National Homebrew Competition 2017

It’s time to be planning your beers for this year’s National Homebrew Competition. Judging will be held on Saturday 5th November, hosted again by the good people at Fine Wine Delivery Co on Constellation Drive.

This means all entries will need to be received by us between Monday 17th October and...

A record 539 beers down and we have the results.

John Golics boasted that he was back to defend last year’s Champion Beer title and went one better taking out the Champion Brewer for 2015 which will see his beer released in conjunction with BeerNZ.
Oliver Drake’s Flander’s Red Ale took out the C...

SOBA NHC 2015

Here we go again! The SOBA National Homebrew Competition for 2015 is launched.

The judging will be held in Auckland this year on November 7th at The Fine Wine Company’s new Constellation Drive store. We’re sure this year is going to be the biggest yet, but whether it’s going to ...

SOBA NHC 2014 - Warm Up Interview 3 - Website and Systems by Phil Murray from Greig McGill on Vimeo.

SOBA NHC 2014 - Warm Up Interview 2 - Head Steward Alexandra McGill from Greig McGill on Vimeo.

SOBA NHC 2014 - Warm Up Interview 1 - Head Judge Graeme Mahy from Greig McGill on Vimeo.

Stewarding a beer competition is hard and generally thankless work. Depending on what you're assigned, you might be ferrying beer from the chiller, pouring sample after sample of beer to exacting specifications, attending to the judges, writing up judging notes at a judging table, or any other ta...

Running the NHC requires a lot of people. I thought I’d tell you a little about our team.

First up, home brewing, for a fair while there, had become something of a male dominated area. Homebrew stores felt very “blokey”, online forums seemed to be almost entirely men, and certainly, NHC entries ...

I’ve told you what it looks like to get the competition up and running each year. Here’s a glimpse into what it’s like on judging day.

By the way, judging is open to the public, so if you happen to be in the as-yet-unwalled-off city of Hamilton, you’re most welcome to stop by the Ruakura Club on...

I thought I’d update you all on the process of running the NHC so you know what goes on to get your labours of love in front of some great palates for some quality judging and feedback.

It starts with a lot of schmoozing and grovelling! As mentioned in the sponsorship and prizes post, it takes a...

The NHC couldn't happen without the generosity and support of our amazing sponsors. It costs a fair bit to fly in and accommodate our great panel of judges, and we simply couldn't do it based on entry fees alone.

Please consider giving all these sponsors your hard earned dollars whenever you can...

After some controversy in 2012, we changed the rules in 2013 to bar anyone working for a commercial brewing entity from entering the NHC. I explained that change thus in the FAQ:

Why can't I enter if I work for a commercial brewery? It doesn't make me any better as a brewer or give me secret pow...

Here we are, just one week until entries officially open for the SOBA National Homebrew Competition for 2013. Our systems are tweaked, our judges are confirmed, our stewards are wrangled (well, mostly!) and our amazing sponsors are on board.

This year, inspired by a great idea by Craig and Wendy...

Today's post is a guest article written by head judge Graeme Mahy of 666 Brewing

When I tell people I’m a beer judge, I always get the same response – “wow, where do I get a job like that? That must be fun!”. Well, to be honest, it is fun! It’s also bloody hard work, involving lots of concentra...

Today's peek inside the workings of the NHC will discuss scoring and feedback. Part of this will overlap with judging, but I'm waiting for our head judge to return from Australia to write a dedicated piece on that!

The entire point of the NHC is to give homebrewers a chance to have their beers e...

There are a number of commonly asked questions around the area of styles. In this post, I'll attempt to address the most common ones.

Why use styles at all?

A lot of people complain that styles restrict their brewing by trying to fit their beers into boxes. Were it not for style definitions, ju...