The brewing competition

The stout and porter table, and the long list of entries at the back

Back in April I entered my first serious brewing competition.Yes, I had entered the National Homebrewing Awards back in January, but I didn't get very good feedback from the judges, not just in the sense that my beer didn't do very well (the judges found this beer difficult to drink) but also because the feedback was so limited and unhelpful. Two sentences of feedback, for a very steep entry fee - unimpressed!

The results of best in show are read out from the stairwell in the brewery

Undeterred a colleague from work send me information about the London and South East craft brewing competition, which was organised by the London Amateur Brewers.

This was as much a celebration of home brewing as it was a competition. I had dropped the beer off a few days before on a sunny spring day, where some friendly staff at the brewery took my bottles in and had a chat about the beers we were entering.

A talk from the head brewer

So on the afternoon of the awards itself all of the beers that had been judged were laid out across tables set up around two rooms in the brewery. The judges had supped their way through 250 beers. I had entered 4. Each beer was poured into a plastic jug, and you could try any of the beers that had been entered. The best beers had yellow stickers, and commended beers had green stickers. Two of my beers gained green stickers - for my Willamette lager, and my Wai-ti wiezenbok. Totally surprised and chuffed with this. Later I would be emailed two score sheets for each beer with detailed feedback from qualified judges.

The Truman Brewery in Hackney Wick

Alongside the judging, there was a talk from the head brewer about a beer recreated from the records of the original Truman brewery. There were lots of great free give aways too. A huge bale of Dana hops which we all took big handfuls of. There was a tray of dried Mauribrew yeasts too.

I also go the chance to meet a whole lot of other homebrewers. Their message to me was pretty clear, the key to good beer is yeast, yeast yeast. And so this is the lesson I have taken away and have been putting into practice since the competition in April. The next one is a two weeks time, I've only entered one beer but I know it;s more than just the possibility of winning, it's the celebration of home brewing too.

Me with my two beers that got a coveted green lable