Homebrewer of the Year and Homebrew Club of the Year

There are two annual award events that are based on the same three competitions. There are some other considerations for the Anchor award but the competitions are the focus of this page.

Sierra Nevada Homebrewer of the Year - The qualifying brewer who accumulates the most points from award winning beers in the Mayfaire, California State Fair and California State Homebrew Competition.

Anchor Brewing Homebrew Club of the Year – Anchor Brewing will select the Homebrew Club of the Year after reviewing the results of the Mayfaire, California State Fair and California State Homebrew Competition and other pertinent information.

Mayfaire Homebrew Competition

California State Fair Homebrew Competition

California State Homebrew Competition

How can the Brew Angels be competitive?

Obviously as many entries as possible in all of these competitions is necessary. But, we also have our own Amador County Fair competition to support. The club preference is to support our local competition first and then be competitive for the other awards. With that in mind we can plan our homebrewing and bottling accordingly.

To be competitive in the three annual award competitions the target number is eight entries per active homebrewer per competition. That's four cases of homebrew, per active homebrewer, per year. The fourth case of entries is to support our local competition. The eight entries per competition is a target to be as competitive as possible, any entries are better than no entries, eight is not a go/no-go limit.

Sounds like a lot of extra work and homebrew! Maybe not, generally most of us brew six to ten times a year, some less some more. Every time you brew plan to bottle and set aside twelve bottles of a normal gravity beer. If you are brewing a high gravity beer set aside as many bottles as you can reasonably reserve for competitions. One full case of high gravity beer will support two years of the competitions, with the second year well aged. Two full cases set aside will support four years of competitions and that third and fourth year barley wine will be a tough competitor!

So, our average brewer should get one or two big brews going, in the bottles and put away. Then the remaining half dozen or so brew days for the year will fill the remaining target goal of a case of entries for the four competitions. For those who brew more frequently stick to the same bottling schedule but only send along the best that you have in stock. The monthly homebrew meetings are a good place to help you decide which to send to competition.

Please refer to the dates page for specifics but here are some approximate dates for planning purposes:

• April, Mayfaire competition
• May, State Fair competition
• July, Amador County Fair competition
• November, California State competition

Other notes and suggestions

• If you're brew is a 'tweener try to bottle another twelve. Is it an American Pale or an IPA? Enter that brew twice, one entry for each style. It's legal and lots of people do it. It is not legal to enter the same brew in the same sub-category more than once.
• Really think about the high gravity suggestion to get them going and put them away. The Brew Angels has a bit of a local reputation for winning the big brew categories already. If we send a dozen well aged entries to these competitions the Brew Angels will be known state wide as the big brew brewers to beat.
• April to November is a pretty wide range, for low gravity brews and lagers consider a way to keep them cold stored.
• There are other competitions that deserve the club's attention also. Our neighboring clubs have their own competitions and they support our Amador competition, we should support them also. Alameda, Sacramento GCBA sponsored events, Modesto and Sonora events to name a few. Bottle a few extra and be ready to enter, the eight entry target does not apply here, one or two per homebrewer is adequate.