Today we’d like to congratulate the winners of the 2011 Puyallup Fair Amateur Beer Competition. Each year home brewers submit samples of their product to a panel of judges in hopes of taking home a rosette and maybe even some cash.

Most of us take it for granted but the Puyallup Fair is kind of a big deal. It is one of the largest fairs in the country. It is also one of the oldest fairs in the western United States: Western Washingtonians have been doing the Puyallup since 1900. It is impossible to say exactly how many pigs, chickens, breeding bulls, and other livestock have done their business on the floors of the fair’s barns over the years. Likewise, it is hard to fathom the number of peonies, roses and dahlias judged by squint-eyed flower aficionados.

We know this for sure, the venerable Fisher Scone Wagon sold it’s 100 millionth scone at the fair this year. We also know that 71,581 kids went down the Giant Slide in 2011. A remarkable 6,876,000 feet of toilet paper was flushed away at this year’s fair: enough TP to stretch from Puyallup to Denver. Yep, the Puyallup Fair is a big deal. Taking home a ribbon from any event that consumes so much toilet paper is truly an honor.

The Puyallup Fair recently announced the winners of the Amateur Beer Competition. The first and second place winners received a cash premium and rosette; third place winners were awarded a rosette. Best in Show winners received a large rosette as a prize.

2011 Beer Winners

Best of Show:
Cockrell Gold
Brewed by Richard Cockrell of Sumner, WA.

Best of Category – Ale
War Dog Pale Ale
Brewed by Seth Warness of Yelm, WA

Best of Category – Mixed
Oak Aged Imperial Stout
Brewed by Rick Davidson of Spanaway, WA

Best of Category – Lager
Traci’s Oktoberfest
Brewed by Traci Lienhard of Castle Rock, WA

–By Nate Muller, Senior Homebrew Correspondent–

The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) is having a member rally at the Pike Brewery coming up on July 10.  I’m really excited about this event for a few reasons.  The first is that Charlie Papazian will be there.  Charlie is a legend of homebrewing.  He’s one of the most influential people in bringing homebrewing back to the mainstream.  His book “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing” was one of the first books on homebrewing I read.  He founded the AHA and has since continuously fought for homebrewing rights.

Homebrewing rights may sound like a joke, but it’s not at all.  Prohibition left a tangled mess of laws restricting or outlawing homebrewing.  It wasn’t until 1978 that homebrewing was legalized in the US.  It was only recently legalized in Oklahoma and Utah, thanks to the AHA.  Unfortunately, it’s still illegal in Alabama and Mississippi.

On a happier note, the AHA also sponsors great events, publishes Zymurgy, and brings homebrewers together to advance the hobby.  If you’ve been thinking of becoming a member of the NHC, this is a great excuse to do so.  Membership includes a subscription to Zymurgy, access to member rallies, a pub discount program, and more.  I never pay attention to my pub discounts, but if I did, I could probably pay for my membership in pub discounts.

Hope to see you at this or future member rallies. Sign up before the event fills up.

Cheers,

Nate

The Washington Homebrewers Association publicly announced today that the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) National Homebrewers Conference is coming to Bellevue in 2012. Each year a significant portion of the AHA’s 26,000 members descend upon one lucky city to share their love of homebrew and beer in general. Next year, they’re coming to Bellevue. While the secret has not been very well kept, it is official as of today. The AHA wanted to wait until the 2011 conference had concluded before they announced the location of the 2012 conference.

This is a bigger deal than you might be thinking. The 2011 AHA National Homebrewers Conference, held this past weekend in San Diego, was attended by nearly 2,000 homebrewers from across the nation. No doubt there will be many great beer events—for homebrewers and other beer lovers—planned around the conference. We will have more details in the coming months. The event is scheduled for June 21-23, 2012.

Below is the official announcement we received this morning via Nate Muller, the Washington Beer Blog’s Senior Homebrew Correspondent.

Homebrew correspondent Nate Muller (dark shirt on left) and fellow homebrewers participate in a podcast from the 2011 AHA National Homebrewers Conference.

The Washington Homebrewers Association is proud to publicly announce that the 2012 National Homebrewers Conference will be held in Bellevue, Washington from June 21^st-23^rd at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue. This is the largest annual gathering of homebrewers in the country and is an event not to miss. It features three days of educational seminars from homebrewers, craft brewers, and industry professionals, hosting of the second round of the National Homebrew Competition (the world’s largest beer competition), a local craft brewers festival, industry exhibits, and a homebrew club night / festival where you can try the best and most innovative homebrews from all over the country (and from all of our clubs!) You can find out more about the National Homebrewers Conference at www.ahaconference.org and can see a fun pre-conference video at www.brewingwithbigfoot.com (the local committee’s main website).

The conference is a great time but takes a lot of effort from local homebrewers and clubs. We will be needing people to help plan pre-conference events, judge and steward for the competition, help with beer logistics, and generally just lend a hand throughout all of the conference events. With a lot of help the conference will run incredibly smoothly and everyone will have a great time. We will be working to get up a tool to volunteer to help with the conference very soon. You can read about all of the things that the local committee has to work on here: http://ahaclubs.homebrewersassociation.org/NHCplanningguide.

The most important thing that you can start doing now is brewing beer, meads, and ciders! We are the hosts and as the hosts, we want the guests to be able to enjoy great brews all throughout the conference. You can start brewing some great, exciting beers now and definitely get brewing next spring. Homebrewers who are part of clubs should start getting together to plan out what beers they would like to have on tap at throughout the conference. Clubs should start finding out who is planning on being a part of the conference and form a planning team to help arrange club logistics.

We are very excited to have all of you be a part of what will be the greatest conference ever. Get the word out to your friends and start your beer engines!

Cheers,

Washington Homebrewers Association

by Nate Muller, Senior Homebrew Correspondent

A quick reminder to all you beer geeks: The King County Library homebrewing basics courses are rolling.   Two of them are tonight at the Mercer Island and Maple Valley Libraries. The rest of the schedule is below.  I’m teaching the Mercer Island, Shoreline, and Kirkland Library classes. Best of all, these classes are free and don’t require registration. These classes are targeted to people who have never homebrewed before.  They will cover the basics of beer and how to brew your first batch of homemade beer. There will be time for Q&A for people who have more advanced homebrew questions.

I hope to see you tonight or at one of the future classes!

Cheers,

Nate
Homemade Beer – The Basics of Homebrewing

Have you ever thought about brewing your own beer? This introduction to the world of homebrewing covers the basics of beermaking using malt extract. Topics include: ingredients, equipment needed, and the steps in the beermaking process. The instructors for this class are all expert homebrewers and are each certified by theBeer Judge Certification Program as a qualified Beer Judge.

Mercer Island Library, Wednesday, April 20, 7pm
Maple Valley Library, Wednesday, April 20, 7pm
Des Moines Library, Sunday, May 8, 2pm
Fairwood Library, Tuesday, May 10, 7pm
Fall City Library, Thursday, May 12, 7pm
Shoreline Library, Thursday, May 19, 7pm
Kirkland Library, Monday, May 23, 7pm, sponsored by the Friends of the Library of Kirkland

by Nate Muller – Senior Homebrew Correspondent

Professional Brewers Turn to Home Brewers for Inspiration

Here’s a beer competition that’s great for home brewers and beer lovers alike: the Puget Sound Pro-Am Competition. This competition is all about bringing professional brewers and home brewers together.

For home brewers, this is an amazing opportunity to have your beer brewed at a commercial scale. The list of breweries is huge this year, with 15 breweries participating. Many of the breweries have even been kind enough to indicate what style they’d like to select from the competition.

For beer lovers, this event will inspire a bunch of new recipes at your favorite breweries. Keep an eye out for the Pro-Am winning beers. They are often creative and always tasty. Here’s the list of participating breweries:

Ram Restaurant and Brewery

Elysian Brewery

Big Time Brewery

Rock Bottom – Seattle

Rock Bottom – Bellevue

Big Al Brewing

Baron Brewing

Diamond Knot Brewery

Snipes Mountain Brewing

Naked City Brewing

Harmon Brewery

BJ’s – Tacoma

Flyers Brewery

Powerhouse Brewery

Issaquah Brewhouse

I plan to submit my entry soon. I’m going to try my hand with a hoppy cream ale that I like to call Muller Lite. The entries are due Tuesday, April 26^th. I won a similar contest with my Belgian Dubbel named OmmeKNate which earned me the opportunity to brew with Al and Big Al’s Brewing. I hope many of you get to do the same.

For more Washington Homebrewer news, check out the April newsletter.

We just received word that this Saturday’s ExBEERience Beer Festival is almost sold out. The event, which takes place at the Redhook Ale Brewery in Woodinville, features beer from local homebrewers as well as beer from a number of pro brewers. It looks like there will be very few, if any, tickets at the door. You should secure your tickets now. Visit the event’s website.

Last month we introduced you to Nate Muller, the newest addition to the Washington Beer Blog team. As our Senior Homebrew Correspondent, Nate provided some good information about the ExBEERience Beer Festival. You can read it here.

by Nate Muller – Senior Homebrew Correspondent

Are you a beer lover who would like to start homebrewing? Did you buy a homebrewing book, but you still haven’t found the energy to open it?
Believe it or not, King County Library is looking to help you out. They are sponsoring a series of beginning homebrewing classes at various libraries around the county. They have partnered with a friend of mine, Steve Antoch. He’s a master beer judge and a fantastic teacher. The classes are targeted to people who have never tried homebrewing, but there will also be plenty to learn for a novice. The classes will cover everything you need to know to brew your first batch: ingredients, equipment, and process.

The class schedule and teacher bios are below.  As you can see, I’m one of the teachers. I hope to see you at one of the classes!

Cheers,
Nate

Updated 2/19/2011

• Federal Way 320th Library,  4/6/2011, 7pm,  Mike Hausenfluck
• Mercer Island Library, 4/20/2011, 7pm,  Nate Muller
• Maple Valley Library, 4/20/2011,  7pm, Steve Antoch
• Des Moines Library, 5/8/2010, 2pm, Peter Twigg
• Fairwoods Library, 5/10/2011, 7pm,  Mike Hausenfluck
• Fall City Library, 5/12/2011, 7pm, Steve Antoch
• Shoreline Library, 5/19/2011, 7pm, Nate Muller

Homebrewer Instructor Biographies

Dan O’Leary -  Dan has been brewing for just over 6 years. Dan is the Treasurer of Kent’s Impaling Alers Homebrew Club. He has won several 1st place medals for various beers in competitions between Minnesota and Washington. Most notably, Dan took 2nd Place at the National Homebrew Competition in 2010 for his American Wheat beer. Dan generally brews true to established styles but is dabbling into Sour Ales and some collaborative barrel aging projects.

Dan is a commercial airline pilot for Horizon Air, based out of SEA-TAC. He has been flying for Horizon for over 10 years.

Mark Emiley -   Mark Emiley has been homebrewing since 1998, when he cooked up his first batch of Porter. With over 225 extract and all-grain batches under his belt, he has won numerous beer-making awards and his recipes have even been brewed commercially many times. Mark has passed the Institute of Brewing and Distilling’s General Certificate in Brewing & Packaging examination through UC Davis. As the Executive Chair of the Washington Homebrewers Association and President of the Boeing Employees Wine and Beer Makers Club (BEWBC), he has taught dozens of homebrewers how to start brewing, both individually and in group classes. He has brewed beers from every style in the BJCP’s (Beer Judge Certification Program) style guidelines and is a BJCP judge, holding the rank of Master.  Mark is a former US Air Force officer and analyst for The Boeing Company.

Mike Hausenfluck - Mike began homebrewing in 1994.  He is a Past President of Kent’s Impaling Alers Homebrew club.  Mike has won numerous awards in homebrew competitions over the years.  He is a Certified BJCP Judge, and loves brewing all styles, but particularly enjoys brewing Belgians such as Saison. He is a graduate of the American Brewers Guild Craftbrewer’s Apprenticeship Program.  Mike is a high school Spanish and French teacher in the Issaquah School District. Teaching others is among his passions in life.

Nate Muller -  Nate has been brewing since 2004.  He is the Treasurer of Kirkland’s Cascade Brewer’s Guild homebrew club.  He’s a BJCP Certified beer judge, which has taught him to appreciate just about every style of beer.  He recently won best-in-show at the Seattle Weekly homebrew competition with his Belgian Dubbel named OmmeKNate, earning him the opportunity to brew his recipe at Big Al’s professional brewery. The beer was on tap around Seattle, as Big Al’s Local Hero #9. His latest brewing interest has been trying to perfect a flavorful session beer. He’s still working on the perfect recipe.  Nate is a Product Manager at Microsoft.

Peter Twigg - In 1996, Peter purchased a basic beer kit for his father for Christmas. Over the next 14 years, the hobby has become more his own than his father’s and the simple kit has expanded into a good portion of the garage and basement. He brews at least monthly and shares anything he deems acceptable with as many people as he can find. Peter has won numerous awards for his beers including Best of Show at the NovembeerFest Competition in 2009 with a fantastic English mild. He took the BJCP exam in the fall and is anxiously awaiting his final exam results. Peter is a Technical Project Manager (PMP certified) and currently works as an independent consultant.

Steve Antoch - Steve began home brewing since 2002 when he was given a “Mr. Beer” kit as a Christmas present. He is one of the founders of the Mt. Si Brewing Society, which meets in Snoqualmie, and is one of the Charter members of the Washington Homebrewer’s Association, holding the position of Education Focal. He has won several awards for his beers in various homebrew competitions around the Puget Sound area.  He is a BJCP Judge holding the rank of Master, teaches the BJCP Certification classes to train other BJCP Beer Judges, and is a BJCP Exam Grader. Steve is a former US Army Officer and works as a Computing Research Engineer for FTI Consulting.

Today we introduce a new contributor. Nate Muller is an avid home brewer and has generously offered to help keep us informed about what’s happening on the local homebrew scene. While this first story focuses on something his particular homebrew club is organizing, he’ll be reaching out to other clubs as well. Please welcome Nate to the blog.

The ExBEERience Beer Festival

by Nate Muller – senior homebrew correspondent

I have been attending beer festivals for as long as my age has allowed me in the door. Over the years, I have seen beer festivals become bigger, more frequent, and more popular. This is great for a beer lover home brewer like myself, but it also comes with higher prices, fewer tastes, and bigger lines.

In March of 2009, I attended my first ExBEERience Beer Festival and it was like I was in a time warp. It felt like I was back at my very first beer festival. It was small, at only around 150 attendees that year. It had free food! Most importantly, the level of beer geekery was much higher than any festival I had been to in a long time.

ExBEERience is a different kind of beer festival. It’s hosted by the Cascade Brewers Guild—a local homebrew club. The festival is a pure celebration of beer, brewing, and brewers. It will have over 15 professional breweries pouring their favorite beers. But unlike the big festivals, it will also have homebrew, beer judging workshops, and an awards ceremony for the Cascade Brewers Cup, Washington’s biggest homebrew competition.

The 2009 ExBeerience was so inspiring to me, I re-joined the Cascade Brewers Guild and now I’m the treasurer. I hope to see you there on March 12. Tickets are only $25 in advance or $30 at the door. I wouldn’t count on any door sales though. It sold out last year and it should sell out even sooner this year.

ExBEERience Beer Festival
Redhook Ale Brewery
Saturday, March 12th
Noon – 5:00.
Get Tickets

On Saturday, November 13th the Phinney Neighborhood Association held its 23rd Annual Winter Beer Taste. The event featured beers from some of Washington’s best-loved and most highly respected professional brewers. Surprisingly, it was a homebrewer that took home first place in the people’s choice awards.

Sadly, I was unable to attend. I was home on the couch with the flu. If indeed there are beer gods up there, they are sometimes fickle and cruel.

Here are the results from the People’s Choice voting.

People’s Choice:

First Place – Reuben’s Brews, Roasted Rye PA. That’s right! A homebrewer won the People’s Choice. Congratulations to the man who brews by the name Reuben and apparently was the bell of the ball, so to speak. On his blog, he says, “What an amazing time… I almost lost my voice speaking to so many people by the end of the night.” You can read more about Reuben’s Brews, including some details about the winning beer, at http://reubensbrews.weebly.com/index.html

Second Place – Two Beer Brewing, Cask-Conditioned Jive Espresso Stout.

Third Place – Harmon Pub and Brewery, Big Woodrow Imperial Milk Stout.

Congratulation to the beer artist known as Reuben. Great job. Wish I’d been there to sample your beer.

You can see a complete story about this year’s PNA Winter Beer Taste, written by someone who was actually able to attend, on Chris Johnson’s blog – Cheers for Beers.

We just learned about the winners of the Puyallup Fair Amateur Beer Contest. What’s more, we just learned that there is such a thing. Cheers to that.

The top three winners of each category are being displayed through the remainder of the Fair, which ends Sept. 26. First and second place winners received a cash premium and rosette; third place winners were awarded a rosette.  Best in Show winners received a large rosette as a prize.

Contratuations to the top finishers (listed below), as well as everyone else who took home an award.

• Best of Show: “Toilettenwasser,” a German Pilsner brewed by Cary Peltz of Renton.
• Best of Category: Standard Bitter, brewed by Jason Glasgow of Poulsbo.
• Best of Category, Mixed: Al’s Chocolate Stout, brewed by Al Toepfer of Snoqualmie.