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About OpenBrewComp

OpenBrewComp is a web application that provides a basis for running a homebrew (beer/mead/cider) competition. The code was originally written to provide an online registration system for the 2007 Dixie Cup competition and was expanded in 2008 to include additional features necessary to run the entire competition, including flight management and tabulation of results. Additional features, not required by the Dixie Cup, were added for the 2008 Fall Classic competition. The two code bases have been distilled into a single code base that will allow other homebrew clubs to build their own competition management systems using a battle-tested open source code base.

Features

OpenBrewComp offers benefits for both the brewers entering your competition and for the people running the competition.

For the entrants

• The ability to register entries and sign up for judging at any time during the registration period
  • by creating an account that can be used for subsequent sessions to add, modify, and delete entries, thus eliminating the necessity of having to enter all entries at once. Entry modifications are not permitted once an entry has been processed (by being assigned a bottle code) so the entrant cannot, for example, reassign an entry to a different category after it has been accepted into the competition); or
  • by creating a temporary (anonymous) account and entering all entries at once.
• A single brewer may create multiple entrant records under their account so, for example, a brewer who is entering one set of entries as a solo brewer and another set of entries as part of a team can create separate entrant records and register the corresponding entries under the appropriate entrant record.
• Automatically generated bottle labels, either individually or combined into a single PDF file, that includes the brewer’s information and the assigned registration code for each entry.

For the organizers

• Configurable competition parameters such as
  • the dates during which online registration is available for both entries and judges (since the two periods are often not the same);
  • the styles to be judged, either with special styles that are in addition to the standard BJCP styles or the elimination of styles that are not being judged in the competition;
  • managing the grouping of styles into award categories if the award categories do not line up with the standard 28 BJCP categories.
• Registration of entries that were not entered online.
• Easy assignment of bottle codes to registered entries.
• The ability to quickly identify all entries that have supplemental information provided. If any of the information is inappropriate, the organizer can edit it as necessary. This information is printed on the flight sheets for the judges, so no personally identifiable information should be included.
• Generation of a “box check report” that allows you to verify that all registered entries are accounted for and placed in the appropriate boxes.
• The ability to import the BJCP judge list provided in your competition registration packet as well as the ability to send email invites to those judges.
• Automatic generation of an initial set of first round flights that can be fine-tuned with a drag-and-drop interface.
• Management and tracking of flights, including judge/steward assignments and the recording of scores, which entries get advanced to the next round (in multi-round flights), and the ranking (first, second, third, and honorable mention) of entries in the medal round.
• Automatic generation of flight pull and judge sheets. The judge sheets include any supplemental information for each entry in the flight.
• Automatic generation of the list of winners.
• Automatic generation of the BJCP competition report in the format required by the BJCP for electronic submission.
• Automatic generation of the MCAB competition report, if the competition is a MCAB QE.
• Automatic generation of cover sheets for each entrant, listing all of their entries, to group their score sheets.
• If Internet access is not available at the competition site, the database can be downloaded from the main server and loaded onto a laptop that is running a copy of the OpenBrewComp software.
• Various reports breaking down the entry counts by individual, club, style, and state/province.
• Customization of the entire system since you have the source code. If there are any elements that are not necessary for your competition, for example you don’t bother with having judges pre-register, those elements can be easily removed.

Non-Features

See the TODO file for the current status of features that have been requested but not yet implemented.

Limitations

At the present time, the initial flight assignments page does not work very well, if at all, with Internet Explorer. The only workaround is to use Firefox, Safari, Opera, Galeon, …

Licensing

OpenBrewComp is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Getting Started

Interested in how to use OpenBrewComp for your own competition? Then start by reviewing the system requirements and proceed to the installation and deployment instructions.

You might also be interested in reviewing the FAQ.

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• OpenBrewComp Requirements >>