The Pisgah Organic Pro-Am 2009 Homebrew Competition General Information version 8b

On-Line Registration | Pisgah Brewing Website | BJCP Style Guidelines 2008

Host Organization:  The Pisgah Brewing Co. – Black Mountain, North Carolina

Welcome to The Pisgah Organic Pro-Am Homebrew Competition 2009:
Organized by MALT (Mountain Ale and Lager Tasters Homebrew Club, Asheville North Carolina), this competition is the first in what hopefully will be an annual event for North Carolina’s first brewery to become certified and brew from all organic ingredients. Pisgah Brewing Company was founded in 2005 and located just outside of Asheville near Black Mountain, North Carolina.

                                                    Pisgah Organic Pro-Am Homebrew Contest Guidelines

An AHA/BJCP Sanctioned Competition

Pisgah's inaugural homebrew competition will be held Saturday, July 11 at Pisgah Brewing Company in Black Mountain, NC.

• Acceptable beers styles under the BJCP style guidelines are categories are 1-16, and 18-23.  Categories 5D, 17A-F and 22C are not permitted.
• Entries may be brewed from malt extract, all grain or a combination of both.
• Pisgah must be able to brew your beer (from grain to glass) in no more than eight weeks.
• Any type of yeast may be used under the White Labs list of viable, available yeast strains, with the exception of wild yeasts (brettanomyces, lactobacillus, other bacteria, etc), mead or wine yeasts.
• Pisgah uses Briess Organic malt, including 2-row brewers malt, 20L Crystal, 60L Crystal, Munich, Chocolate, Black, Roasted Barley, Extra Special Malt. Briess also makes organic Carapils. Since the winning recipe will be brewed with these organic malts, it is suggested (not required) that each brewer use these specific malts in their grain bill. If other grains are used, they must be an approximate substitute for our organic malts (ex: Briess Pale Malt rather than Organic 2-row, Marris Otter Chocolate Malt rather than Briess Organic Chocolate Malt).
• Entries must be brewed from start to finish on a non-professional, homebrewing system.
• Pisgah uses all whole leaf hops, so it is also suggested each entry uses the same. We use Nugget, Magnum, Apollo, Bravo, Centennial and Mt. Hood hops. Each entry must approximate these hop varieties or use a substitute within the same family. Nugget may be substituted with Cluster, Galena, Brewers Gold, Warrior, Eroica, Target or Millennium.   Magnum with Horizon or Newport.  Centennial with Amarillo, Cascade, Columbus or Summit. Finally, Mt. Hood may be substituted with Hallertauer, Liberty, Crystal, or Strisselspalt.  Apollo and Bravo, being newer, high alpha hop varieties, may be substituted with other high alpha hops provided their flavor/aroma can be approximated with the hops we use.

            Pisgah invites brewers to purchase malts, hops and free California Ale yeast from the brewery.

• Entries will be accepted from North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. However, Pisgah's distribution range is currently limited to the Buncombe County area, so the winning entry will be on tap and in bottle only within this area. If the winning brewer lives outside of this area, an allotted portion of the finished product will be shipped to him/her. The winning brewer will be responsible for their own transportation to the brewery on the day we brew the winning recipe.
• The winning brewer will be allowed to help brew his/her winning recipe at Pisgah Brewing Company sometime in late July.
• The winning brew will also be on tap at Brewgrass in September.
• There is no limit on the amount of entries a brewer can enter.
• Entry fee is $3.

Pisgah Brewing Company, will take the Best Of Show first place winning recipe and reproduce, as faithful as possible to the original recipe, on a professional scale with the help of the homebrewer.  By entering the contest the winning homebrewer agrees to disclose their complete recipe to The Pisgah Brewing Company and grant The Pisgah Brewing Company all commercial and intellectual property rights to the winning beer. Entering the Contest, constitutes permission to The Pisgah Brewing Company and its agencies to use your name, likeness, picture, signature, voice, audio and video recordings and biographical information in any manner or media whatsoever (whether now known or hereafter devised) anywhere in the world in perpetuity for the purpose of advertising and trade, without further compensation, unless prohibited by law. 

Quality judging is the primary goal of The Pisgah Organic Pro-Am. We make every effort to ensure that each entrant receives the best possible feedback for their entries. We need volunteers to step forward to judge and steward to make this happen.  July is a great time to visit Asheville!  Breakfast and lunch will be provided by Pisgah Brewing.  Judges and stewards should use the same convenient on-line form as the entrants.  No paper work is necessary.  When your on-line form is received, you'll be contacted by the appropriate coordinator.  If you prefer, judges and stewards may contact competition organizer, Steve Morgan at jnsmorgan@bellsouth.net    All entries and payment in full must be received by the date specified below.  This deadline applies to every entrant, without exceptions.  Late deliveries will not be returned.  This procedure will allow us to conclude the competition in one day and better assure quality control.

Who can enter?

The Pisgah Organic Pro-Am  is open to all amateur homebrewers 21 years of age or older from North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia.  Please, no professional brewers or Pisgah employees and their immediate family members.  Enter early and enter often. (Your entries will be assigned a competition-internal registration number based on random selection independent of time of entry.)  Beers must be brewed at home from start to finish.  Beer brewed in a commercial brewery or a brew-on-premises facility (BOP) is not allowed.  Fresh malt extract from a brewery is not acceptable.  Dry or liquid extract intended for homebrewing is allowed.   
 

Brewer Grouping:

If multiple brewers produced any of the brews to be entered, a separate registration must be made for each unique set of brewers.  The registration must include the point of contact data for the brewers in the Brewer's et al section.  A separate field is provided to identify multiple brewers with a team name.  The Brewer's Team Name field is limited to 35 characters maximum (about 6 words).  For multiple brewers, flight awards will be made to the named team, not the point of contact or the members of the team.  Most importantly for this competition, the Beer BOS prize is only awarded to only one brewer, either the single brewer or the team's point of contact as declared in the registration prior to the competition.   Accordingly, completing the Brewer's Team Name field is mandatory if there was more than one person who participated in producing the brew.  For the single brewer case, the point of contact and brewer are the same and the Brewer's Team Name field will be ignored.  This field will also be ignored by stewards and judges registering without entries. 

How much does it cost?
$3 for each entry.
There is no limit on the number of entries.

Special Note: The registration fees for this competition will be used exclusively to cover the cost of producing the Pisgah Organic Pro-Am.  Quality ribbons will be awarded to all 1st, 2nd and 3rd place flight winners. These winning beers will then be judged in a Best Of Show round to determine the winning beer to be brewed by Pisgah Brewing Company. Pisgah also expects to allow additional beers into the BOS judging based exclusively on high scoring statistics. The high score cutoff (perhaps 40) will be set during the competition by Pisgah management to ensure a hearty BOS competition.  Pisgah reserves the right to combine style categories for judging and awards.  Each entry must be delivered with its completed recipe form.  The link for the recipe form is on the On-Line Registration page.  .  Entries without the recipe cannot be selected as the BOS winner.

Important dates?

What kind of bottles are eligible?

Plain 12 ounce brown longneck bottles with plain silver or gold caps are requested. The bottles must have no raised markings or labels except the rubber-band-attached competition label.  If you can only provide distinctive bottles, please contact the organizer for approval.  We will be unable to return bottles or shipping materials.

 

How do I enter?

1. Prepare 2 bottles of each of your beers.
2. Complete the on-line entry form and print and cut-out the 2 bottle labels per entry.  Also complete the recipe form.
3. Attach a bottle label to each bottle with a rubber band. Do not use glue or tape.  It is advisable to enclose each label in a plastic (sandwich) bag to avoid smearing in the event of broken bottles during transit.
4. Write a check payable to Pisgah Brewing for the total of your entries. $3 for each entry. Mailed checks are preferable.  Please ensure that the check identifies the entrant/point of contact.

Check with FedEx or other private carrier if you prefer to ship.  Checks shipped with brews should be enclosed in a plastic bag to eliminate smearing.  Also see MikeDixon for a JudgeNet posting on shipping advice.
5. Send or deliver entries, checks and recipes as noted above.
6. We will ensure that entries are well cared for once they reach the destination.  They will be transferred to a beer cooler promptly upon delivery.

Drop off or Shipping: entry, check and recipe address: 
       The Pisgah Organic Pro-Am
       c/o The Pisgah Brewing Co.
      150 Eastside Drive                                                                                         
       Black Mountain, NC 28711 

We will accept beer deliveries on M- F  9-7pm,

Alternative Entry drop-off location:

Hops & Vines

797 Haywood Rd, Ste 100
Asheville, NC 28806
(828) 252-5275

(West Asheville)

Hours 11 am – 7 pm M-Sat

           12 pm – 5 pm Sun

Questions should be directed to Steve Morgan, competition organizer by email jnsmorgan@bellsouth.net or phone 828.606.1956.