Although I was never a prolific homebrew competitor, I did enter a few competitions in my homebrewing days. Highlights include coming a very close second in the Elusive 6th Birthday Homebrew Competition, and winning silver at the CAMRA National Homebrew Competition 2022 with an early incarnation of Under the Eildon Tree. As we started planning for the Second Birthday Bash, I thought it would be a good idea to run a homebrew competition of my own and launch the beer at the Bash.

I was delighted that Matt Curtis agreed to join the judging panel in mid June. Matt sat down with me and Dan Brett (owner of the Baum) in the upstairs room at the Flying Horse to judge the entries.

The field of entries was a little smaller than I had hoped, with two beers having been delayed by their couriers, and a couple more not submitted by their brewers for various reasons. However this did mean we were able to judge them without feeling under any pressure to get through more beers than was comfortable in the time available.

The overall standard of the beers was very good. Just one had a clear fault. Interestingly, it was the only beer that had been canned, rather than bottled, and seemed to be suffering from a lack of carbonation and a bit of oxidation. One other beer divided the judges, who disagreed on whether it might have a touch of diacetyl.

In the end there was a clear winner, with all three judges scoring it highest by several points. This was a Kölsch style beer, brewed by Matt Durant from Nottingham.

I counted this as something of a mixed blessing. On the one hand it gives me a reason to brew my first lager, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. On the other hand, it has given us a tight turn around between judging day, when we could fit in a brew day, and when we need the beer to be ready for launch.