With the Pro-Am selections winding down, you have some more chances to have your beer brewed professionally at some upcoming competitions.  Seattle Weekly is hosting a homebrew competition where the winner's beer will be brewed commercially at a Big Al Brewing and will be on tap at Brouwers for a month!  Here are the basic competition details:

Seattle Weekly Homebrew Competition

Website: http://homebrew.seattleweekly.com/2009/

1. Any amateur may enter. Enter via our website and then send your home brew to Seattle Weekly, Attn: Home Brew Competition at 1008 Western Ave., Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98104 OR drop-off at any of our participating drop off locations. Locations include: The Cellar Home Brew, Bob's Homebrew Supply, Beer Essentials, and 99 Bottles.
2. All entries must be brewed at home, not in a commercial establishment. One entry per person.
3. $15 per entry due upon receipt of bottled product. Check paid to the order of Seattle Weekly.
4. Brewers must submit three 10 ounce or larger bottles for their beer entry. Caps should be blacked out or blank. PET bottles with carbonator caps are allowed.
5. The deadline for entries is August 15, 2009. Entries will be accepted later only with the prior approval of the organizers and with submission of completed competition entry forms before the deadline.
6. Accepting home brews in the following categories: Stout, Pilsner/Lager, Pale Ale, and/or Brown Ale/Porter
7. Bottle labels must be attached to each bottle with a rubber band-no tape. Bottle labels must include the full recipe.
8. The organizers reserve the right to ask for recipes after the competition.
9. Bottles, filled or unfilled, will not be returned.
10. 1st place winner's brew will be brewed by Big Al Brewing and be available at Brouwers for one-month!.

In addition, another chance to have your beer brewed is coming up soon with the Frontier Room in July.  Keep posted for details.

The Washington Homebrewers Association is sponsoring a mead and cider only competition to help encourage developing experience in making and judging meads and ciders.  The competition will be held August 15th, 2009 with entries being due by August 12th.  The competition will be held at Larry's Brewing Supply.  For complete details on the competition, CLICK HERE. 

Entry Fee: $7 per entry - Checks made payable to Larry's Brewing Supply
2 10-12 oz or 1 750 mm corked or capped bottle per entry
Entries Due:
July 27th - - August 12th, 2009
Mail to / Drop Off:
Larry's Brewing Supply
7405 S 212th St. #103
Kent, WA 98032

WAHA Awards Announcements 

The Washington Homebrewers Association is proud to announce the winners of the 2008 Awards Program.  They were announced and presented at the 2009 Cascade Exbeerience.

Washington Homebrewer of the Year

Awarded to the homebrewer who scores the most points in sanctioned WAHA competitions

Winner: James Golovich (15.7 points)

Bert Grant Competition Results

Awarded the "best of show of the BOS winners" 

Winner: Mike & Steve Brown
Training Wheel - Cream Ale
(will be brewed at Big Al Brewing)

Golden Mash Paddle

Recognizing homebrewers who help progress the Washington Homebrewing scene

Presented to Mark Emiley 

Congratulations to all of the winners.  Best of luck to all homebrewers and clubs in the 2009 awards! Including the new Club of the Year Award!

BJCP Exam

Congrats to everyone who took the BJCP exam on February 28th.  We are anxiously looking forward to everyone getting their scores and growing our judging pool in Washington.  Welcome to the BJCP family and we look forward to seeing you soon at upcoming competitions to start building your points!

We are scheduling another exam for November 14th for another round of new judges and a retake opportunity for current judges!  Talk to your club members about organizing a study group.

2009 WHOTY Qualifying Competitions

We are putting together the list of the 2009 WHOTY Qualifying Competitions.  Here is the current list:

Cascade Brewers Cup
Puget Sound Pro-Am
Evergreen State Fair
Washington Mead and Cider Cup
Novembeerfest

Make sure to enter these and all other competitions in Washington!

Washington Homemade Beer and Wine Makers,

Raise a glass of homebrew in celebration!

At 2:00 on May 6th Governor Gregoire signed Senate Bill 5060 in the presence of Mark Emiley, Tim Hayner, and Tom Schmidlin, the three founding members of Washington Homebrewers Association. Starting July 26th (estimate) it will be legal to enjoy your homemade beer and wine in private, but as a community! This is a great day for homebrewing in Washington!

The wording of the final bill can be found here (http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2009-10/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Passed%20Legislature/5060.PL.pdf) but in short, by law, you will be able to finally LEGALLY take your homemade beer and wine out of your house to enjoy privately with your friends, family, and very importantly, organized events like club meetings (and of course competitions or exhibitions).  The constraint on only judges tasting the beer or wine is gone and the impossible restriction on returning beers or wines from competitions is gone.  Also, very importantly, the limit of 1 gallon has been raised to 20 gallons which will mean that transportation in kegs will finally be legal.

Thank you to everyone who made the calls and sent the messages.  Thanks to everyone's effort, we made this homebrewed bill successful. 

Now that we are done with this effort, WE WANT YOU TO DO TWO LAST THINGS!!!  First of all, none of this would have been possible without Senator Jacobsen agreeing to sponsor this bill and that wouldn't have been possible without Arlen Harris helping connect us.  Please take a minute to either call (360) 786-7690) or e-mail (http://www1.leg.wa.gov/senate/Jacobsen) Senator Jacobsen and let him know how much you appreciate his sponsorship.

If you see Arlen around, please thank him for his help!  (He always appreciates some good homebrew).  Arlen has already helped changed the face of Washington craft brewing and through his help with connecting us with Senator Jacobsen has helped advanced our homebrewing community.  Thanks, Arlen.

Also, more than likely your legislators voted for the bill (there were only three representatives who didn't, you can view the bill roll calls here: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/Summary.aspx?bill=5060&year=2009).  Take another minute and call or e-mail them to let you know that you appreciate their support.  By letting them know that the homemade beer and wine communities noticed, they'll keep us in mind in future bills.  They know we exist (and can be loud when we need to).  Don't let them forget.

Congratulations again on gaining a new right.  The right to bear homebrew!

Cheers,

Mark Emiley

WAHA Executive Chair

Where: Van Doren's Landing Park in Kent, WA, 21861 Russell Rd South Shelter (Covered area near the bathrooms, south end of the Park)

What: Picnic setting to enjoy our wines and beers with food and good company

Likely will have brewing on the club’s three-tier system.

Who: BEWBC & BEEWBC members, families, and guests (children welcome)

What to Bring:   Your wines and beers to enjoy and share

                                  Your favorite picnic food to enjoy and share

The club will provide hot dogs and hamburgers to barbecue, basic munchies, paper/plastic ware and wine and beer glasses.

Directions:

From the Kent Rec Center:       Follow 83^rd AVE S in front of the Rec Center to S 228^th ST (83^rd AVE S becomes S 228^th ST).  Proceed on 228^th ST, which becomes RUSSELL RD.  Follow RUSSELL RD to the park.  Distance from the Rec Center is 2.8 miles.

Access to the park from 212^th St to Russell Rd is an alternate route, but you must be going east on 212^th to turn south onto Russell Rd. There is no left turn going west on 212^th.

Click on the map for more details.

I am happy to announce the placements of the 2008 Variant Competition winner.  The judging had two parts.  First there was a BJCP panel judging of the beers to the Mild style profile.  We had 5 certified judges evaluate the brews.  From this judging, we came out with a rank ordering of the beers.  Then, at the Winter Social, participants picked their favorite top three beers from the entries.  This also yielded a rank ordering of the beers.  We totalled the two orders and the beer with the best combined ranking was determined to be this year's winner.

So, here were the top five beers from the BJCP judging:

1. Sean Russell

2. Kevin O'Keefe

3. Al Cutshall

4. Doug DeVol

5. Doug Buffett

And the top five beers from the People's Choice Judging were:

1. Al Cutshall

2. Doug Buffett 

3. Jesse Warner

4. Doug DeVol

5. Sean Russell

Which means that the 2008 Supreme Variant Homebrewer is:

Al Cutshall 

Thanks to everyone who participated.  Get ready for the 2009 competition this summer.