The American Homebrewers Association‘s annual convention, Homebrew Con, took place in Portland, Oregon, over the weekend. The three-day recreational-fermentation meetup closed with an awards ceremony honoring winners of the 2018 National Homebrew Competition. It’s a contest local brewers have done historically well in, particularly San Diego County’s Quality Ale & Fermentation Fraternity. Better known as QUAFF, the venerable homebrew club has won the Homebrew Club of the year award at the NHC nine times dating back to 2001, after nabbing that honor again for 2018. This is the third straight year QUAFF has earned this big-time accolade.
The club win was fueled by a trio of QUAFF members taking home awards in individual style categories; a gold, silver and bronze in Specialty Beer, Pilsner and Scottish & Irish Ale, respectively. In addition to those wins, three San Diego homebrewers medaled independent of a club affiliation. The complete list of local winners is as follows:
- British & Irish Stout | Gold: James Slattery with Jonathan White (Vista, CA)
- Specialty Beer | Gold: Lucas Orr (San Diego, CA)
- Pilsner | Silver: Brent Krohn (San Diego, CA)
- Specialty Cider & Perry | Silver: Thomas Scholey (San Diego, CA)
- Scottish & Irish Ale | Bronze: Matt Davis (San Diego, CA)
- Specialty IPA | Bronze: Darrell Ades (Oceanside, CA)
The 2018 NHC boasted 8,405 entries from 3,517 homebrewers hailing from all 50 states and 18 countries. It is the largest and most prestigious annual homebrew competition anywhere. A complete list of winners can be viewed here. On top of the aforementioned awards, North Park’s The Homebrewer was named Homebrew Shop of the Year, another prestigious honor.
The 2019 edition of Homebrew Con will take place in Providence, Rhode Island from June 27-29.