Beers of the World - Mk 5 *** RULES AND SIGNUP HERE ***

[Bickaxe]

Its back and its almost as boozy as ever.

For those that haven't played before, all you need to do is send an email with a pic of the beer that meets the theme for a particular week.

Rules

1) You must be aged 18+ to take part in this competition as it requires purchasing alcohol.

2) Take a clear pic of the beer so I can see evidence of the theme being met.

3) Each week you enter a picture of your beer of choice for that weeks chosen theme. The picture must include a note with the words 'BOTW 5' and your Forum name written on it, this should be beside the beer can, bottle or bar taps. ANY pics entered without it will NOT count.

4) No photoshopping. Any suspect tampering will result in being barred from the competition.

5) Homebrews are not allowed.

6) 1 beer per email. Email must be received by 5pm each Saturday. Entries received after this will not count.

7) Email subject must be 'BOTW <insert letter>'

8) The Judges decision is final (that's me) although I may defer some decisions to an independent adjudicator

9) Results will appear in La Cuisine on a weekly basis

10) Jester card - When you decide to play your Jester card, make sure you state this within the email or email subject. If it's not stated, it will not count

11) No referencing websites for lists of ingredients, only the bottle/can/pump clip counts. Take several pics if you need to (front and back of can/bottle etc...)

12) I'll offer a prize for the winner. And the traditional wooden spoon for the loser. If Feek scores higher than you, you can see yourself out.

13) Remember, this is about trying new beers, having a laugh and a bit of fun. Enjoy it and enjoy the banter too. Good Luck all!


So send an email to beersotw5 @ gmail.com with the required info (remove the spaces). Feel free to use an anonymous account if you like.
You can send entries ahead of time, all 26 if you like but they must be separate emails. You can change your entry and I will only use the latest entry received before the deadline.
I may reply if your entry does not meet the requirements due to an oversight such as you forgot to include the date or the pic is not clear enough. Your new pic must be the same beer as your original entry.

Feel free to look at previous threads although a lot of the pics no longer appear.

Themes

Some classics make a return but some new themes have been added. Feel free to be as clever or risky as you like but my decision is final.

A - America - Made in America (1st May)

B - Belgium - Made in Belgium (8th May)

C - Chocolate - Must contain chocolate in the ingredients or have Chocolate in the name (15th May)

D - Dark - Must say Dark on the label (22nd May)

E - Eurovision - Enter a beer from the winning country (Italy) or worst performing country (UK). I'll even allow a beer the name of song from those countries whatever that maybe (29th May)

F – Five (5.0%) - The abv must be 5.0% (5th June)

G - Germany - Made in Germany (12th June)

H – Holiday - A reference to a public holiday – Xmas, Easter, etc.. (19th June)

I - Ireland - Made in Ireland (26th June)

J – Juice - A beer with fruit involved (3rd July)

K – King - A beer with the word King in the name (10th July)

L - Light - Must reference Light on label. (17th July)

M – Me - Must have Mark in the beer name. Edit: it's proven surprisingly difficult to get a beer that meets this criteria so here's an extra chance, M = Marriage. Submit a collaboration beer. You get an extra 2pts of you meet the original theme though. (24th July)

N - Non alcoholic - Max 0.5% abv (31st July)

O – Orange - Ingredient or name must contain Orange (7th August)

P - Porter - Self explanatory (14th August)

Q – Queen - Queen in the name or image on the label (21st August)

R – Red ale (or ruby) - Self explanatory (28th August)

S - Scotland - Made in Scotland (4th Sept)

T – Tea - Must use tea in the ingredients or in the name (11th Sept)

U – Untappd - Enter the beer with highest Untappd score over 4.25 and must have over 300 check-ins at time of judging. (18th Sept)

V – Vessel - Must have a picture of a ship or boat on the label (25th Sept)

W - Wales - Made in Wales (2nd Oct)

X - X-Rated - The label or name must reference something x-rated! (9th Oct)

Y – Year - The name or main image must reference a year (BBE will not count) (16th Oct)

Z - Zoological - Must have an animal on label or in the name (23rd Oct)


Scoring
Scoring happens when I total up the points for that week. I'll try and do this on a Sunday morning.
5pts for a unique beer.
You lose a point for every same beer that is entered by someone else.
You get a bonus point if none of my Untappd friends have checked in the same beer as you (I have 21 friends averaging 492 unique check ins).
There are random bonus points on offer each week. This will be announced in the results page the week before (nothing for the first week)
You each get a Jester Card as is tradition. This can only be played once and will double your points for that round.

These things are time intensive so I won't be posting images in the results thread. You are free to post images of your entries though as I am sure some people will be interested in trying new beers.

So, entries for American beer by 12:00am (UK) 2nd May 2021 and remember, its just for fun.

Example entry;




I'll not be changing the themes but feel free to comment on the rules or ask for clarification.

Please let me know if you are taking part so I know whom to look out for.

Drinkers:
Ahleck
Bickaxe (Judge)
Executive Beef
Feek (the token novelty act)
Lysander
Martynt74
MikeTheNative
Repta
Russinating
Sonea Fifer
Touch
Weringo <--- WINNER!!!


Please remember that drinking can be hazardous to your health and should be done in moderation.
You are responsible for you own actions.
https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/

 

[Bickaxe]

Untapped - Enter the highest rated beer you can or just play blind as you never know.
It's ranked 0-5 by the user with an average taken from everyone that checks in.... Carlsberg has 246,668 check ins with the rating currently at 2.97. So not very good.

I wanted to add something different that gives a lot of scope for type of beer
I should imagine other sites will score similarly but I use Untappd.

 

[Bickaxe]

Yes, you can enter the same beer for different rounds if it fits.
As for my friends, the are all different. Some like sours whereas I think they are an abomination.
2 of them run an alehouse and a couple have over 3000 unique check ins. The element of chaos should mix things up quite a bit.

 

[Bickaxe]

100% in . Nice one.

Just to confirm, the max bonus points for the Untappd score is 21 (hypothetically)?!

Hypothetically yes. It's a completely stupid idea but it should be fun. Chances of all my friends drinking that same beer and nobody else getting it... Not easy and I'm not even sure it's possible.

Add the 5 for a unique beer and play your Jester card and that's 52 points. Bottom to top of the table in 1 beer potentially.

 

[Bickaxe]

If there's 21 possible points available for something which is common amongst your friends and only 5 points available for something which is unique, the aim will change to finding the most popular* beers in the category rather than the most obscure?

*edit: maybe not most popular, but something well known and widely available.

Possibly. I'm not convinced all of my friends have tried the same thing though, I think there's might be a few points to gain but more than 5pts is unlikely.
But who knows what will happen, I'm certainly not trawling through to find out which beers we have in common until i see the entries. It would take days.

 

[Bickaxe]

I'm happy to change it.

I think you all might be over-estimating the chances of matching up but I am rewarding unique beers.

As a change, would you prefer :

If any of my friends have matched a beer, you get fewer points as if they are entering beers too? This could result in negative numbers which will be interesting.

Or

You get a set amount of bonus points for something truly unique. Match with my friends and you get bonus points, this would reward unique beers and common to a lesser extent. The only people you don't want to match with are those taking part.

Or

Something else

 

[Bickaxe]

I would say similar to this but the other way around:

5 points for submitting an entry
-1 point for each other poster who has the same beer
+1 bonus point if none of your friends have reviewed the beer

Just to be clear: I'm in whatever you decide the rules are

I'll go with that but it will mean no mad point gains which adds some chaos.
Will make the rule change now.

 

[Bickaxe]

I only want @Bickaxe's so i can stalk his friends beer check-ins

I figured someone might try this tactic so @Martynt74 starts on -1 pt.

Stalking is bad m'kay?

 

[Bickaxe]

I've tidied up the rules a little as I forgot to add the over 18 yrs old one. Not that anyone under 18 drinks proper beer but it should have been in there.

To avoid confusing me in my usual drunken state, especially on a Sunday morning when I'm working out scores, if anyone changes their username either deliberately or by self inflicting it, there will be consequences.

 

[Bickaxe]

So is the main way to "win" this to post a beer which qualifies for a category but which no-one else has posted?

Yep. Its not as easy as it sounds as some categories are quite restrictive. As Martynt74 says, there is much more choice now.

As some beers are seasonal, you could order the whole lot now and submit everything, but others may do the same and you are limited by what the website has in stock. Or, do it each week and take your chances with whats at the pub or supermarket and then panic once you can't find anything which I found made things much harder (and more fun).

 

[Bickaxe]

Pretty much. It was harder in the past as it took a lot to hunt out something special or that met the criteria. I think the more entrants will be key as general beer availability is so much better now than ~8 years ago.

Also @Bickaxe i've noticed you're not on the entry list. In the past i know Dirtyjester used to participate and was trusted enough not to open emails until he had his beer. I'm happy you doing the same

I thought about it but I have the advantage of knowing what most of my friends drink. If something is on at the pub, there is a good chance I will get a lot of extra points over the course of it and that seemed unfair.
I'm could give a list in advance to @Feek and award a bonus point if anyone else picks the same.

I'll be guided by a general consensus, I really enjoyed taking part before.

 

[Bickaxe]

True, or just remove that scoring option. It's a good novelty, but i'd take you being able to participate over bonus points.

Ok, I'm in

I also remember the embarrassment of asking for pen and paper in pubs as i scribble BOTW and the date and username on a napkin and stand next to the beer pump in a busy bar taking a photo (Worse for my wife who'd just walk away from me at that point)

This is why I always took my piece of paper with me, especially for beer festivals (never found anything as nothing had labels).

I think the incredible amount of beers out there these days, makes this just a case of ordering something really obscure for each category and winning. I would like to see an element of strategy i.e. risk/reward associated with the beer selection.

Something like you score points for each unique beer you select with the points being based on the number of ratings for that beer on ratebeer.com etc. Going with something popular carries the risk that someone else might do the same (high risk of scoring 0 points) but high reward if you do get it right. Need to make the choice of beer more strategic rather than just selecting something obscure and ordering it online etc.

I would like to make it more strategy based but also everything needs to be accessible as some people may be restricted to supermarkets only. Finding that balance is tricky.
I like the adding ratings as a score, maybe this only counts if a beer has over 1000 check ins. Would add an element of randomness and should eliminate the chances of a tie at the top.

I'll be up for giving this a go. I don't have any decent local beer shops so with current covid situation first few may not be too interesting. I'm assuming that you can't use the same beer for different weeks?
With the must contain 'chocolate' for example in the ingredients, would we have to take a photo of the bottle with that on?

You can enter the same beer for different weeks if you like, just make sure its in a different email.
I would need to see a pic of the label and the ingredients. If you reference the brewers website thats more work for me which I won't be happy with (I'll amend the rules to make this clear).

 

[Bickaxe]

What's the rule on other beverages? No cider or mead and thinks like that?

This is purely beer only so I do not expect to see any ciders or meads. Anyone that does enter one is on for a massive 0 points.
I will reluctantly allow sours even though its only mouldy fruit juice that has started to ferment.

Spreadsheets? Why not go all the way and make a Powerpoint presentation on your method for choosing beers?

Could always have bonus point for highest rated beer on Untapped? (Or lowest and then by drinking it you know you've earned that point )

Or least/most Untapped Check-In's

I like it so I will offer bonus points along these lines. The category will change weekly and will be announced in the results page for the following week, so nothing on offer for the first week and it will be picked by someone not in the game. This will benefit those that send their beer in each week but they also take the risk of not finding anything at all or even changing their choice.

 

[Bickaxe]

Yes, your example would be acceptable.

 

[Bickaxe]

Simply enter a beer that is highly rated on Untappd.
I asked a couple of friends what constitutes highly rated as everyone uses different systems to rate beer and the general consensus is that a score of over 4.25 is acceptable (I took an average of their answers).
Very simple, I've had 2 that meet that requirement this week.

I now realise that I forgot to add that to the rules, balls.

 

[Bickaxe]

I've only just clocked onto your "M" round you narcisistic git

I had a beer recently which would have been perfect. How I can find it again somewhere

 

[Bickaxe]

@Bickaxe - I've just emailed off my first few entries.

Can you confirm receipt when you get the chance please?

I have received 3 entries from you.

 

[Bickaxe]

What's the rules for the country rounds? Does it need to actually be brewed in the listed country?
For example, is Budweiser considered an American beer because it's an American brand or not because the Budweiser we get over here isn't actually brewed in America?

*No, I'm not going to drink or enter Budweiser, just using it as a well-known example.

Brewed and canned/bottled in America.
So something like Bud probably wouldn't count.
Feel free to send proof of this in the email.

Where is everyone sourcing their beers from?

Local if possible as my local alehouse gets all sorts of stuff in but some are more obscure so I'll be hitting various websites or breweries for delivery.
The H and X categories spring to mind as being harder to source locally.

 

[Bickaxe]

I've got a mystery box from flavourly that will work for a few. Then going to have to split the rest between the local tesco and a random corner shop that usually has a decent selection of more obscure beers. I might have to have a trip to Newport to visit the beer shop there though.

They have a beer shop now? I moved 5 years ago and Tiny Rebel was quite handy

 

[Bickaxe]

When we say America - @Bickaxe - presumably we mean North America?

Going back through the years for this game, yes.