One of the methods that many home brewers use to sharpen their brewing skills is by submitting their beers to competitions. Most competitions are sanctioned through the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program), which helps ensure that your beers are evaluated by trained judges. The feedback you get on the score sheets can be invaluable in helping to improve your brewing methods.
One of the comprehensive resources for finding competitions is the Competition Page on the BJCP web site. Other local competitions of note have been listed below.
New York State Homebrewer Of The Year (NYSHOTY)
The NYSHOTY is an annual competition that culminates each year with the New York State Fair Homebrew Competition. The winner is based on the total points each brewer is awarded from different New York State competitions throughout the year. The 2005 winners were SCBC's own Kevin Flood and Mick Barnes.
Visit the NYSHOTY web site for complete details.
