Hello MontreAlers,
I’m a former MontreAler, and co-organizer of a local homebrew competition in Ottawa. Our sponsors (Beau’s and BSG) have supplied us with 100 mystery boxes for a local competition, but we have only managed to get 75 of them purchased for the competition. I thought I’d reach out to y’all to see if there was any interest in either joining our competition or hosting one of your own. Below is the announcement for our competition. If there is enough interest in Montreal, we can arrange a drop off/pick up of the 25 remaining boxes–I could possibly have the boxes delivered this week, in fact.
If there is enough interest, I can send you the registration link and we can work out the logistics together. Ideally I would want to have a phone call with the point person on your end.
The details are below.
Cheers,
Alex
Sponsors:
The competition is jointly sponsored by Beau’s All Natural Brewery, Brewers
Supply Group (BSG) and the Members of Barleyment.
All proceeds this year will be donated directly to Hidden Harvest Ottawa
https://ottawa.hiddenharvest.ca/
Competition Format & Rules:
This competition is in an “Iron Brewer” format, similar to TV shows like
Iron Chef or Chopped. Use only what’s in your provided kit (with a few
exceptions – see below).
Ingredients will be supplied and muling/pickups coordinated as last year
(i.e., distribution through neighbourhood hubs). Kits will include base
malt, specialty grain, hops, yeast and some other surprises. Every
participant will get identical ingredients. There is only one size kit this
year. The included malt should be plenty for all batch sizes up to 10
gallons, but will result in a pretty low gravity 10 gallon batch if you
choose to go that route.
None of the grain will be milled. If you do not have a mill, please
coordinate with someone that has a mill.
Items should be used as provided. No ingredient modification such as
roasting or smoking malt.
There will be a lot of flexibility possible. Not all ingredients or
quantities need to be used. Some or none of each ingredient can go into
your beer. Leftover ingredients are yours to keep. Your batch size is
completely up to you. You can brew as many iterations of the recipe or a
variety of recipes with your ingredients so long as you aren’t adding
anything that wasn’t included in the box that isn’t salts or fining
agents. If you choose to brew ten 1 gallon batches, do it. If you do a
single 10 gallon batch and it’s terrible, enter it anyway.
Water adjustment salts and fining agents are permitted.
Beer can be naturally or force carbonated, however, it is the brewer’s
responsibility to ensure carbonation is appropriate on exchange day.
Brewing period will be approximately 6 weeks. All dates are still TBD.
6 bottles or cans (virtually any size or format), labelled appropriately
with provided codes and style (no names) must be submitted and will be
sorted similar to a holiday beer exchange. Participants will receive other
brewers’ beers in exchange for their entries.
Judging will be performed by the participants and scoring will be submitted
via online form. Style should be declared, but beers will be judged against
each other as there will be no categories. Scoring will be shared with
participants following the closing of the event. Think of this as “Brewers
Choice” vs the usual “People’s Choice” we do at Oktoberfest. The beers
should be judged against each other, and so, ideally at a single sitting.
Judging in groups with non participants is encouraged (partners, family,
fully vaccinated friends). It is not mandatory to consume the full volume
of beer - simply enough for a simple ranking.
Anticipated Timeline:
- Boxes supplied ASAP (pending some shipping and logistics)
- Bottle swap 6-8 weeks later.
- Judging complete 3-4 weeks later.
The mystery kit costs $35. Please send payment immediately following
registration to: mob.comp.results@gmail.com.
There will be no shipping of either ingredient boxes, or bottles, or
prizes. Muling is encouraged. The sorting will likely happen somewhere
central in a masked and physically distanced manner as required by local
health regulations.
Open to anyone capable of dropping off and picking up items in the Ottawa
area.
Grand prize:
TBD
Organizing Team: Alex S, Ian M, Andrew L + Beaus + BSG.