Here in Florida we are in the midst of having two State-wide brewing competitions, one for homebrewers and one for pro brewers. This year we have over 750 entries in the homebrew competition and 340 in the pro competition. All from Florida.
Does any other state do this or are we the only ones?
I gotta say this puts us on the map for craft beer, even if the state is otherwise known as a wasteland.
Tampa Bay Beer Week starts on March 1 if anybody is down this way.
The Michigan State Fair Homebrew Comp was around 750 to 800 entries about the time the State Fair went under due to lack of funds. You know, crappy economy up here around Replaced by the Michigan Beer Cup, but that is a little smaller.
We did not have a commercial competition. So my hat is off to Florida.
You are judging, correct?
Sounds like a lot of fun and great to hear. The Barons used to run the WI State Fair Homebrew Competition but that was for homebrew only and I don’t think it ever got any higher than 250 entries. That competition only allowed WI entrants. I know there are more state fairs out their that have several more entries. I’ve also been to fests that have had a pro competition associated with it, but not as many entries as you’re talking about. Hope you have enough judges to cover all of those entries!
FYI - I’m currently in the Tampa area now. Was supposed to go back to Milwaukee today but flight cancelled due to a snow storm. Currently enjoying a Cigar City Maduro Brown Ale and later tonight some Jai Alai IPA. I wouldn’t call the state a wasteland.
California does a state wide comp for both home and pro. The trophy is actually pretty bad ass.
Former prez from my club won it last year.
Bad ass Golden Bear indeed.
that is awesome. there’s more great beer in Florida than I expected, and it gets better every time I go back. Any movement on the weird <32 or >128 growler law?
I do hope we can eventually do a KS state championship, but until we can legally remove said beer from our home I figure we’ve got bigger fish to fry. 
cheers–
–Michael
That Golden Bear trophy is way cool.
We started out associated with the Florida State Fair, but broke off about 12 years ago. Nobody liked judging in the middle of the woodworking and pie contests.
I’ve been judging quite a bit. Pro comp all day the 8th, homebrew comp all day the 9th, more homebrew all day the 15th, and homebrew finals the 22nd. Lots of other events going on, too. Check us out at www.BestFloridaBeer.org if you want. It’s a great time to be in Florida, especially Tampa.
At least as of Christmas week 2013. That Goofy <32 or >128 law was still in effect. The only good thing about it was that I left Cigar City with 1 gallon of Tocobaga! But I now have a 1 gallon growler that nobody local will fill for me that I have found so far!
There’s a bill moving through legislation right now to get rid of that packaging law. We may be able to have 1/2 gallon growlers soon.
I can’t think of any comp like this in NH or New England. Sam Adams used to do the Patriots Homebrew Competition which was only open to residents of the 6 NE states but they ended that. And this was going to be my year, too!
Indiana does produce a championship contest for both the amateur and pro ranks. It is sponsored and held at the State Fair grounds, but fortunately not during the fair. The entries are not limited to only Indiana residents though. With over 1200 entries for the combined amateur and pro ranks, its a big event.
PS: Judges participating in this event are paid a stipend to cover their expenses. They are not ‘bought’.
Delaware has a state fair competition in it’s 4th year this year - homebrew only.
And the Maryland Brewers Association runs the Maryland Comptrollers Cup, a BJCP commercial beer competition. The Maryland State Comptroller is involved in picking and announcing the winner.
Washington has a Washington Homebrewer of the Year award (WHOTY), which is given based on entries in the big 5-6 competitions in the state. The State fair is one of the competitions, but is one of the smaller competitions that qualifies for WHOTY.
Last year was the first edition of the Washington Beer Awards, which is the state version of GABF, with the awards announced at the Washington Beer Festival on Father’s Day weekend.
We have a Florida Circuit, too, consisting right now of seven competitions, plus the NHC. We award Florida Homebrewer of the Year and Club of the Year.
But Best Florida Beer is the only one that requires the entrants to be either a resident or the member of a local club.
To expand on this, the BOS winner of each of the WAHOTY qualifying competitions is allowed to submit an entry (e.g. 1 entry for each BOS you won) to be judged in a Best-Of-BOS competition known as the Bert Grant competition to crown the Bert Grant Award winner. The WAHOTY is overall points based – sort of WA’s version of the Ninkasi. The Bert Grant is the BOS winner - WA state equivalent to the NHC Homebrewer of the Year.
Needless to say, judging the Bert Grant is quite a treat!
That’s pretty cool what Washington does. Here in Oregon our big comp is the state fair. They are really pushing this towards a centralize championship and I hope they add a circuit also.
We have a newly formed state circuit that I fear will either meet an untimely demise or have a drastic rule change next year. This year, our rules were only that someone had to be a member of a state club. Well, a prolific brewer from a neighboring state decided that he was going to enter as a member of a local club since he was spending some of his time here for work and going to their meetings (his wife is from the area, but he still brews at his home in that other state and enters all his beers in that state as part of his other club). So, basically it’s looking like he’s going to be the state circuit homebrewer of the year for two separate states.
Kansas would not stand for such tomfoolery.
On the pro side I think the Oregon Beer Awards have been around for a couple years now.
On the homebrew side, this year is the inaugural year for the Oregon State Homebrewer of the Year competition. Brewers earn points for 1st place category wins and Best in Show wins for about 10-12 Oregon competitions. I’m interested to see out it turns out. A friend of mine in the Oregon Brew Crew is the driving force behind it, so I hope it does well.
We just judged the pro competition for Best Florida Beer last weekend. This year we had 540 entries, all from Florida breweries. It’s amazing to think how far we’ve come in such a short time.