Qualification Rules
MCAB Qualification Rules and Details
You qualify for the MCAB championship competition in a given year by placing first in any of the eligible BJCP style categories in a Qualifying Event. Note that not all BJCP categories are eligible for MCAB – see the list.
You can only qualify for the MCAB once per category per year; that is to say, if you place first in one Qualifying Event with a Dry Stout and first in another with an Imperial Stout, you can only send one Stout entry to the MCAB championship. Additional first place finishes in other Qualifying Events in the same category would reduce your competition in the MCAB championship, but you would still only have one entry in any given category.
Brewers may qualify in as many categories as they can win in the year’s Qualifying Events. You may send one entry to the MCAB championship competition for each category in which you have qualified. A running list of Qualifying Brewers will be kept on the MCAB web site, listed by style category.
A qualifying brewer may enter only the categories qualified for; taking first place in IPA in a Qualifying Event qualifies that brewer only for IPA in the MCAB event. However, you do not have to enter the same subcategory in the MCAB event – you could qualify for IPA with an English IPA, but you could enter an Imperial IPA in the MCAB.
See the Styles list for accepted MCAB categories.
Aside from the National Homebrew Competition, almost all competitions combine or split categories. This is done for a variety of reasons, but usually it is to ensure that no category has an insufficient number of entries. In the past, MCAB had some complex rules for split and combined categories, but we have decided to simplify the process by taking only the first place winners in all (MCAB-relevant) categories. Thus, if American Pale Ale is split out into its own category and American Amber and Brown are left in another category, there would be two qualifiers in American Ale – one Pale and one Amber or Brown. There can also be instances in which there is no qualifier in a category: if European Amber and Dark Lagers are combined and an Oktoberfest wins that category, then it would qualify for MCAB and there would be no qualifier from the Dark Lager category.
Team entries will be treated as a single entry, but all team members must be listed.