National Homebrew Competition

The first round winners in the National Homebrew Competition (NHC) are now posted and we can pass along congratulations to some Indiana homebrewers! The NHC is the largest known homebrew competition with entrants participating in one of 11 different regional judging sites.

So after a bit of a rocky schedule last month, it’s time to revive this column and try out a new name. Here you’ll find a grab bag of news for craft beer (including homebrew) brewed in and distributed to Indiana, beer events, and the occasional oddity that I hope you’ll find interesting and/or amusing.

My first experience with the National Homebrewers Conference was 2008 in Cincinnati when there were an estimated 950 attendees. We registered and headed over on kind of a last minute whim since it was so close to home, and I’ve been hooked ever since. By 2011, as the popularity of homebrewing continues to skyrocket, the conference was up to a sellout capacity of 1900+ attendees. Facility limitations at the hotel this year kept the attendee count around 1800, which resulted in registration selling out in less than two days and unfortunately leaving a lot of people behind.

Greetings from Seattle! Forgive my possibly drunken typing, but there were a number of Indiana winners in the final round of the National Homebrew Competition to pass along. I’ll have much more on the conference next week after I get back home and sober up. You can find the full results here. Bill Staashelm – Indianapolis – Silver medal in Light Hybrid Beers out of 303 entries.

The first round winners of the 2012 National Homebrew Competition are posted and there are a lot of winning beers from Indiana to pass along. The judging occurs in 10 different U.S. regional sites with the top three entries in each style category qualifying for the national finals (this can be challenging as some categories reach 60+ entries).

So this weekend brings us some basketball tournament thing and the always popular St. Patrick’s Day. Flat 12 and the Elbow Room have your back with festivities including a special Flat 12 Irish Amber (?), food, and parade viewing. Upland taps their Ard Ri Imperial Red tonight at the Indy Tasting Room.