Competition Corner – January 2013
The first competition of the 2013 brewing year is upon us. Entries are due Friday, February 1st for the America’s Finest City Homebrew competition organized the QUAFF. You can drop off your entries at the Culver City shop. Registration is up and running at
https://quaff.org/AFC-2013/ . You need 2 bottles per entry and the entry fee is $7.00. The competition uses the BJCP style guidelines and represents an excellent test bed for any entries you might have for the AHA Nationals.
Speaking of which, the entry window for the AHA Nationals opens on February 26th this year. Last year, the entire competition was filled with entries after about 36 hours, so make sure you are ready to jump on-line when the window opens. This year TWO bottles are needed for the first round of this competition. You can drop off the physical entries assuming they are going to San Diego, by March 18th. If you are entering bottles to any other location (which several people did last year), you must ship them off yourself.
Congratulations go to Michael Patterson, who brewed an incredibly smooth Imperial IPA for the first Club-Only competition of the year, Un-session beers. His beer will be representing the club at a taste-off, so keep your fingers crossed! With this win, Mike takes a 1 – 0 lead over everyone else in the club for the 2013 Brewer of the Year award. Also, get ready for the next club-only judging at the February meeting (Feb 21st), which will be Barleywines. Bring 3 bottles and please fill out the entry form here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/0326/entry_recipe.pdf. The club picks up the entry fee for this competition, so there is no cost to you. All entries must have the official rubber band label, which you can down load here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/0325/bottleid.pdf If you can’t make it to the February meeting, drop your beers off at the shop and drop me a line at Competitions@PacificGravity.com.
Looking more into the 2013 schedule, we will stick with the same seven main competitions we had in 2012 as well as the six upcoming COCs. Of these, the three used by Anchor Brewing are the California State Fair, Mayfair and the California State Homebrew Competition. If you have a limited amount of beer to enter, try hitting these three. The winter season is a good time to get those beers going with clean-fermenting cool weather.
Like in past years, we have tried to align the monthly club styles with the COC competitions. An updated schedule can be found at: http://pacificgravity.org/monthly-stylesclub-only-comps/. All styles are welcome at any club meeting. However, the best beer in the listed styles is eligible for the best beer of the evening award, which comes with a $25 gift certificate to Culver City Home Brewing Supply Co. We are also looking for folks to lead the monthly style tasting for the club meetings. If you are interested, drop Dean Sussman a line at Styles@PacificGravity.com.
In addition to the competitions for the Brewer of the Year cycle, there is still time to enter the “Batch 1000” contest sponsored by the Bruery in Placentia; a BJCP certified homebrew competition at their brewery and the winning beer will be brewed on their professional system and sold as their 1,000th batch of beer. The beer will be entered into the 2013 Great American Beer Festival as a Pro/Am entry and may even be distributed on a national level! And of course, the winner will be invited to The Bruery to help us replicate their award winning homebrew! Entries are due by February 1st at either the Placentia or Anaheim locations. This competition also has limited styles for entry, so check the website for complete rules.
2013 Brewer of the Year Competition Schedule
December 30, 2012 – COC for Unsession Beers (Congrats Michael Patterson!)
February 1st America’s Finest City
February 21 – COC Barleywine, BJCP Cat 19
February 26th – AHA Nationals (registration opens)
April Mayfaire
April 18th – COC Extract Beers(All BJCP Cats)
May California State Fair
July Los Angeles County Fair
July COC – Porter BJCP, Cat #12
August COC – Style TBD
September Pacific Brewers Cup
September COC – Amber lagers, BJCP Cat 3
October California State Homebrew Competition
October COC– Style TBD
