Falcon Homebrewer Of The Year (Merlin Cup Awards)
The Merlin Cup has been retired as of the start of 2022. Suggestions on a replacement competition are welcome. Please comment on this page or send comments to publicity (at) maltosefalcons.com
Points for the last competition to be held are below:
Contest links: Point Details, Submit Points, Contest Rules
Merlin Cup
Maltose Falcons Homebrew Society Homebrewer of the year
An award to recognize one member for their club and community involvement and personal achievements in homebrewing. This person is the epitome of the traits they we hold in highest esteem and is expected to continue to participate, educate and give back to less experienced club members in the same way that they were tutored when they were novice.
Points may be earned throughout the year from the day after the annual club's Oktoberfest, through the week before the Oktoberfest the following year (i.e. October 2014 through the end of September 2015). Some points are recorded by club officers, but most will be self reported. All will be tracked on the club website and posted periodically to encourage competition. Those with the highest point values at the end of the year will have their achievements confirmed by the Merlin Cup sub-committee, who may eliminate point submissions at their discretion, and final point values tallied. Points will be awarded as follows:
Note: Points may only be collected from a single line item for any given event. For instance, if you organize a club brew and submit the associated write up to the newsletter, you earn only 3 points for "Organizing a club activity", and not 1 point for the write up and 3 points for organizing. The same goes for officers who act according to the duties of their office. They collect points for the office, and not for individual actions.
Note: In order to collect points for competition you must identify as a Maltose Falcon for your club affiliation. You must be a fully paid member at the period of points review at the end of the year.
Club Participation
There is no club without member participation and involvement. In order for club events to take place, there must be other members to show up and others willing to organize and run them.
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1 point - Winning the "Best Beer" as voted during the monthly club meetings.
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1 point - Contributing an article that was included in a monthly newsletter.
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3 points - Organizing a club activity.
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5 points - Faithfully serve as an officer of the club for the duration of the year.
Community Participation
Falcons members represent some of the most experienced homebrewers in our region and have much to offer the regional and national homebrewing community.
- 2 points - For each BJCP point earned for organizing, stewarding, judging or administering tests in BJCP sanctioned events.
- 2 points - For contributing to the homebrewing community at large. Writing articles for homebrewing publications, leading educational courses, speaking at conferences, authoring books, appearing in television programs or other high profile things that show homebrewing in a positive light.
Personal Achievement
All brewers strive to make good beer and most spend many, many years perfecting their craft. Those most excellent beers can be submitted to competition and will earn awards which bring prestige to the brewer and the club. These points are cumulative for each entry.
- 1 point - Per beer submission to a BJCP registered competition. (cap 2 points per competition)
- 1 point - Third place award in a Category in a BJCP registered competition
- 2 points - Second place award in a Category in a BJCP registered competition
- 3 points - First place award in a Category in a BJCP registered competition
- 1 points - Second runner up for Best of Show award in a BJCP registered competition
- 2 points - First runner up for Show award in a BJCP registered competition
- 5 points - Earning Best of Show award in a BJCP registered competition
- 2x points - For points earned from awards (not submissions) in the following competitions (for instance, a BOS would earn 17 points, ((3 for winning category + 5 for BOS) x 2) + 1 for the entry):
- Mayfaire
- Doug King Memorial
- Los Angeles County Fair
- Pacific Brewers Cup
- California State Fair Homebrew Competition
- California State Homebrew Competition
- America's Finest City
- NHC Rounds 1 and 2