Homebrew Competition 2021

Goshen Brewing Company and Goshen Homebrew Club Competition 2021

Competition theme

The theme this year is “session beers”. That means:

  • Entries may be any style. Any ingredients may be used, although in order to be selected to be brewed by Goshen Brewing Company, all ingredients should be generally available at commercial scales. Avoid rare or expensive ingredients.
  • The original gravity must not exceed 1.040. If your efficiency is higher than expected and your OG is above this limit, you must dilute the wort until it is 1.040 or lower.
  • The recipe must be designed with the intent that the final ABV should not exceed 4.0%; but beers with an ABV up to 4.7% will be allowed, if the higher ABV is the result of a high attenuation (as low as 1.004) that is naturally achieved, and is not the result of the use of brewing enzymes such as amyloglucosidase.
  • In the event of a tie, the beer with the lower ABV wins.
Judging the 2018 competition

Timeline

  • October 25: Sign up by filling out the entry form
  • November 1, 7-9pm: Competition, held at Goshen Brewing Company

Rules

  • We encourage collaborations, especially between experienced and newer brewers.
  • Each brewer may submit either one solo entry, one solo entry and one collaboration entry, or two collaboration entries.
  • You don’t need to be present to be considered, just your beer.
  • No entry fees.
  • Any non-professional homebrewer within 75 miles of GBCo is eligible to enter.
  • This is not a BJCP-sanctioned competition. BJCP style guidelines will be used to support the judges’ evaluations of beers, but beers will be evaluated hedonistically and with scalability and cost to GBCo in mind.

Prizes and judging

Our goal is to have the judging process be fair and educational. Entrants and members of Goshen Homebrew Club will be invited to the judging event, and those present will be the judges for the club favorite.

The judging process will depend on the number of entries, but will likely follow a similar format to previous years. The people present at the competition will be split between several tables, with entrants at tables without their entries. The tables will evaluate each beer based on its representation of the base style, quality, and use of the yeast. Each table will come to a consensus to send 1 or 2 of the beers to the best of show round, where all judges will vote to reach a final decision.

Club Favorite: People present at the meeting will participate in judging, and the winner will win a surprise from GBCo.

Collaboration Recipe: We’ll give the recipes to GBCo, and they will select a winner to scale up and brew. This may or may not be the club favorite. GBCo’s decision will be final. Prize: Bragging rights, first dibs on times for brewing.

Brewing the 2018 winner

Each entry should include:

  • 4×12-oz bottles of beer or 2×22-oz bottles of beer or 1×64-oz growler of beer
  • Recipe for homebrew scale
  • Style, based on BJCP Style guidelines
  • Include links or citations for recipes you based it on

The entry should be brought to the competition. If you are unable to attend, you can drop off your entry at Goshen Brewing Company during their normal opening hours in the week before the competition, but note they are not open the day of the competition. You can also contact Goshen Homebrew Club to arrange drop off.

Ingredients

Grains

If using extract, make sure to use a light extract to make sure conversion to all grain will be easier.

Hops

Avoid using hops that could be hard to find, including Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin or experimental hops. Some substitutes may apply when making it on GBCo’s system.

Yeast

Any yeast is fine.

Additions

Feel free to add additional character to a beer through special additions (like fruit, spices, wood, smoke, small amounts of character malt, etc.). Remember that if it’s picked, GBCo will need to use roughly 40x as much, so keep cost and availability in mind. Entries with additions will be judged based on both the quality of the base beer as well as how well the addition works.

Questions? Email [email protected].