Competition Question

I am interested in entering Sam Adam's Patriots home brew competition and was wondering what the common policy on entering clones in competitions is? I am submitting a Oatmeal Brown Ale aka Surly Bender.

The reason I ask is that this clone is not a normal clone, Surly themselves put together the kit ingredients for Northern Brewer's Pro Series, therefore it's a beer designed by Surly but brewed by me. Was wondering what the legality of submitting something like this is.

The beer was a extract with specialty grain kit, so I am not expecting to win, I'm just entering the contest to get judged on one of my beers for the first time.

Perfectly acceptable entry. You brewed it, not them. Just because you know the recipe doesn't mean you can brew it like someone else can.

In a standard HB contest I say not an issue. In a SA contest it may be. If they plan on recreating the beer for sale (like the longshot comp) you will not win. I do not remember if it was last year or the year before but a winner entered in a PTE clone. Because this beer was an exact clone of the recipe they chose to pass that entry over to the next in line. YMMV.

Zamial said:

In a standard HB contest I say not an issue. In a SA contest it may be. If they plan on recreating the beer for sale (like the longshot comp) you will not win. I do not remember if it was last year or the year before but a winner entered in a PTE clone. Because this beer was an exact clone of the recipe they chose to pass that entry over to the next in line. YMMV.

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It was 3 years ago. It wasn't an exact clone of PtE (it had northern brewer hops added) and the next in line wasn't brewed, they simply put 3 each of the other two winners in the six pack. The beer wasn't brewed that year because they could not get the hops. They brewed it the next year.

It's very legal, and perfectly acceptable, but you are probably wasting your entry. If anyone at Sam Adams recognized that it is a clone of one of their competitors, you're certainly not going to win. I think the spirit of the competition is throwing a little bit of creativity and personalization into your entry!

Would you enter a subpar copy of a known painting into an art contest, or enter Stairway to Heaven with slightly different lyrics in a songwriting contest?

I just looked into the competition because I would be able to just drop off bottles in person... What a weird competition.

There are only 6 "winners" and one overall winner which is something I haven't seen before. And you need 4 bottles per entry and must have 3 more available from the same batch if you make it to the second round. And that second round could be judged as late as April 26th. That excludes anything that is aggressively hopped right off the bat (unless you "lie" and rebrew for the second round).

Also, for ales, the restrictions are for OG of 1.044 -1.068. For me, I'm out right there. I have 3 recently brewed beers that are above those numbers and one that is below those numbers.

Pretty cool prize if you win, but...

remilard said:

It was 3 years ago. It wasn't an exact clone of PtE (it had northern brewer hops added) and the next in line wasn't brewed, they simply put 3 each of the other two winners in the six pack. The beer wasn't brewed that year because they could not get the hops. They brewed it the next year.

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I stand corrected. I still would not enter a clone into a SA comp just for that reason. I would enter one in any noncommercial comp with no issues.

So you are saying I shouldn't enter my Boston Lager clone?

So you are saying I shouldn't enter my Boston Lager clone?

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I submitted a spot-on Boston Lager clone last year, and I musta won because I now see it commercially at almost every grocery store and gas station. I even look and dress like Sam Adams, so they put my pic on the bottle!

Still waiting on that check, though. Any day now.........

Thanks for all the responses on this, sorry just getting back to it. I registered for the competition but wound up not sending it due to it being a home version of a commercial beer.

The beer was actually fantastic too, my best home brew yet! Not sure how close it was to Surly's version, since they are only in MN, but from their description on their website, I am getting many of the same notes they describe.