Beer Brewing Competitions

I am a new brewer (have a honey brown ale kit conditioning and a summer ale kit fermenting at the moment), but one thing that I think would be extremely, EXTREMELY fun is entering a beer that I created into a competition and meeting all the other brewers, seeing their beer, etc. So, I was wondering if anyone here was willing to share some experiences they have had, any advice for a new brewer, pics would be super cool, just anything that has to do with a beer competition.

Most competitions don't involve seeing or tasting other brewer's beer. If you can find one that does, go for it! I went to a local event as a very new brewer, and met some quite cool people.

You should check with your LBHS or brew pubs to see if there is a home brewers club in your area. The club I am in has a monthly inter club competition and we DO get to taste the beers of the other entrants as members often bring bottles and growlers of their latest beers to sample.

I am new to brewing too, but I lucked out enough to be able to enter my 8th and 9th brews into a local competition! I saw a flyer for the comp @ my LHBS. There was an entry fee of only $5 to enter 2 beers, and each entry was tasted by 4 judges.

I entered because I knew the feedback would be great for a beginner like me. At first I was bummed out by my results, but ya gotta keep in mind that constructive critism might help you fix what you need to improve most. Lesson learned. I will continue to enter local competitions as frequently as possible!

This was one of the beers I entered.

watersr said:

You should check with your LBHS or brew pubs to see if there is a home brewers club in your area. The club I am in has a monthly inter club competition and we DO get to taste the beers of the other entrants as members often bring bottles and growlers of their latest beers to sample.

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Yeah, that. Homebrew clubs are often a great place to get some constructive feedback on your own beers, and to taste a lot of new beers. My club also does a monthly competition in a single style.

I've entered a couple that gave results at an event. Specifically Siciliano's Market Annual Homebrewer appreciation party and homebrew competition, and Suds on the Shore Beer Festival (They aren't having a competition this year. I think the competition outgrew the organizers.)

It was fun to meet the other people. At SOTS it was maybe one or two people. Most entrants dropped off and waited by the mailbox. At Siciliano's, there are LOTS of entrants (though still only a small fraction of the total) at the party.

What I've found is that it's also fun to help at tastings/judgings. Most of them need stewards and judges. You meet a lot of folks that way.

But a Homebrew CLUB is really what you are after. Not just for tasting, but all kinds of beer and homebrewing discussion.

BuddyWeiser said:

At first I was bummed out by my results, but ya gotta keep in mind that constructive critism might help you fix what you need to improve most.

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I think the judges are all out to get me

Here's a couple of pics I took at a local comp, the first pic was at the start of the first round judging, and the second pic was at the start of the BOS(best of show) round.




I've entered other comps, but this was the first one I attended. It was basically 2 judges per category, except in the final BOS round you can see 3 judges in that pic. I sampled all the beers with the judges I was stewarding for, and hearing their flavor descriptions along with the sampling was very helpful. One of the best parts is just talking beer with other beer geeks, I'm sure most of my friends are quite bored of my never-ending beer talk.

Thank you for the post!!! It reminded me that I need to register for a competition that we have locally here. I missed out last year...


Thanks again!