Fully agree with @Spartan1979. Competitions won't give you the feedback you're expecting
They are talking about NHC, not competitions in general. If you're not getting proper feedback at a regular comp then they have poor judges and/or run a poor competition.
(And yes, it is an unfortunate reality that there are bad judges everywhere, it's not something that is easy to "police". Many competitions are desperate for any judges they can get.)
As far as competitions, I use this site (
Beer Competition Registration - Login) to see what's going on.
You realize that the Reggie site will only show you competitions that use the Reggie competition software (which is pretty awful compared to BCOEMS and others IMO, and is not widely used).
The best resource for upcoming competitions is the BJCP website. All competitions registered with the BJCP will appear there (unless they have specifically asked not to be listed).
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As for NHC, it never ceases to amaze me how many people enter beers they know are not great (or even good), like in a "normal" local competition looking for feedback and advice.
NHC is NOT the competition for that; the only beers anyone should enter in NHC are ones that they feel have at least a chance of making it past the first round.
And it is definitely not the right competition for anyone's first competition entry. Just don't do that. Yes, there have been people who have entered NHC for the first time with unproven beers and won medals (IIRC there was one person who entered their first beer ever and won), but those are so very rare and atypical.
I'd go so far as to say if the beer hasn't gotten very positive feedback locally (in competition(s), club meetings, etc.) and/or won at least one medal at a "regular" comp, I wouldn't bother sending it to NHC. Feedback is minimal, the first round is really just a vetting process to get to the second round.
NHC is for putting your very best foot forward, not for feedback on how to improve a beer or your brewing process.
Source: ran a first-round site for many years, and have judged every first-round and most second-rounds since the mid-00s.