What can I say but that we are rapidly approaching the end of our regular brewing season and with that competition fever is upon us. Guild members anted up to the call and have entered about 24 beers in each of the Canadian Nationals in Toronto and the Saskatchewan regionals in Regina. I was especially glad to see some first time entries and entries from people who have entered but a few competitions before. That speaks well for the future of the club. Combined with a revitalized interest amongst some of our long term and more competitive members I can see the fortunes of the Edmonton Homebrewers Guild are once again on the rise.

Of course the most important competition is our own EHG-Aurora Brewing Challenge/MCAB qualifier to be held of June 3-5. This is Canada’s biggest competition and draws entries from not only Alberta but across the nation and into the U.S. That being said, don’t let the size of the competition scare you off. Yes there is a lot of quality brew but the quality of the judging is also outstanding. This is your best chance to really learn about your brewing skills and how to improve them. The comments you receive are absolutely the best way to learn about brewing. Remember, virtually all of the best brewers in the Guild are those who have competed at the big competitions. They’ve learned to take to positive criticism and advice the have received from the competitions to truly hone their skills at the craft of amateur brewing. Few of us started off at the top of the pack, but many of us are there now — because we had the courage to compete.

GO FOR IT!

You can bring/send your beers to Alley Kat during the last week of May. Of course the easiest time to bring them will be for the June meeting. We also encourage you to bring beers to the May and June meetings that you have questions about. There will be many judges at these meetings who will help you decide on what class to enter. Of course a really good option, and a great way to learn about beers styles, is to enter the beer into more than one category or subcategory. We highly encourage you to consider this option, especially if you are relatively new to the art of brewing. Further, in the spirit of helping you learn about your brews, this year we have decided to take multiple entries in the same category. If you have two ESBs enter them both and let the judges pick the best one.

Glen Hannah has done a fantastic job of organizing the competition. Looks real smooth right now. Of course we will need judges and stewards to help make it a success. Get a hold of Glen at the next meeting and sign up. Stewards are critical to a great competition and a great way to get introduced to this most exciting event in amateur brewing. So if you can’t judge and you’ve never helped out before, this is an excellent chance to get involved with the Guild. Glen can also be reached at glhannah@telusplanet.net
Entry information can be found on our website www.ehg.ca

BURRP

Remember May is BURRP month where we all get to taste those really ridiculous beers that you concocted over the last few months with just 10 lbs of 2 row. Bring your beers no matter how good or how bad they turned out to be. We will have 2 panels of BJCP judges and judge candidates go through a formal evaluation and talk about the beers. But we will also want to here from the brewers. Bring your recipes and tell us what in the world you were up to and how you tried to do it! Try to name a style if you can, but just homebrew is also acceptable.