Cascade Brewer's Guild™ Presents the Fourteenth Annual Pacific Northwest AHA/BJCP Sanctioned CASCADE BREWER'S CUP™ Homebrew Competition Contest Rules We are now officially a WHOTY qualifying event through WAHA! Last Update:February 9th, 2010 - subject to change without notice

 

Location

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The final round of the competition will be held March 13th in conjunction with the ExBeerience beer festival at the Redhook Brewery in Woodinville. Preliminary judging will begin on March 6th to ensure that final judging is completed prior to the start of festival. The public is invited to attend the surrounding ExBeerience beer festival to witness live announcements of the winners as judging is completed.

Find out more about the festival and purchase advance tickets at Brown Paper Tickets. Space is limited but purchasing advance tickets not only guarantees you entry but also gets you an additional taste for free. Local Homebrew club, W.A.B.L., and Ratebeer members get one additional free taste.

This competition is open to all non-commercial, home produced beers, meads and ciders. Beer, mead and cider produced at commercial breweries or "Brew on Premises" are ineligible. Professional brewers may enter, however their entries must have been brewed at home. Competition staff, judges, and stewards are eligible to enter. Judges and stewards may not participate in the judging of their own entries. Safeguards will be taken to prevent judges from knowing who brewed the entries they are judging. Enter as often as you wish and in as many categories as you wish. At the discretion of the competition staff, entries not meeting these eligibility or entry requirements will be disqualified.

One Entry shall be judged Best-Of-Show (BOS). Winners shall receive a Certificate of Award, and possibly additional awards and gifts provided by our sponsors.

The first, second, and third place winners of the Best of Show round will be awarded medals. Entrants scoring below 30 will not be advanced to the Best-of-Show round. Typically only one entrant per flight will advance, and that advancement will be decided by the judging panel (may not be based on points in the case of a tie). (Entry Drop-Off Points)

Brewers are encouraged to use the Online Registration Wizard.. The alternative is to fill out a paper Entry Form. When using this method a fully completed, legible Entry Form must accompany each entry. Incomplete or illegible forms will result in disqualification.

Attach one Bottle ID label to each bottle with a rubber band; Do not use tape!

Recipes are not required to enter the competition. Below are web-versions of the AHA forms for the competition. They are provided in case you cannot find a form in your locale. Forms are formatted for PRINTING on 8½ x 11 inch paper (you may need to adjust the margins of your printer).

Entry/Recipe Form (HTML) | (PDF)
Bottle Identification Form (HTML) | (PDF)

An entry consists of 3 (three) bottles for Beer (two will be used in the first round, the third for determining Best of Show if required). Mead and Cider entries require only 2 (two) bottles. All entries must have Bottle ID labels attached. See Entry Forms for more information.

Bottles must be clean 10-12 oz brown glass, free of labels, or other identifying markings (raised lettering is OK if from a significant American brewery like Bridgeport or New Belgium). Any markings on cap must be blacked out. Swing top bottles (such as Grolsch-type) are not permitted. Corked bottles meeting the above standards are permitted provided they are capped over the cork.

Each Entry fee is $6.00 (US). Make check payable to "Cascade Brewer's Cup".All entries become property of the Cascade Brewer's Cup. No bottles will be returned. Entries that bounce checks will not receive judge reports or awards until corrections are made.

Judging

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This competition is AHA and BJCP sanctioned. All beers will be judged and score sheets returned within one month of the competition. The results of the competition will be posted on the Cascade Brewers Guild Website. At the discretion of the judges some categories may not have a winner. All questions and disputes will be settled by Mike Brown, the competition organizer. All decisions are final. Prospective judges and stewards are requested to register online, or fill out the typical form. Please use the Online Registration.

Or use the old hand-written Judge Registration/Waver Form. Send Judge forms to , Competition Organizer.

Mission statement

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It is the intention of the Cascade Brewer's Cupto provide homebrewers with an opportunity to participate in a first-rate competition. All entrants are assured of receiving timely, constructive feedback from qualified beer judges. We intend to provide a forum for experienced judges to exercise their skills, and provide experience training for the next generation of beer judges. We welcome suggestions on how we can improve our competition.

Additional information: Send email to , Competition Organizer.

Tips & Tricks

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Based on experience of running competitions, we've put together a list of tips and tricks that help in the processing and handling of entries. Please consider these carefully.

• Correctly identify the style, substyle, and any special ingredients used (if applicable)
• Entries that arrive in their own six-pack carriers allow for better handling
• Plain brown bottles between 10 to 12 ounces in volume are best accepted by judges.
• Blacken out any inscription on bottle caps (if applicable)
• Do not use tape to secure Bottle ID forms; use rubber bands ~ please!
• Submit the correct amount of money with your entries
• Submit the correct amount of bottles with each entry
• Allow enough time for your entry to arrive

Good Luck!         Competition Organizer, Cascade Brewers Guild