Competition Corner

After weeks of careful deliberation, the white smoke has risen from the Vatican chimney and the 2014 Buddy Brew teams have been chosen!

Please find your buddy brew partner below and start working on any recipe you would like to brew which contains less than 5% alcohol.

Good luck to everyone, but most importantly, have fun and use this as an opportunity to teach each other something about making better beer. Look for an email to follow with everyone’s email information so you can make initial contact (because I didn’t want everyone’e email blasted all over the interwebs).

2014 Buddy Brew Teams:

• Shawn Keller – Jim Denier
• Greg Topay – Michael Bade
• Scott Lamm – Doug Thiel
• Mike Bostwick – Mark Jeffries
• George Delena – Jeff Gilbertson
• Matt Lawlor – Kjell Wygant
• Mike Roth – Andy Honker
• David Marsh – Brian Pramov
• Rob Kausch – Bryan Keas
• Scott Douris – Chris Huser
• Ken Anderson – Geoff Humphrey
• James/Jasmine Devalois – Billy Beeson
• Josh Given – Matt Linnenberger
• Peter Baggus – Eric Seufert

Yes, unfortunately despite a valiant effort by several homebrewers, the Rock Hopper came up shy of winning the Ace of Clubs award for 2014.  But hey, what good is putting funny slogans on the trophy if nobody else gets to read them right?  Anyway, several Rock Hoppers continued to define how homebrewing is supposed to be done and walked away with some ribbons for their efforts, in fact, the Rock Hoppers came away with as many ribbons as the Ace of Clubs winning homebrew club and only lost due to judging and stewarding points.  Congrats to the following Rock Hoppers:

Jason Kruegel:

• 3^rd Pilsner,  “Purple Dog Pilsner”
• 4^th Dark Lager,  “Eat My Schwarz”

Kelly Kruegel:

• 3^rd Bock, “Arctic Chi”
• 3^rd Belgian and French Ale, “Monk with a Woody”
• 3^rd Belgian Strong Ale, “CoopSauce”

Matthew Linnenburger:

• 3^rd Light Hybrid Beer, “Summer Days”
• 2^nd Amber Hybrid Beer, “Alternate Universe”

Bryan Keas:

• 2^nd English Pale Ale, “Bryan’s Bitter”
• 1^st Fruit Beer, “Blue Balls”

A big congrats to our own Bryan Keas for his BOS win and his ProAm selection at this year’s Liquid Poetry Slam.

Bryan will brew his Hoppy Ending hopped up red ale at New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins later this summer!

Nice work, B.

The Competition page has been updated with all local competitions happening in the near future up until April.  Registration deadlines and Entry deadlines have been posted as well for comps available.  

The 2014 edition of the Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines Homebrew Competition garnered 340 entries from all over the country. And of the 44 medals awarded, Rock Hoppers took home 10 of them. 

Congrats to the following winners (left to right):

Billy Beeson

• 2nd in Wit, Belgian Pale, and Biere de Garde (Biere de Garde)
• 1st in Belgian Strong Dark (Belgiand Dark Strong – Co-Brewer: Matt Lawlor)
• 2nd in Belgain Strong Dark (Dubbel)
• 1st in Strong Scotch and Baltic Porter (Strong Scotch)

Charlie Gottenkieny

• 1st in Sour (Flanders Red – Co-Brewer: Geoff Humphrey)
• 2nd in Spice Herb Vegetable (Saison with Beets)

Geoff Humphrey

• 1st in Wit, Belgian Pale, and Biere de Garde (Biere de Garde)

Phil Penningroth

• 2nd in Bock/Weizenbock (Eisbock)
• 2nd in Strong Ale (Am. Barleywine)

Bryan Keas

• 2nd in Specialty (Hoppy Imperial Red)