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Brewing Contest Rules:

We can't quite remember how it started.
No, wait! We remember now! It's because more than a few of our founding folks were dabblers in the brewing arts and wanted to compare notes. Anyway, we've had a brewing contest at our gather since, like, forever, and we're not about to stop now. But how to judge these brews has been a growing issue, much like the yeast which creates them.

We tried the "juried" approach, all on one night, but then the judges had all the fun and we festivants ended up with the dregs. We tried the democratic appoach of every festivant gets a vote. But that also became unwieldy. (YOU try counting the hands of 20+ pagans on 20+ brews with only three tiki torches and a campfire for light!) We also decided that because of our varied palates, it just wasn't fair to pit the dry against the sweet against the ales. And we decided that some folks just have too much brewing time on their hands, and the process was just taking too long and we were getting <ahem!> over-saturated. So, reluctantly, we came up with a set of rules:

The Rules for the 10th Annual
Earth House Midsummer Gather Brewing Contest:

There shall be 5 categories of entries:
1) Ales/Beers/Cysers/Ciders,
2) Dry Wines/Meads/Melomels/Hydromels,
3) Sweet Wines/Meads/Melomels/Hydromels,
4) Cordials/Liqueurs.
5) Surprise Me! (This would be where the Curry Cooking Mead or the Bill The Cat Pail Ale could be entered.)

All entries shall be from a registered festivant who was intrinsic in the brewing process. If you helped brew or bottle it, you can enter it. No brokering your cousin's neighbor's cyser, no matter how good it is! (If they want to enter it, they need to attend.)

There shall be a maximum of two (2) entries per bottling-source per category (one per source on Category 5). Therefore the maximum number of entries from one bottling source is nine. (Multiple "labels" from one household do NOT count as different sources!)

NEW FOR 2010:
Scheduling: The Judging shall occur over the course of the five weekday evenings, at whatever time the Community Fire commences (usually about dusk). Each category shall have their own night: Monday is Category 1, Tuesday is Category 2, etc. On Friday, in addition to the "Surprise Me" category, we will consider any late entries from the other categories.

Judging will be by five learned volunteer(ed) judges, (well, at least "volunteer") and the rest of the bottles will be available for community consumption.

If and only if there is general concensus, we will name a "Best In Camp" award.

Results of the judging will remain confidential until the Barbarian Feast on Saturday evening.

So, if you dabble in the brewing arts (that is, are considered a "home brewer,"), bring a sample to share!