Across three of their venues, Beer DeLuxe are staging an ambitious competition aimed at finding and discovering the best of the best when it comes to home brew enthusiasts, seeking to award one lucky amateur brewer with the “Best Home Brew” award. Dubbed Home Brew Heroes, the initiative will sort through plenty of home brew garage operations to help the winner move from “unknown beer buff” to “beer hero” in a matter of months.
Starting from April 17th 2016 and running for a month with qualifying rounds held in Hawthorn, Albury, and Sydney, Home Brew Heroes will gradually chug along to a grand final held on May 15th at Melbourne’s Federation Square. The big event will bring in the announcement of “Best Home Brew” and “People’s Choice Award”, with the ultimate winner going on to have their recipe commercially brewed and available on tap at all Beer DeLuxe venues across Victoria and New South Wales. The winner will also receive an all-expenses-paid trip to commercially create their winning brew at the Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA), which they will attend, with a friend, as guests of Beer DeLuxe.
“Our patrons have a huge passion for all things beer”, said Beer DeLuxe’s Marketing Manager, Tom Allen when speaking to the AU review about the idea behind the event. “For many of them it spills over into a passion for brewing their own. We’ve had many instances where a regular has popped by with a stubby of their latest creation, which we all get to crack open and enjoy. Seeing this talent on hand we thought the only natural progression was to give these home brew heroes a platform to showcase what are often wonderful beers. Hopefully, this will allow the top echelon to rub shoulders with the right people in the industry, who may one day give them a home at their brewery.”
In the lead up to the Grand Final, there will be a round of qualifying events, each fashioned as a “Craft Beer Festival” with live entertainment, local brewer pop-ups (including those from Two Birds Brewing and 4 Pines Beer), and meet-the-brewer opps. The qualifying winners of each category in Sydney, Albury, and Wagga will each receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Melbourne for two people to attend the final.
“The competition will be judged on both of these merits, the beer being true to style and individuality, along with drinkability and evidence of faults,” said Allen. “It is important for any beer to be clean, well brewed and without any evidence of faults. If, on top of that, it is true to style then you will have the basics for a good beer! If the beer also has unique character to distinguish it from others, then you’ve discovered a great beer to drink. This is the purpose of the competition, so in the end, we all win!”
To enter the competition, each entrant will be required to submit 500mL of beer in any or all of the three categories of Pale Ale, IPA, and Brewers Choice, for initial tasting. Those who pass on to the finals will be required to have an additional 16L of their brew for judging of the “People’s Choice Award” at the Grand Final.
“Embellish in your creative side and don’t exercise caution! If you like drinking it then chances are others will too. You’re not going to come across something unique without trying,” advises Allen.
Submission timelines and instructions are as follows:
Beer DeLuxe Albury
Submissions by April 8th
Qualifying Event on April 17th
Beer DeLuxe Wagga
Submissions by April 15th
Qualifying Event on April 24th
Beer DeLuxe Sydney
Submissions by April 22nd
Qualifying Event on May 1st
Beer Deluxe Hawthorn and Beer DeLuxe Federation Square
Submissions by April 29th
Qualifying Event on May 8th
Grand Final on May 15th
Those looking to enter need to:
1. Head to beerdeluxe.com.au
2. Fill out the entry form online (or in any venue)
3. Bring your brew for your local Beer DeLuxe
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