The Beer Shop to host inaugural home brew contest

Date: 1/29/2016

EAST LONGMEADOW – For many people the world of craft brewing can seem like an unknown, supernatural, and even scary place.

Rich Caudill, owner of The Beer Shop at 33 Harkness Ave., wants to demystify the brewing process and expand interest in the hobby. That’s why he has decided to launch the shop’s inaugural home brew competition.

“There’s no focus on people having fun with brewing. I think something like this would allow people to have fun,” he said.

While some have been brewing beer at home since the 1970s when home brewing became legal, the meteoric rise in interest in craft beer has developed a much larger population of regular citizens making their own concoctions, but there’s always room for more, Caudill added.

“In our area, we have more home brewers than some of the larger, more densely populated parts of Massachusetts. I’d like to see more events that cater to the home brewers and get people involved in making beer,” he said. “I think we have a lot of history here with brewing and breweries here in Western Massachusetts. With the rise of craft beer, getting people to home brew and highlighting people who do home brew is just a key part of keeping up that tradition.”

While The Beer Shop first opened as a business solely selling specialty beer and wine, in recent months the store has expanded its inventory to include brewing supplies, including pre-made brewing ingredient kits, grains, hops, yeast and even brewing apparatus such as fermenters of varying size.

“It’s spiked a lot of curiosity, a lot of interest. You have your people who have been home brewing forever and for some people it’s so foreign and difficult to navigate. I think an event like this will get people like this who want to give it a try that extra motivation and encouragement,” he said.

The contest, open to brewers of all experience levels, will culminate with a public judging Feb. 20 at 5:20 p.m. at the shop with brewers from five Pioneer Valley breweries – Abandoned Building Brewery, Amherst Brewing Company, Brewmaster Jack, Glass Bottom Brewery and Lefty’s Brewing Company – on hand to sample the entries. A small number of spectators will be welcomed into the shop to participate in the Feb. 20 tasting and judging as well, with an admission fee of $20.

The top 3 beers in each category will move on to a second round at which Best of Show will be selected.

Competitors can submit a beer for judging at $5 a beer or $15 for unlimited entries. All proceeds benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters. The Beer Shop will also make a donation matching the total amount raised through admission and registration fees.

“If I can create a situation where people are having fun with brewing and helping Big Brothers Big Sisters, I think I’m creating a win-win situation,” he said.

Participants may register at http://thebeershop.us/homebrewwithus through Feb. 18 at 8:15 p.m. and may add their beer entries to the system Feb. 13, 8:15 p.m., to Feb. 19, 8:15 p.m. The beer to be judged will be accepted starting Jan. 13 and must be received by Feb. 19.

Contestants are not limited to any specific kinds of beer and the categories into which the entries would be separated is dependent on the number of participants and styles.

“Obviously there are 120 different styles of beer, so we’re going to let people go as broad and reach out to any category, but if  we only have one entry [in a specific style] we are going to have to combine styles in the manner it makes most sense. Obviously you’re not going to have a Euro lager going up against a triple IPA, but you might have an American lager versus a Euro lager,” Caudill said.

“The goal is to get as many beers in as many different styles as possible. We almost have a dozen people signed up now – some of them have one style, some have up to five,” he added.