Success! Year two of the Brew Bros Hops and Sprockets Totally Biased Homebrew Competition is finally in the books! There were some truly fantastic beers entered, some truly not-so-fantastic beers entered, and other than a pesky corona virus, things went off without a hitch!

This year, on March 17th, we judged a total of 26 beers entered from all kinds of different categories. Our only category requirements for this year’s competition was that the contestants entered dark, malty beers. Quite the opposite from last year’s light, hoppy beers!

After a quick calibration donut and cup of home roasted coffee, we finally broke down into three groups of judges and were given our score sheets.

The judging of all the different beers went AWESOME!!! The vast majority of this year’s entries were truly fantastic beers and judging them to find our favorites was definitely not an easy thing to do. Tasting all the different beers and putting my thoughts into words on paper was great because I slowly started realizing that we have a great group of home brewers in the area. We had everything from Baltic Porters, to sweet stouts, black IPA’s and even a fantastic “Norwegian Colorblind Stout”. Every seemed to have a great time tasting the various beers and discussing the aroma, flavor and overall impression each beer presented.

Shortly after lunch, we worked our way through the second flight of beers and then the real fun began!

Judging Best of Show was definitely a freaking blast! Six fantastic beers all pitted against each other and we got to judge them based 100% on our personal opinions of the beer. No real set of rules, no holds barred and a battle to see who would reign superior. Again, all six beers were very different, but wonderful in their own rights. After much deliberation, we finally reached a consensus on which beers deserved to take Best of Show, 2nd place and 3rd place.

After much deliberation, the awards came as follows:

JUDGES CHOICE AWARDS:
Baltic Porter brewed by Gerry Schmanke chosen by Dane Jasperson
Colorblind Norwegian Stout brewed by Eric Ross chosen by Caroline Gunn
Threat Level Midnight brewed by Daniel Gudenkauf chosen by Shawn Howard
Brussels Muscles brewed by Seton Bachle chosen by Clint Armstrong and Clint McAllister
Peanut Butter Panic brewed by Jeremy Rott chosen by Brandon Gunn and Matt McRoberts

BEST OF SHOW:
First Place – Horseshoes and Hand Grenades brewed by Seton Bachle
Second Place – Peanut Butter Panic brewed by Jeremy Rott
Third Place – Chocolate Oatmeal Stout brewed by Gerry Schmanke

Congratulations again to all the awards winners and I can’t wait to see what you all come up with again for next year’s competition!

Awards live on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/brewbroshopsandsprockets/videos/643245443133753