The St. Louis Brews 2002 Happy Holiday Homebrew Competition 2002 Competition is Announced: Enter Your Beers and Meads, Register to Judge or Steward The St. Louis Brews are pleased to announce the 2002 Happy Holiday Homebrew Competition. Beers and meads will be judged. The competition is sanctioned by the BJCP and is a Qualifying Event for the Fifth Annual Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing (MCAB5). AHA/BJCP Style Guidelines will be used. Awards will be issued to first, second, and third place beers. The competition and awards banquet will be held Saturday, December 7 at the Parish Hall of Our Lady of the Presentation Catholic Church, 8860 Tudor Ave. in Overland, MO beginning at 9:00 am. Rules and entry information is provided below. We would appreciate your registering via the web page if you are able: it makes the job easier on our end. Visit http://www.stlbrews.org or contact Jack at the address below if you want paper copies of registration materials. A. ELIGIBILITY AND CATEGORIES 1. Anyone may enter a beer or a mead. 2. Entries must be referred to by Category NUMBER and Subcategory LETTER. See Style Guidelines for category designations and descriptions. 3. Commercially brewed beers and meads are ineligible. B. HOW TO ENTER, WHAT TO ENTER 1. We also have an on-line form for registering beers. Find it at http://www.stlbrews.org. We would appreciate that you register via the web page if you are able: it makes the job easier on our end. 2. Entry Fees: $5.00 for each entry. All checks should be made payable to the St. Louis Brews. Attach entry fee to registration form(s) and place inside package. Any entries not accompanied by an entry fee will not be judged. 3. Entry requirements: Provide THREE BOTTLES for each entry. Bottles must be 10- to 12-ounce green or brown glass and clean and free of any labels (inked, paper, or otherwise). Bottles with formed-in-glass brand names or labels (such as Bass) are prohibited. Entrants are encouraged to use brown, longneck returnable bottles for extra protection from light and breakage. NOTE: Grolsch-type swing tops are not acceptable. Soft drink or other printed crown caps are acceptable if they are blacked-out with a black marking pen to assure anonymity in judging. Use a rubber band to attach to each bottle a paper with your name, beer designation if multiple entries in category, category and subcategory, and registration number (a registration number will be assigned to each entry if entered on-line). The use of tape or glue to attach forms is not acceptable. 4. Beers from a single batch may be entered in multiple Categories. Multiple entries in a Category are acceptable but MUST be from different batches. 5. Recipe need not be submitted with entry. However, if your beer or mead has a special ingredient (herb, spice, fruit, etc.), is a classic style of a herb, spice, or fruit beer, or was brewed using an experimental method, you must describe the style, special ingredient, experimental technique, etc. on the entry forms. Meads must also be identified as still, sparkling, dry, or sweet. C. WHERE TO ENTER, WHEN TO ENTER 1. Entries are being accepted now. Entries accompanied by fees and registration information MUST be received by Saturday, November 30, 2002 before the close of the business day at the following locations. This date (and these locations) are ONLY for folks dropping off their beers in person. The St. Louis Brews c/o St Louis Wine & Beermaking 251 Lamp Lantern Village Clayton Road Woods Mill Road Chesterfield, MO 63017 (314) 230-8277 The St. Louis Brews c/o Worm's Way Garden Homebrew Supplies 1225 North Warson Rd. St. Louis, MO 63132 (314) 994-3900 2. Out-of-town entries: Shipment by air freight is recommended. PACK YOUR ENTRIES WELL. Partition and pack each bottle with adequate packaging material. Boxes should weigh less than 40 pounds. Entries will be refrigerated upon receipt, thus helping to preserve their quality prior to judging. Entries sent by mail MUST be received by Saturday, November 30, 2002. NO EXCEPTIONS! Entries may be shipped to: The St. Louis Brews c/o Stephen Hale St. Louis Brewery and Tap Room 2100 Locust St. Louis, MO 63103 314-241-2337 D. JUDGING / STEWARDING 1. Those interested in judging or stewarding, please register on-line using our registration form. We will contact you after November 23. We ask that you register on-line whenever possible. 2. Judging will be done in open session on Saturday, December 7. Judging and the awards banquet will be held at the Parish Hall of Our Lady of the Presentation Catholic Church, 8860 Tudor Ave. in Overland, MO and will begin at 9:00 am. Decisions of the judges are final. Organizers reserve the right to combine categories if a sufficient number of entries are not received. Organizers also reserve the right to break up categories if too many entries of a particular subcategory are received. Any lager fruit, herb, and specialty beers will be judged in Ale classes. 3. We will host all participating judges and stewards at the Saturday banquet following the competition. The banquet will begin around 6:00 pm. We expect a visit by Santa. Bring your family. 4. A limited number of beds are available to out-of-town judges/stewards, please contact us early to set up a place to stay. E. AWARDS AND PRIZES Awards will be given for first, second, and third-place winners in each Category judged. Prizes will be given as available. Winners will be announced at the St. Louis Brews Holiday Banquet, Saturday, December 7. Winners and scores will be posted on our web site within a week of the competition. All winners will be notified. Score sheets and judges' comments will be returned to all entrants. There will be first, second, and third place medals awarded in all categories. This is an MCAB5 qualifying competition. Winners in designated categories will be eligible to enter MCAB5 in that style. In addition, every entry will be entered in an 'entrants-only' raffle for special prizes. For further information, please contact the head judge, Jack Baty at jackb(a)homebrew.com. We apologize for the late notice and hope that this doesn't prevent you from entering your beers in the Happy Holiday Homebrew Competition 2002, an AHA-sanctioned competition and the final qualifying competition for MCAB V. Now, enter those beers and meads and enjoy the competition!