I am excited to tell you about this great competition coming up in a few months here in Portland, OR. I may be biased, but this is my favorite event (probably because it was the FIRST competition I submitted to). We are still finalizing some amazing sponsors and prizes but trust me, you won’t want to miss out! If you are local to the Pacific Northwest, we are always looking for judges and stewards as well.
Event Location
13 Virtues Brewing Company
6410 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR 97202
Entry Categories
All BJCP recognized categories (23 beer, 3 mead, 2 cider) are eligible for entry into this competition.
Special Categories Fresh Hop category: these entries must be made entirely from fresh/wet hops harvested from the current hop crop. Hops can be commercially obtained or homegrown. Please specify the hop varieties used and the base style of the beer for the judges to consider. Judging will be based on the fresh hop character present and how well they are integrated with the declared base style.
Best New Homebrewer: these entries must be a homebrewers first EVER entry into ANY homebrew competition. Please write “THIS IS MY FIRST COMPETITION” on the top of your bottle ID tags. Winner will be best overall SCORING entry from a new homebrewer.
Entry & Judge Registration
You can register and pay for entries ($7 each) and register to judge or steward online on Monday, July 27th!
Thank you for your interest in the Fall Classic, the Oregon Brew Crew’s yearly AHA/BJCP sanctioned homebrew competition held after hop harvest.
Bring it on folks!
This is a fun comp to judge, and a great one to enter as well if you really want to get an idea of where you stand amongst your peers outside of NHC. Let’s see what you’ve got!
Join us to judge if you can!
This sounds like a fun one - I’m going to try to go if I can.
That reminds me that we used to have a “comp” up in the Seattle area called Homebrewfair. It was very different from most compeittions. The judges would be handed an entry and they’d judge it while the entrant sat in the other room. After the judges judged the beer, the entrant would come in and they’d all go over the beer and the sheets together. It was a great learning experience for both the judges and the entrants.
I think I might talk to a few folks to resurrect this.
That sounds like a really cool format, Steve. You should definitely come check out the Fall Classic!
We actually met last spring at the Cascade Cup, I got to judge with you and a young protégé.
Good to see you around here!
Yes, Steve, I remember it well. It was at PostDoc – Tom Schmidlin’s new brewery.
It was great judging with you. Hope to see you there in Portland.
You planning on going to the PNWHC in Vancouver, WA in the spring?
I just registered to give a couple judging related talks. We’ll see if they get accepted. Should be fun, like a mini-NHC.
Absolutely, I’ll be there. An Oregon Brew Crew guy is really spearheading the effort. I’m really excited to see how it turns out and hope its something the local clubs can collaborate on to develop. Glad to hear you’ll likely be presenting!
Jim- this is all I’m finding at the moment… http://www.pnwhc.com/content/mailing-list-signup
I’ll speak with the organizer next week and keep you posted as things develop.
Unfortunately, I’m not terribly up to date on Portland accommodations but I always enjoy staying at the McMennamin’s properties. Check out Edgefield (Troutdale) and the Crystal Hotel (Downtown) I’m clueless on where one would put an RV.
Right now with the pace of entries coming in this is looking to be a pretty huge competition (400+ entries) so THANKS to all who have entered and keep those entries coming! If you’re still interested in Judging or Stewarding or perhaps on the fence about whether you should or not, we always have room for more and we could use some more help! Big thanks to those who have already registered, we have a decent list, but the more we have the easier and faster day it will be for all involved. We have two judging sessions, one on Friday night and one on Saturday October 23-24. There will be food provided for judges both days, coffee and doughnuts and whatnot on Saturday morning and a huge judges raffle with lots of prizes. This is a fun event and 13 Virtues was a great host last year and they were very excited to host us again.
Thanks again and see ya in a couple weeks!
Cheers!
Eric H.
Fall Classic Committee