National Homebrew Competition & More

This year’s National Homebrew Competition is in full swing, and the first round shipping window opened up March 1st, and runs through March 14th. I want to wish this years entrants the best of luck, and if you are using my shippers to send your beer I want to thank you for using Crafty Shipping! You can rest easy knowing that your bottles will arrive safely.

There are actually a whole host of homebrew competitions coming up later this year, and they are happening all over the country. California alone has 11 homebrew competitions coming up in April, including the Mayfaire Competition hosted by my local homebrew club The Maltose Falcons.

A great resource for finding homebrew competitions is the American Homebrewers Association website. You can find an extensive list of homebrewing events in your area, across the country, and even some in different countries. I think I’ve seen homebrew competitions as far away as Brazil and Australia.

The competitions are great resources because you can get unbiased feedback on your beer by certified judges, as well as suggestions for how to improve the quality of your homebrew. The added bonus is that you might even surprise yourself and win a medal in your beer’s category. I’ve heard of brewers who submit beers on a whim, only for them to win best in show at a competition.

Homebrewing and beer is fun, so take the feedback you get with a grain of salt. Beers are scored on a scale of 0-50, and the first beer I ever submitted scored a 28 to put it in the “good” range. It was for a chamomile ale, and even though I would have loved to score higher, I still loved this beer, and I enjoyed drinking and sharing it!

So once again, good luck to everyone submitting beers out there. For those of you submitting beers with my shippers I’d love to hear what styles you’re sending to competitions, and how they end up scoring!

Cheers and happy shipping!

-Steve