For the second year, the Delaware Department of Agriculture and Delaware State Fair will host the Battle of the Brews on July 21. This will again be an AHA/BJCP sanctioned event. Join us from 5-8pm for a public event with sampling from commercial Delmarva breweries and wineries, a 'People's Choice' award for the commerical beer/wine, music, and presentation of competition awards.
Details, printable flyers, etc. can be found at
http://battleofthebrews.webs.com, but here are the most important things to remember: You must register at
http://www.delawarestatefair.com between April 2 & June 1, 2012 and then deliver your beer (in person or by mail - see website) by July 10. To maximize your beer karma, make sure you use plain bottles labeled with BJCP Bottle ID forms (attach with a rubber band please).
Cash prizes will be awarded for Best of Show winners and category winners will be honored with fame, notoriety, (and ribbons). And we’ll have and craft beer education and sampling activities going on during judging.
Prizes -
Best of Show - $250 and free National AHA Competition entry
Second BOS - $150
Third BOS - $50
The response to last year's competition was great with over 200 entries! Also several hundred participants turned out during the competition for free beer sampling from 3 Delaware breweries (Dogfish Head, Fordham/Old Dominion, and Twin Lakes). The local homebrew shop (Xtreme Brewing) also poured samples and the craft beer bloggers from Fermented Artistry came to talk to participants. We also had a homebrewing demonstration the following day in the Department of Agriculture's building, which has a demonstration kitchen. We brewed a State Fair Pale Ale.
The Delaware State Fair submitted the 2011 Battle of the Brews competition to the International Association of Fairs and Expositions competition for agricultural and competitive exhibits and won third place in its size division for ‘New or Unique Competitive Exhibits.’