Competition Info

Why Enter Competitions?

Competitions are a great way to get feedback on the quality of your homebrew creations. Most competitions are sanctioned by the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program), meaning they are judged to their style guidelines. Just attempt to brew a beer to a style within the guidelines, then enter it into a competition.

Competitions aren’t just for grizzled veteran homebrewers. To the contrary, less experienced brewers should get their beers into competitions on a regular basis so they can use the comments from experienced judges to find places where they can make improvements in their recipes and/or processes.  It is truly a learning experience of which all members should take advantage.

Our Competitions

The Bloatarian Brewing League sponsors three competitions each year:

Bockfest – a celebration of all things Bock in early March

Bloatarian Open – our club member only competition in mid May

Beer & Sweat – our keg only homebrew competition in mid August

Other Competions

A competition does not need to be local for you to enter. Most competitions accept entries sent via UPS or FedEx so you can literally enter a competition in any part of the country on any given weekend. In addition, a perk to being a Bloatarian is that if you need to ship entries to competition, just box them up and drop them at the homebrew shop at Listermann’s – they will ship it for free!  The BJCP maintains a calendar of upcoming competitions throughout the country.  Check often as it is constantly being updated.

We also encourage members to enter other regional competitions. Many of the clubs that run these competitions support our competitions with entries and judges – let’s do the same. It is also a possible opportunity to get your entries delivered without paying shipping fees since many competitions allow judges to hand carry entries. Before all regional competitions, we will attempt to coordinate judging ride shares and entry delivery support.

Judging

An excellent way to learn more about beer and brewing is to judge at one of our competitions. We do not require that judges be certified by the BJCP and we typically pair non-certified judges with our highest ranked judges so that we can provide the best possible learning experience.

An even better way to learn is to go through the certification process to become a BJCP judge. In order to prepare for the exam, organized study sessions pop up from time to time in the area. It is our goal to have the club support a set of study sessions at some point in the near future which would be in conjunction with a scheduled BJCP exam. The club has several certified judges but we are always looking to expand their ranks. Stay tuned here for more details.

Call for Judges

Whenever a club runs a competition, they will make a call for judges. It is not unusual for a competition to need 50 to 100 judges for their event so they need support from other clubs. Other clubs in the region have had a history of supporting our events, especially Beer & Sweat. In order to maintain this goodwill, we need to return the favor. Stay tuned here for information on other regional competitions and how you can support them by judging.