale Ale – Brian Sassone
* 3rd Place American Pale Ale – Erich Schmidt
* 3rd Place Spice/Herb/Vegetable – Tony Bruno
It’s also interesting to note that Pale, IPA and Stout are three of the most competitive categories that get the most entries in competition (at least here out in the West.)
Congrats!
Tony says it’s “a winter ale made in the old ale style with ginger, ground cardamon seed, allspice, and nutmeg.”
He also indicated there might be a “secret” ingredient or two thrown in for good measure.