Brewers Cup Competition—Indiana State Fair

The Brewers Cup announces several changes for the 2008 competition:

Homebrewer of the Year Award recognizes brewers who prove their brewing expertise by earning the most points at the Brewers Cup.

What is going to take to win this award? Expertise in several styles and lots of brewing! Winners will receive 3 points for first place, 2 for second and 1 for third place with a bonus of 5 points for best of show. The winner will receive a trophy and a beautiful 15 gallon Blichmann Boilermaker pot! The mill has it that prolific brewers, Bill Ballinger, Mike Pearson and Mark Schiess are revving up their brew pots!

The formula for Indiana Homebrew Club of the Year has been changed to a simpler formula. Club members must declare their club affiliation on their entry forms. The club with the most points will have bragging rights for a year and have the club name added to the Homebrew Club of the Year Trophy.

Point Formula for the Indiana Homebrew Club of the Year:

5 points for Best of Show
3 points for first place
2 points for second place
1 point for first place

Special Category 24, Unhopped Beer—The worldwide hop shortage has hit us all so we might has well embrace it and have some fun with it. We have created category 24 for unhopped beers. These have to have at least 51% malt and have no hops. Beers entering this category will be judged similarly to BJCP Category 24, Specialty Beers, except that the beer will not be judged against a classic BJCP beer style eliminating the need to declare a base beer category and reference to hops will be interpreted to mean hop alternatives used to impart character to the beer. Judges will be looking for a “harmonious marriage of ingredients, processes and beer.”

Rule Changes:

Three bottles, not two. All entrants should include three bottles for each entry rather than two. As the Brewers Cup grows we have multiple flights for each category. Each flight chooses its top two beers to advance to the mini best of show round to choose the top three beers in each category. The extra bottle will provide Mini Best of Show judges with a cleaner, more carbonated sample that will showcase each entry at its best.

Online entry will be available for use with credit cards only. Payment by checks is still available with paper entries. Sorry, no cash accepted. Online entry will open at 12:01 AM on June 14th and close at midnight on June 28th. Be sure to print a copy of your online entry form to include with your entries. If you need to add any pertinent information for judges, please add it to your printed entry form included with your entries.

Beer Dinner Saturday Evening—We are planning a beer dinner for Saturday evening to give judges, stewards and entrants a location to meet after the competition. Stay tuned for more details.

Volunteer Opportunities with the Brewers Cup

Registrar—also known as “the data guy” who handles all of the entrant data. We would like this person to be very proficient with Microsoft Access and be able to create a data base, write queries and create reports. Although there is no pay, this position is key to our competition management and is summarily revered and respected by all.

Score Sheet Stewards—only detail oriented perfectionists need apply. This team of two will sort score sheets during the competition to allow us to mail score sheets on the Monday morning after the competition.

Point Person—PowerPoint that is. Help us jazz up the Awards Presentation with your PowerPoint skills and creativity.

Interested people should contact Anita Johnson at brewerscup@indianastatefair.com or 317-257-9463.