Maine Homebrewers Competition

Entries for the 8th edition of the Maine Homebrewers Competition will be accepted from February 19 - February 29, 2020!

Something to actually look forward to early in the new year.

2020 Entry Form!

BJCP Style Guide!

RULES & Other Fine Print

  1. Entries will be accepted starting Wednesday, February 19, 2020, and are due by close of business on Saturday, February 29, 2020. Entries must be dropped off at (or mailed to) Central Street Farmhouse, 30 Central Street, Bangor, ME. Late submissions will NOT be accepted. Guidelines for mailing entries can be found at the bottom of this page.
  2. This competition is open to non-professional homebrewers and must be made on non-professional equipment. Employees of breweries are encouraged to enter, but any individual invited to be on the judging panel is ineligible (i.e., head brewers and owners). You must be 21 years of age or older to enter the contest.
  3. Entries must be in bottles that hold a minimum of 10 ounces in volume, and that will fit in a standard case box slot. You must submit TWO (2) bottles per beer entered in the competition (or 1 bottle that is 22 oz. or larger per entry). Bottles may be of any color and must be free of ink, paint, or paper labeling. Obliterate any lettering or graphics on the cap with a permanent black marker. Grölsch-type swing tops and 22-oz. bottles will be allowed. Corked bottles and odd-shaped bottles are acceptable as long as they can fit in a standard case box slot (2.75in L x 2.75in W x 9in H).
  4. Fees. Entry fee is $0 for the first entry and $5 for each entry after that, payable in cash or check only. (Please make checks out to “Central Street Farmhouse.”)
  5. Entry limitations. Your homebrew cannot have been brewed on equipment used to brew beverages for any commercial purpose, whether for commercial research, production, or any other purpose, including equipment at brew-on-premises establishments. Entrant must give the names of all brewers who helped in the brewing. Spouses or significant others of members of the judging panel are also ineligible. As a local homebrew competition, we ask you to list where you source your ingredients to encourage local purchasing. Submissions using ingredients sourced solely from the oversized online retailers will be disqualified. Please shop local (even if it is not Central Street Farmhouse). Sorry, entry fee is not refundable.
  6. The judging panel will consist of owners/employees of Central Street Farmhouse and other local beer experts to be named later. Breweries represented on the panel will include a list to be enumerated later.
  7. Unlike past competitions, there will not be a separate judging session for finalists. In the process of scoring, ten beers will be selected for a second round to determine the winner. The date of the judging session will be determined and announced, with the top ten (in no particular order) to be listed the following day on Central Street Farmhouse’s website and through other media. Winners will be announced at a location to be determined in early March (exact date also TBD).
  8. For the Grand Prize winner, a local brewery will take the recipe and reproduce, as faithful as possible to the original recipe, on a professional scale. (Fine Print: If you are the Grand Prize winner, you agree to disclose your complete recipe to the brewery and the board of the Maine Homebrewers Competition, and grant to such parties an irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to all commercial and intellectual property rights to your winning beer. Entering the competition constitutes permission to the Maine Homebrewers Competition, the year’s brewery, and their agencies to use your recipe, 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 manufacturing, promoting, advertising or trade, without any compensation.)  Two runners-up will receive a prize pack from the participating businesses and breweries! (Prize-pack to be determined.)