Got on right @ 3pm yesterday. Entered my biere de garde and my 80/-, IMO the two best beers I’ve made in 44 batches.
Psyched!
WHAT? I thought entries were closed!
I ‘registered’ for it way back, so they sent me a “second chance” entry thing on Monday, saying that since I was registered, but didn’t get any entries in, they were opening up entries one last time.
The only thing that sucks is you don’t get to pick your judging site, so I may have to ship bottles to San Diego.
This is the email I rec’d on Monday.
…
Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve the problems with this year’s National Homebrew Competition (NHC) registration. Our records show that you registered yourself for the NHC, but did not register any entries. We recognize that you likely attempted to register entries for the competition, but were unable to complete the process. There are a limited number of remaining entry spots available, spread across multiple judge centers. We will be offering these entry spots on a first come, first served basis to those like you that registered with the competition but did not register any entries.
Here is the information you’ll need to be ready for the re-opening of the remaining entry spots:
• Registration will be opened at 1:00 pm MST/3:00 pm EST on Wednesday, March 6 and remain open until 1:00 pm MST/3:00 pm EST on Thursday, March 7, or until all remaining entries are filled. We anticipate that remaining entry spots will fill up quickly.
• All remaining entries will be assigned by the AHA to a judge center based on availability. That means you will not be able to select the judge center to which your entries will be assigned.
• You must use this link to register your entries.
• Per this year’s NHC rules, you may enter up to 15 entries, however, there are a limited number of entry spots remaining, so we encourage you to consider your fellow homebrewers in deciding the number of beers you wish to enter.
• Plan to submit your payment immediately to secure your registration. Note: There will be no refunds once payments are submitted.
• We strongly encourage you to log in to the registration system now to verify that you have the correct email and password combination.
• If you register and pay for entries before the competition is full, you will receive a separate email from the AHA within the following several business days regarding the judge center to which your entries are assigned.
We greatly appreciate your patience and support through this process.
Regards,
Janis Gross
Competition Director
Yeah, the whole deal was completely SNAFU. Ticked me off. They should do the entries as a lottery, not who can be sitting there all day refreshing their screen waiting for the registration to begin. We may be homebrewers, but some of us have to work for a living.
agreed. I honestly think I registered for it months ago, before I realized how insane it was going to be on the day of entries opening.
That’s a great idea though. They should do the same thing for the AHAC, which was a big screen refresh party that also seemed to crash the server.
How does one do such a thing, pray tell? I would love to go this route next year if this madness continues.
I think they sent out an email to AHA members awhile back. They actually sent out another email awhile back saying that “second chance” registration ends today @ 3pm. I am thinking that is for AHA members only as well, then if there are not enough entries, they will open up to the general public.
Maybe it was because I registered to attend the AHAC? Sorry I’m not being much help here…
I’m excited for the competition, too. I happen to live about ten miles from one of the judging sites, so I was psyched to steward and enter. I took a day off so that I could register right when it opened. I hit refresh for 90 minutes before it finally let me add a beer. A couple of minutes later, registration closed. I got an email that night saying there were problems, but that I would still get to enter my beers. Turns out, instead of bringing my beers up for the competition, I’ll have to ship them about 1000 miles away. It’ll be a wash, financially, since they waived the entry fee, but it screws up my brew schedule. Now my beers have to be ready a couple of weeks earlier in order to ship. I’ve been scrambling to get yeast pitches ready.
[quote=“Pietro”]I think they sent out an email to AHA members awhile back. They actually sent out another email awhile back saying that “second chance” registration ends today @ 3pm. I am thinking that is for AHA members only as well, then if there are not enough entries, they will open up to the general public.
Maybe it was because I registered to attend the AHAC? Sorry I’m not being much help here…[/quote]
I’m a member of the AHA and have been for years.
I am registered for NHC
I didn’t get either of the emails you mention :evil:
[quote=“abrown001”]Now my beers have to be ready a couple of weeks earlier in order to ship. I’ve been scrambling to get yeast pitches ready.[/quote]Shouldn’t take more than three days to ship beer anywhere in the US.
There was no “early registration” for AHA members. I don’t know how you would have registered for it “months ago.”
I am an AHA member, and would have certainly registered early if that was any kind of option.
I got some beers in, but went through the same C.F. everyone else did - just happened to get luckier than some others did.
Not sure about the recent second chance deal, as I was fortunate enough to get mine in the first time around.
I got two entered, and picked the Zanesville location. My entries were 35 and 65 for that location. Was planning on driving down from Michigan to drop them off. After the snafu, my entries have been switched to Kansas City. Won’t be dropping them off, obviously. A little disappointed, but glad I was able to get a couple of entries in.
I know, but three days would mean shipping it on Monday. I’d like to give it an extra day to be sure, which means Friday, because of the weekend. That’s five days sooner than I planned. I’m entering some beers that will do best if they are freshest, and I was going to use the yeastcakes from two beers for two other ones. In this case, it just meant the difference between a 7 day primary and a 13 day primary on my cream ale, which led me to warm the fermentation up a few degrees after day 3 to make sure I got good attenuation. I doubt it will make a difference in the beer, but it meant that I took a day off of work to brew, rather than being able to wait for the weekend.
[quote=“Braufessor”]There was no “early registration” for AHA members. I don’t know how you would have registered for it “months ago.”
I am an AHA member, and would have certainly registered early if that was any kind of option.
I got some beers in, but went through the same C.F. everyone else did - just happened to get luckier than some others did.
Not sure about the recent second chance deal, as I was fortunate enough to get mine in the first time around.[/quote]
OK then I truly have no idea why I got this email and the ‘second chance’ nonsense. Maybe they just screwed up. Seems that it has happened before IIRC 
They should really do a lottery like they do for out-of-state big game tags. Each year you register, you get additional ‘entries’ in the lottery.
I will consider myself lucky.
Got this email today (Basically says that there are 450 spaces left, and registration for them opens on March 11 at 3pm eastern):
The AHA has been actively working to troubleshoot the multiple unfortunate issues that arose with the 2013 National Homebrew Competition (NHC) registration. We are deeply sorry for the difficulties. Here is where things stand with the competition as of Friday, March 8:
There are 450 total entry spots remaining in five competition judge centers. The AHA will re-open registration for these remaining spots on Monday, March 11. Not all judge centers have remaining entry spots; some are already at capacity. Please note: per the existing competition rules and regulations, participants with entries in a region that has reached capacity will not be able to add entries in a different region.
Entry registration re-opens at 3:00 pm EDT/2:00 pm CDT/1:00 pm MDT/12:00 pm PDT on Monday, March 11.
Entry registration will remain open until capacity is reached for all judge centers, or until the originally-scheduled close of registration at 2:00 pm EDT/1:00 pm CDT/12:00 pm MDT/11:00 am PDT on March 15, 2013.
If you already have entries in a judge center that has not reached its entry capacity, you may submit additional entries (up to the competition limit of 15) in that region only.
If you already have entries in a judge center that is full, you will not be able to submit additional entries.
The original shipping information and deadlines remain in effect.
Get a Head Start
To streamline entry registration on Monday, we encourage you to set up a new user profile or verify your existing user information in the system now. Select an open judge center and create your user profile or check your existing information by logging in to the center where you plan to enter.
Remember, entry registration doesn’t re-open until Monday afternoon as specified above, but you can set up or verify your user profile at any time between now and then.
When all 2013 NHC issues are fully resolved, the AHA will share an update on what occurred and where we are headed from here. In the meantime, please accept our staff’s apologies for the problems and frustrations with this year’s NHC registration. We greatly appreciate your patience and support through this process.
Regards,
Janis Gross
Competition Director
