2025 TBC^3

The Brü Club Competition Circuit (commonly named in Discord as TBC^3 - pronounced TBC Cubed) was created to promote the competitive side of the homebrewing hobby within the ranks of The Brü Club.  Any member (defined as a Discord or FB group member - active paid Learned Brüer or unpaid) of The Brü Club may participate in the circuit given that they meet the participant criteria and adhere to the rules and regulations explained below.

Competition Schedule

Competitions were selected with geographical location, size, quality of judging feedback, and awards in mind. The selected competitions intentionally avoid interfering with other competitive homebrewing circuits that exist outside of TBC^3.

March - Between the Bluffs (WI) registration is CLOSED (reached 160 entries) on BCOE&M

April - Red Earth Spring Brew Off (OK) registration is CLOSED (reached 410 entries) on BCOE&M

April - New England Regional Homebrew Competition (NH) registration is CLOSED (reached 380 entries)  on BCOE&M

July - North Georgia Homebrew Comp (GA) registration is CLOSED (opens on June 1st, 2025) on ReggieBeer

September - Rocky Mountain Home Brew Challenge (CO) registration is CLOSED (opens on August 5th, 2025) on ReggieBeer

September - King of the Mountain (OH) registration is CLOSED (opens on June 21st, 2025) BCOE&M

October - Beer for Boobs (OH) stay tuned for more information on BCOE&M

October - Music City Brew Off (TN) stay tuned for more information on BCOE&M

October - Copper State Cup (AZ) stay tuned for more information on BCOE&M

Full list and competition information will be updated on The Bru Club's Competition Tracking Spreadsheet when information comes available. *Note* that this tracking spreadsheet contains more than TBC^3 competitions and the TBC^3 selected competitions will appear with a 🏆 in an adjacent column.

Circuit Sponsors

We, the TBC^3 coordination team are still working on identifying and locking in sponsors for this year's 2025 competition circuit.

Stay tuned for additional updates as to sponsors that are signed up for this year. Confirmed sponsors will be listed below.

Prize Structure

TBD. Once sponsors have been locked in prize structures will be assembled and communicated out to participants.

Note on Prize Availability: All prizes are conditional on the sponsors' willingness to donate and distribute, and may be modified or withdrawn at the sponsor's sole discretion. Competition circuit winners are prohibited from contacting sponsors directly; all communication regarding fulfillment prize will be handled exclusively by competition circuit organizers. Any violation of these rules will result in the forfeiture of any and all prizes won.

Circuit Rules

We have compiled a Map of the TBC^3 competitions to provide a visual of where the various competitions are as we wanted to select competitions that were in various primary regions of the United States (sorry, international members we wanted to include a way to involve you, if you are interested in collaborating on how to do this reach out to Haven Shultz or Trevor Mack on Discord).

Competition Selection Criteria

1. Competitions selected for the circuit will adhere to the BJCP competition guidelines.

2. Competitions are to be intentionally selected to avoid (best of the organizers' ability) with other popular competitive homebrewing circuits that exist outside of this circuit, TBC^3.

3. TBC^3 organizers reserve the right to alter the circuit schedule at any time. Unnecessary alternations will not be made and any adjustments to the schedule (due to a competition cancellation or other valid reason) will be communicated as soon as possible. Efforts will be made to replace any canceled competition with an alternative option.

Circuit Participation

1. Points accrued will only be applied to a primary brewer OR a combination of primary brewery & co-brewer pair (scored as a team).

   • Primary brewers and Co-brewers will not accrue separately for entries submitted together.

   • If brewers enter solo entries AND team entries, solo entries and team entries will be counted separately and will not be combined.

2. CHANGED Entrants MUST use The Brü Club (with or without the umlaut is acceptable) as the homebrew club selection when entering the circuit competitions. Exceptions to enter under a local club are allowed under strict constraints as outlined below:

   • The following are to be used as explicit examples of where an exemption to this rule will be granted (not guaranteed nor exhaustive list of allowable exemptions):

     • Notice of issues with setting the club affiliation in a specific competitive brewing software platform (limited to one exemption per software platform - BAP, BCOEM, and Reggie). Repeat issues will be harder to gain an accepted exemption.

     • Overlap with another competitive homebrew circuit's competition (CoA, State/Regional Circuit, etc).

   • Any and all communication related to this rule MUST be received by the TBC^3 Organizers and The Brü Club Leadership Team before or within 30 days of the competition results being released. Contact can be made through Discord, Facebook, Email. or the official TBC^3 Questions and Comments Google Form.

   • Each exemption will be reviewed individually by the TBC^3 Organizers and The Brü Club Leadership Team keeping the goals and underlying purpose of TBC^3 at the forefront.

   • How to Change Homebrew Club Selection

     • Best strategy is to ensure your user/account profile has The Brü Club mentioned prior to registering entries for the specific competition.

     • Specific Homebrew Competition Software Platforms have differ user flows to support modifying your affiliated club. See the below for some platform specific advice.

• In Reggie - entrants will need to change their participating club in their user profile since the last used club is saved to the user's profile

• In BCOE&M - entrants will need to select their participating club under Edit Account Info (applies to all entries for that specific competition - different setting in each competition). BCOE&M v2.7.1 released April 2024 allows searching for club names with special characters while editing or creating their account (special thanks to Trevor Mack for his contribution on behalf of TBC^3 competitors).

• In BAP - entrants will need to change their participating club in their user profile since the last used club is saved to the user's profile.

3. The TBC^3 Organizers are allowed to participate in the circuit. If requested by a circuit participant, an external audit of scores can be conducted to ensure accuracy of all participant scores.

Entry Scoring

1. Scoring with be based on the competition tables, where competition organizers frequently combine multiple beer styles together to be judged as part of a single table. Points will be awarded for medals won at that specific table.

2. Points will be awarded for any winning beer, mead, or cider that is accepted into the circuit competitions. Acceptable categories and subcategories are determined by the competition organizers and can not be guaranteed by the TBC^3 organizers.

3. In the event of a tie, the tiebreaker will be total medal count throughout TBC^3. If both brewers have earned an equal amount of medals, the number of gold medals earned during TBC^3 will be used as a secondary tiebreaker, followed by silver, bronze, BOS and honorable mention respectively.

4. The TBC^3 Organizers reserve the right to alter/adjust circuit rules in order to preserve equality, integrity and the spirit of the circuit throughout the competition. All efforts will be made to communicate any and all changes in a timely manner.

Scoring Calculations

Entry points for the circuit will be calculated based on medals earned in each of the competitions on the circuit. Scopring will be calculated as shown below:

Where "Place Earned" is broken down to the following:

Gold (1st Place) = 1

Silver (2nd Place) = 2

Bronze (3rd Place) = 3

If a competition does not report table entry counts, the following points will be awarded to entries that win at a table without entry counts:

Gold = .80

Silver = .65

Bronze  = .50

Honorable Mention  = .25
*AvgBru/BoS Multipliers would still apply, if applicable.

ℹ️ IMPORTANT ℹ️  only the top three (3) scoring entries per entrant, per competition will accrue points for the circuit. TBC^3 does not limit entrants to a competition entry cap, but only your top three scoring entries will accrue points.

Scoring Multipliers and Adjustments

Entries using an AvgBrü recipe will have a 1.15 multiplier.

Entries that take Best of Show will have a 1.25 multiplier.
*Only 1st / overall Best of Show (BOS) earns the multiplier

Entries using an AvgBrü recipe AND take Best of Show will have a 1.35 multiplier.
*Only 1st / overall Best of Show (BOS) earns the multiplier

Entries receiving an Honorable Mention will earn a 0.50 adjustment (not a multiplier) to the  score that a bronze would have otherwise accrued.
*No additional points/multipliers will apply to an AvgBrü Honorable Mention (HM)

Scoring Stipulations

1. Only one (1) multiplier per competition will apply. If more than one multiplier is earned in a single competition, the highest scoring multiplier will apply and all other multiplier-eligible winning entries will revert to their base scores.

2. Only top three (3) scoring entries per entrant, per competition will accrue points for the circuit. Entry caps per competition may be limited higher or lower than this limit for the TBC^3 circuit, at the discretion of the competition organizers.

3. Honorable Mention points are not considered multipliers and points will still be awarded for honorable mention wins even if qualifying multiplier is earned in the same competition.

4. An AvgBrü recipe is a recipe developed in conjunction with The Brü Club's Average Brü collaboration series (AvgBrü for short).

   • Any current or past AvgBrü guideline will be elgible for a multiplier in TBC^3 '24. 

   • To be eligible for an AvgBrü multiplier the entry MUST contain the text "AvgBrü" or "AvgBru" (case insensitive) in the entry's name. For example "<Beer Name> #AvgBrü" AND/OR use that quarter's club packaging name, "Belle and the Yeast" for AvgBrü Saison.

   • If you medal with a current or past AvgBrü style, TBC^3 organizers will reach out to you to confirm if this recipe was developed as part of the AvgBrü series. If unable to contact you to confirm this, it will be assumed that you recipe was not created as part of the collaboration series.

   • Honor system applies to the AvgBrü multiplier and thus TBC^3 organizers reserve the right to remove a multiplier when abuse of the rules has been found by any participating brewer and may even require proof of an AvgBrü recipe in alignment with the club specified guidelines..

   • At times adjacent styles will be accepted for AvgBrü beers as allowable by the club's published guidelines and as indicated below:

     • 4B. Festbier: Festbier (4B)

     • 7B. Altbier: Altbier (7B)

     • 11A. Ordinary Bitter: Ordinary Bitter (11A) or Best Bitter (11B)

     • 16B. Oatmeal Stout: Oatmeal Stout (16B), Imperial Stout (20C), Spice Herb and/or Vegetable Beer (30A), Fruit Beer (29A)

     • 18B. American Pale Ale: American Pale Ale (18B)

     • 19A. American Amber Ale: American Amber Ale (19A)

     • 20A. American Porter: American Porter (20A), Spice Herb and/or Vegetable Beer (30B), Wood Aged (33A) or Specialty Wood Aged Beer (33B), Fruit Beer (29A)

     • 25B. Saison: Saison (25B), Fruit Beer (29A)

     • 26A. Belgian Single: Belgian Single (26A)

     • Belgian Quad: Belgian Dark Strong Ale (26D)

     • 27A. Kentucky Common: Historical Beer: Kentucky Common (27A)

     • X5. New Zealand (NZ) Pils: NZ Pils (X5) or Mixed Style (34B - if comp doesn’t have cat. X5)

     • West Coast (WC) Pils: Mixed Style (34B)

     • UK Pils: Mixed Style (34B)

   • Acceptance of an AvgBrü style is at the full discretion of the competition rules, please be familiar with the competition rules and what additional judging criteria maybe required for entry into some subcategories.

NOTE: The Brü Club and The Brü Club Competition Circuit (TBC^3) are not affiliated  nor receive any benefit from your participation with any competition listed in this circuit. TBC^3 only records and publishes publicly available information.