There are some great events and competitions in homebrewing happening around San Diego the first half of the year.
AFC
The America’s Finest City 2015 competition kicks off the season with one of the largest homebrew competitions in California. Last year the competition had over 550 entries with judging taking place over two days. The competition is hosted by QUAFF, San Diego’s largest homebrew club. Registration has already ended, but keep this in mind next year, as it’s a great competition to enter and get feedback from BJCP sanctioned judges and professional brewers. The competition is registered with the BJCP and is also a MCAB (Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing) qualifying event.
Stone AHA Rally
Mid Late March the AHA (American Homebrewers Association) hosts a rally at Stone Brewing Co. as a membership drive and homebrew competition. Attendees are given a glass and allowed to sample 30+ homebrews and submit a ballot of their favorite three beers. The top 5 or 6 beers will go to a judging table consisting of Stone’s co-founders, brewers, and other employees with the winning beer to be scaled up on Stone’s 120 barrel brew house for a national release. The roots of the event started with local homebrew club Society Of Barley Engineers taking a batch of wort brewed at Stone and turning it into a surprising array of different beers with whatever additions and alterations each brewer made to it. At the time of printing there has been no confirmation of the rally happening this year on Stone or the AHA’s website so be on the lookout for updates on social media regarding entering this competition or the status of it. Update 2/17: Stone has just released details regarding the competition & rally, set for Saturday, March 28 from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Big Brew for National Homebrew Day
In 1988, May 7 was announced before Congress as National Homebrew Day. To celebrate each year, an annual AHA Big Brew is held in early May with an official Big Brew recipe created for the day. While brewing up the recipe, a toast is held at noon CDT to honor the occasion. Last year there were 437 scheduled events around the world with 8,000 participants brewing up over 17,000 gallons of beer. The event was held in 49 states and 14 countries. The 2015 recipe has yet to be revealed but check http://www.
Camping
Registration is now open for the 2015 Southern California Homebrewers Festival (SCHF) which was canceled last year after some legislation made it illegal in 2014. Thanks to the efforts of AHA and its members, AB2609 was signed into law making it legal again in 2015. This year on May 1 and 2, the festival returns to Vail Lake, located off Highway 79 in Temecula. The festival is a much shorter drive for homebrewers located in San Diego after the festival has been held much further north in recent years. For more information on the festival, visitwww.calhomebrewers.org for details.
Unfortunately going on the same weekend is the annual Spring Fling gathering for San Diego homebrewing clubs in east county. Most of the campsites at Potrero County Park Campground are filled but you might find someone looking to take their site who switched to SCHF.
NHC
The National Homebrewers Conference returns to San Diego in 2015 after the city last hosted the event in 2011. The conference will once again take place at the Town & Country Resort but this time it will be taking over the entire resort in order to accommodate 4,000+ attendees. In doing so, many of the events will take place outdoors around the venue, creating a different experience from past conferences. A registration application period will happen from February 18 through 24 for potential attendees. If the response is greater than maximum number of attendees, the AHA will have a random selection process for attendees. This year they are also bringing back the lower-priced Social Package which allows you attend the conference events but not the more than 50 conference seminars scheduled during June 11 through 13. Tomme Arthur of Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey will be giving the keynote address while many local homebrewers, professional brewers, and industry heavy weights will be speaking. For more information visit http://www.ahaconference.org/ for important dates and the full list of speakers.
The conference will also host the final round of judging for the National Homebrew Competition, the world’s largest international beer competition recognizing the most outstanding homebrewed beer, mead, and cider produced by amateur brewers worldwide.
The first round of the competition will take place in 12 regions throughout North America. The application window for the first round is from February 2-8, with the first round judging taking place March 13 through April 12. So get your finest beers ready and see how you stack up against the rest of the country. Visit http://www.
With all the competitions and events scheduled and those yet to come, it will be a great year for the San Diego homebrewing community. So it’s time to get brewing, cheers!