THE RULES
Last Update: 3/27/2024- We added hop water to the list of beverages, and allowed for future beverages to be included as deemed appropriate to continue to support the homebrewing hobby.
1) There is no entry fee for competitors to compete in this competition.
1a) This competition is for beer, cider, mead and hop water only. (Hop water will be considered an "ale" for bonus scoring purposes.) Other beverages may be included in the future on an ad hoc basis as determined by us. All entries and categories must be treated equally in regards to earning its way onto the BOS table. Cider and mead categories must be treated equally as the beer categories. Any deviation from this will be addressed on a case-by-case basis, and the points awarded will be at the sole discretion of OSHBOTY.
2) Co-Brewers; if a co-brewer is listed for a winning entry, the main brewer will only score points for themselves. There are no points for co-brewers.
3) Competition organizers frequently elect to group multiple beer categories into single judging tables. When this occurs, OSHBOTY points are awarded as though the table were one category.
4) Points will be awarded for competitors that win individual categories and overall Best of Show (BOS), and 2nd and 3rd BOS.
4a) Category win points are awarded based on the number of beer entries that each winner “beats” in each individual category. For example, a BJCP #21 IPA flight with 17 beer entries will earn 16 points for the winner. (No points for 2nd, 3rd, etc. in category except as noted in rule 4g below)
4b) BOS win points are calculated thus:
For competitions UNDER 100 beer entries, the total number of entries in the competition/category. To avoid scoring double points for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd BOS winners, they will NOT score points for the individual category that their winning entry was in. For example: Following our example from 4a above, if that category-winning IPA also wins 1st BOS in an 85 entry competition, that winner would score 85 total points for that entry.
For competitions/categories OVER 100 entries: 100 points plus 1 additional point for every 10 entries over 100. To avoid scoring double points for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd BOS winners, they will NOT score points for the individual category that their winning entry was in (again, this eliminates scoring double points for 1st, 2nd, 3rd BOS win). From our example above, a 308 entry competition/category, the BOS win points would be 100+20=120
4c) Points for 2nd BOS will be 75% of the 1st BOS show points; 3rd BOS will 50% of the 1st BOS points. All fractional points are rounded down to the nearest point.
4d) Bonus points earned for winning multiple categories; 25 bonus points earned for winning in 4 different BJCP subcategories, plus 10 bonus points for each additional win in a separate category thereafter. 60 bonus points earned for winning at least once each in 4 of the following 6 categories; mead, cider, ale, lager, sour, and Belgian. 80 bonus points earned for winning 5 of 6, and 100 bonus points earned for winning 6 of 6 categories. (See below for the exact BJCP style numbers for each category)
In order for us to determine which subcategories each entrant may have won, this information must be provided to us by the competition organizers. As part of our sanctioning process the organizers must agree to provide us with this information, HOWEVER the NHC competitions can be an exception to this because they only provide the information they want and will not release entry-specific information to us upon request. What this means is if the AHA does not release specific subcategory information, the competitions will still be considered sanctioned, but winning entries cannot count towards the bonus points since we cannot determine which subcategory the entry won.
4e) Sours: BJCP categories 23,27 Gose, 28. Belgians: 24,25,26. Lagers:1a,1b,2,3,4,5a,5c,5d,6,7a,8,9,19b. Ales:1c,1d,5b,7b,7c,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19a,19b,20,21,22.
4f) In the event that an ineligible entry (out of state) wins BOS or any category, points will be awarded to the highest finishing entry per the formulas above.
4g) Special points scoring for all categories in the NHC competition, and any categories containing at least 10 entries in any other sanctioned competition: there will be points awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for each of these categories. Winning 1st will score the usual points as described in the BOS 4b section, 2nd place will receive 75% of the winner's point amount, and 3rd place will score 50% of the winner's point amount. Fractional points are rounded down to the nearest point.
5) Eligibility
5a) This competition is for amateur home brewers living in Oregon and in the nearby communities in neighboring states.
5b) Entrants must score points in at least 2 Oregon-based competitions to be eligible.
6) In the event of a tie, the number of BOS wins will determine the winner. Subsequent tie-breakers are as follows: number of bonus points, most wins in the 4 categories described in rule 4e, number of different category style wins, total number of category wins, number of different competitions each entrant has scored points in. The final tie-breaker is a coin flip.
7) The accumulation of points is for the calendar year.
8) Points for competitions do not become official OSHBOTY points until they are certified by the OSHBOTY staff. Certification involves tallying points, gathering contact info, verifying that score sheets have been delivered to entrants, and any other pertinent stuff required to maintain the integrity and fairness of sanctioned competitions. The sooner the competition organizers respond to our email, the faster their points get certified.
9) OSHBOTY sanctioned competitions will be determined by the following parameters:
a) Each competition must be held in Oregon. The AHA National Homebrew Competition will also be included. You may enter ANY first round site in the country.
b) All OSHBOTY sanctioned competitions must be BJCP sanctioned and registered on the BJCP calendar and open to the general public.
c) Competition information (# of entries in each flight and in the total competition and the winners of each category and 1st, 2nd & 3rd BOS, and the names of the BOS judges) must be available via a competition website or be readily provided to the OSHBOTY committee upon completion of the competition. This is to keep a tally of the running point totals. A contact email and/or phone number for winning entries is needed also (we can’t give you a “valuable award” if we can’t contact you!) As results come in we will keep a database of contact info for competitors.
d) Competitions must award a 1st, 2nd and 3rd BOS. Each judging table must have a BJCP judge. The BOS judging panel must have at least one BJCP judge. The BOS winners shall be determined by the best entries on the table to style, not the best beers to be brewed commercially. (This is to address competitions that have a prize of getting the winning beer(s) brewed at a professional brewery and whose BOS panel contains employees at that brewery. These BOS panels should be explicitly instructed of the potential conflict of interest per BJCP sanctioning rule #9)
e) The NHC competition is a little different than most competitions, and they play by their own rules when it comes to information sharing. Therefore, it is expected that if they do not share critical information such as entries per category or any other data we need to properly award OSHBOTY points per these rules, we will do our best to evaluate the data that is provided to properly award points.
10) All decisions of the OSHBOTY committee are final.
11) Every effort will be made to announce OSHBOTY sanctioned competitions and post our points as early as possible, but we are limited by the competition organizers sometimes, if they drag their feet in getting their competition registered with the BJCP or in getting us the results, there is nothing we can do. Ultimately, if we cannot acquire the needed information from a competition (even if it is an officially OSHBOTY sanctioned competition) by the end of the calendar year, that competition will be revoked and any potential points for competitors will be disallowed. We hope this never happens (again).
12) Members of the OSHBOTY staff ARE eligible to compete if they choose. In this case, all results will be certified by an outside individual who is not competing.