Is Canned Homebrew Allowed in Competitions?
By Dennis Mitchell, BJCP Communications Director
Within the past couple years, canning beer has become a reality for some homebrewers as can seamers have dropped in price and entered the homebrew marketplace. Because of this, the BJCP has received questions about the permissibility of canned beer in homebrew competitions. For questions like this as new technologies or products create change in the homebrew world, competitions organizers can always refer back to the BJCP Sanctioned Competition Rules for guidance. If the rules do not discuss something, then it is up to the competition organizer to address, so long as their decision does not violate the Sanctioned Competition Rules.
BJCP Competition Director Dave Houseman notes the BJCP has never specifically addressed cans in our competition rules. “The BJCP does not care what the entry medium is,” he says. “That is entirely up to the competition organizer.”
However, Houseman did bring up a concern with the small number of homebrewers likely to be submitting cans to competitions at the present time. “Our only condition is that the entry must be blind to the judges. So, if a competition wants to allow cans, they can. But if only one club member cans his or her beers and the competition only has one entry in a can, then it’s likely from that person and the judging is no longer blind. That holds true for swing top bottles and any other odd container. When this sort of thing is known to the judges, it’s not blind. But if cans become commonplace, then it’s not an issue,” Houseman says.
With the final round of the 2018 American Homebrewers Association National Homebrew Competition approaching, judges and stewards might encounter a can or two. According to AHA Competition Organizer John Moorhead, “Cans are accepted per the requirements in the NHC rules & regulations on container dimensions (less than 9.5” tall and 2.75” wide). I don’t know many cans that are wider than 2.5” and cans are most certainly below the 9.5” tall mark, so they are acceptable.”
While cans may be permissible in some competitions, Houseman mentioned a potential disadvantage for entrants sending cans instead of bottles: cans cannot be recapped in between initial judging and a mini-best-of-show round.
“Most competitions require two bottles. The first bottle is used for first round judging, and bottles are often re-capped and retained for a second mini-BOS judging round. While re-capping is not perfect, it does maintain some carbonation level when the entries are judged again after a period of time,” Houseman said. “Opened cans do not have a practical means of resealing, thus retaining carbonation for the mini-BOS round is problematic.”
So, why not send in an extra can for fresh mini-BOS judging? That needs to be cleared with the competition organizer if that option is not explicitly stated in the published competition rules. A competition’s decision to require two bottles/cans instead of three is a tradeoff between entry freshness in mini-BOS rounds and cutting down on the number of bottles/cans that need to be sorted and stored. Allowing certain entrants to enter a third bottle or can could be viewed as unfair if that opportunity is not provided to all entrants. And, if many entrants start sending a third container, the benefits of limiting entrants to two containers to minimize sorting time and storage space are lost.
To summarize, whether or not to accept canned entries, or entries in any non-standard type or size of container, is solely up to the competition organizer as long as the integrity of blind judging remains intact. Entrants with questions about entering cans or other containers should check published competition rules and contact the local competition organizer with questions if necessary.