Macon Octoberfest 2013 Homebrew Contest

[DromJohn]

The winning recipe will be produced and sold by Macon Beer Company, and will be served at Macon Octoberfest 2014.

Macon Octoberfest 2013 Homebrew Contest

 

[JBIII]

When is the submission deadline?

 

[DromJohn]

http://maconoctoberfest.com/beer-competition/

Macon Octoberfest Homebrew Competition

Print This Page

Thank you for your interest in the Macon Octoberfest Homebrew Competition organized by Macon Octoberfest. Be sure to read the competition rules.

You only need to register your information once and can return to this site to enter more brews or edit the brews you've entered. You can even pay your entry fees online if you wish.

Registration

Registration open: Friday, March 29, 2013 at 9:25 AM, MHT.

Registration close: Friday, October 18, 2013 at 12:00 PM, MHT. Please note: registered users will not be able to add, view, edit or delete entries after this date/time.

If you have already registered, please log in to add, view, edit, or delete your entries as well as indicate that you are willing to judge or steward.

Judging and Stewarding

If you have not registered and are willing to be a judge or steward, please register.

If you have registered, log in and then choose Edit Your Info to indicate that you are willing to judge or steward.

Entries

Entries will be accepted between Friday, March 29, 2013 at 9:25 AM, MHT and Friday, October 18, 2013 at 12:00 PM, MHT. All entries must be received by our shipping location or at a drop-off location by Friday, October 18, 2013 at 12:00 PM, MHT and will not be accepted after this date/time. For details, see the Entry Information page.

Enter Your Brews

To enter your brews, please proceed through the registration process.

Judging Date

Tasting Tent
Cherry Street Plaza, 339 Cherry Street - Macon, Georgia 31201
Saturday, October 19, 2013 at 5:00 PM, MHT

 

[Norselord]

Got a big LOL out of this:

2.The contest is only for varieties of ales (IPAs, pales, porters, stouts, wheats, and browns). It is not open to meads, ciders, or lagers (pilsners, bocks, octoberfests).

This is for the Macon OCTOBERFEST

 

[MidTNJasonF]

$15 per entry and each entry requires 6 bottles..... No thanks. Good luck getting folks to enter at 25% higher costs than the NHC, more than double to costs of most homebrew competitions, and requiring 3 times the normal number of bottles.

 

[gsulife]

Got a big LOL out of this:

2.The contest is only for varieties of ales (IPAs, pales, porters, stouts, wheats, and browns). It is not open to meads, ciders, or lagers (pilsners, bocks, octoberfests).

This is for the Macon OCTOBERFEST

Macon Beer Company is a brewery that is starting this summer. It will not have the capacity for lagers until after the 2014 Octoberfest event. All lager styles will be accepted once the brewery can produce lagers.

 

[gsulife]

$15 per entry and each entry requires 6 bottles..... No thanks. Good luck getting folks to enter at 25% higher costs than the NHC, more than double to costs of most homebrew competitions, and requiring 3 times the normal number of bottles.

The prize for this event is much greater than the typical contest. The winning brew will be commercially produced by Macon Beer Company and be featured at the following year's event. In addition, all proceeds from the event go to local charities. It's a good prize and a good cause.

 

[Norselord]

GSULife, i want you to carefully read what you posted in your last two responses.

Macon Beer Company is a brewery that is starting this summer. It will not have the capacity for lagers until after the 2014 Octoberfest event. All lager styles will be accepted once the brewery can produce lagers.
....

The prize for this event is much greater than the typical contest. The winning brew will be commercially produced by Macon Beer Company and be featured at the following year's event. In addition, all proceeds from the event go to local charities. It's a good prize and a good cause.

Do you see how ridiculous this is? If this was a reputable and established brewery it would be an honor. The way it can be perceived now is that Macon Beer Company is an amateurish startup that is too lazy to design its own beer and that they have no proven track record of producing a single bottle/can.

I wish you guys well, but you are putting the cart several miles out front of the horse.
- You haven't even taken delivery of any equipment.
- You are advertising two beers that you have never made on a large scale
- You appear to be marketing it in cans...
...seriously consider delivering kegs to local establishments and doing draft first.
- You have printed more T-Shirts than you have brewed beer...in terms of any volumetric measurement.
- "The Brains behind the Brew" on the website needs to get overhauled.

Good luck.

 

[MidTNJasonF]

The prize for this event is much greater than the typical contest. The winning brew will be commercially produced by Macon Beer Company and be featured at the following year's event. In addition, all proceeds from the event go to local charities. It's a good prize and a good cause.

You might think that but you would be wrong. Many Pro-Am competitions award a pretty extensive package of prizes for the winning brewer. Last one I entered was $7 dollars per entry and three bottles required. I made it to the final 8 beers but if I got knocked out. The winner received hotel, air fare, event passes, and other perks for the GABF in Denver. Worth well in excess of $1000.

It is not uncommon at all to have a homebrew recipe win a competition and be brewed on a commercial system with a local pro brewery.

 

[gsulife]

I'm not trying to pick a fight here. I think it's a matter of context. The middle GA area didn't even have a growler retailer until last week. Folks around here would be honored to have their brews commercially produced even if by a startup brewery.

 

[Norselord]

I'm not trying to pick a fight here. I think it's a matter of context. The middle GA area didn't even have a growler retailer until last week. Folks around here would be honored to have their brews commercially produced even if by a startup brewery.

I live in GA, and no offence, but, middle GA doesn't really have anything of anything. I would be surprised if there is even a market demand for products other than BMC in the area.

Outside of Metro ATL and Savannah, middle GA may as well be rural AL or MS...

 

[danielofthedale]

People need to get this guys back. If you don't like price or number of bottles you just don't have to enter. I live in Central Ga. and hardly ever will there be BMC beer at on my circle of friends get togethers. And there always has to be a ground breaker in any new marker for a new product. You think Metro Atlanta was crawling with craft beer drinkers back when Atlanta Brewing opened up? Hardly! And really who would not like to have one of their beers brewed in a commercial brewery? It would be pretty cool. I also think its a decent way to get your name if you are an upstart in a virtually untapped market.

 

[JBIII]

Those that can, do...those that can't, talk...It's great that we have so many local breweries opening up in Georgia, especially so, when taking into account Georgia's significant and unique barriers of entry. Best of luck to you guys and I can't wait to submit some beers....

 

[Norselord]

Daniel,

I think you are mistaking the feedback for "bitching" rather than an illumination. "A complaining customer does more to improve business than a silent satisfied customer"

We all want microbreweries to succeed. By pointing out issues, it is the intention that those are addressed before they become problems.

The last thing we want is for microbreweries to fail within the first 3 years of being started up. A sure way to fail is to:
* not do market research prior to starting the business
* overestimate the market demand for your product
* misunderstand the distribution and goods to market plan
* fail to develop the product line fully
* overextend to early
* over promise and underdeliver
etc.

It is nice that these guys have T-Shirts, but as it stands now they are more of a T-shirt company than a brewery. Doesn't that raise a red flag?

If I were these guys I would hype up the awards (if any) that their beer has won locally, nationally, or internationally -- not what is going to be featured on the can/bottle, but what is featured in the can/bottle.

Also, in my opinion starting up a brewery by selling product in cans/bottles is not the soundest path to profitability when you are just starting up. Smaller packaging means a higher cost per unit in material, labor, distribution, etc. Doesn't it make more sense to offer product in kegs to local bars/restaurant and to set up a booth at events/festivals selling from kegs?

Criticism is tool for improvement.

 

[Norselord]

Ask yourself this:

Will a new brewery select the "Best Beer" or the most marketable beer?

 

[cch0830]

Ask yourself this:

Will a new brewery select the "Best Beer" or the most marketable beer?

You're a genius on a subject you know nothing about.

 

[danielofthedale]

How did this go last weekend? Would have loved to make but was doing birthday stuff for the girlfriend.