Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

Hey, beer nuts! wayne here, I saw all of the buzz, and thought I might poke my head in to answer a few questions and point out some highlights:

1.)I will be getting together with Chad from Fleck the beginning of next week to pick what we will go for...I want it to be broad, but drew some criticism last time for it being too broad, so i am going to shoot for a happy medium, and hope I can make everybody happy! I would love to narrow it down for you, but I'm not ready to yet. Full details will go out next week. And we will gear the category to fit in to the 80-odd days of brewing available. We will leave room in the designation for loose interpretation and the ability to get creative, as best we can. The last thing I want is 15 nearly identical beers. I'd love to do open class (brew whatever you want) again some day, in fact i would do it that way every time if didn't ruffle so many feathers.

2.) Brew-tality is about 2 things: Having fun and spreading awareness of home brewing. i think we all have a mutual interest in both things. Sanctioned competitions have nothing to worry about, because Brew-tality will never butt in on their territory. This contest will go for glee, not glory. We will continue to develop structure, but it will stay about having a good time and sharing good beer with ourselves and the public.

3.) I am especially proud of the 1st prize....blown away, in fact. Madhouse brewing in Newton, IA has indeed agreed to bring the winner to Newton to tour and see the operation, try lots of beer, and also to stay the day and brew their recipe right there in the commercial brewery. The winner may then return if they want to when the brewing is finished, to help bottle. The beer will be fitted with a label and UPC, and delivered to my shop for retail sale to the public. It will sell in 22 oz. bomber format. The labels will be designed to include the brewers name, brew-tality, mad house, the name of the beer, a working upc code, everything. basically the prize is you get to brew a batch of your own beer commercially. I am thrilled that we were able to arrange this. i have broached the topic of producing a keg or 2, but I can't promise they will go that far. but I promise to support that idea 100%. Considering the Field House is hosting, i would love to get the winner on one of their pumps.

I have already started contacting the media for public interest pieces...if anybody has any contacts, send them my way. Print, radio, TV...any form of media coverage of the event would be fun and legitimizing for what we are trying to do here.


Hopefully that fills in a few blanks. We will again do the discount card....10% off craft beer and home brew supplies for all registrants until the competition ends. Also of note, we learned some things last time....we will spread the brewers out a LOT more this time at the contest, and eliminate all of the elbow to elbow. We have streamlined the judging criteria, and accommodated for a faster scoring tabulation. The points in the peoples choice category are more clearly defined, and we got rid of some point ratings that just didn't fit.

If anybody has any creative ideas for the style, send me a private message. Thanks!!! I appreciate your continued support!!!!

Wayne and Spirits

Ok, it's official. The styles have been selected for Brew-tality 2, and I'm posting it here first! The category will be bropad but limited. We're gonna go all 'UK' on you, and do the styles of our fellow beer drinkers across the pond! Choose from English Pale or Brown Ale, Scottish Ale, or Irish Red Ale. More details are spelled out in the rules and regulations form, see attached file. Looking forward to seeing what you all come up with!!

Wayne and Spirits

2012 Hy-Vee Drugstore/Field House
‘BREW-TALITY 2: ACROSS THE POND’ Home Brewer’s Competition Official Rules and Guidelines:


• All contest registrations must be received no later than 5pm Wednesday, Feb 29, 2012, at the Wine and Spirits counter of the Blairs Ferry Road Hy-Vee Drugstore.

• Entries must fall within the following style categories:
1. English Ale, to include: Standard/Ordinary Bitter, Special/Best/Premium Bitter, ESB, Mild Brown, Southern English Brown, or Northern English Brown.
2. Scottish Ale, to include: Scottish Light, Scottish Heavy, Scottish Export, or Scottish Strong.
3. Irish Red Ale

• The following information must be submitted with all entries:
1. Brewers name, address, phone.
2. Chosen name, style, class of beer. (Using the assigned style, and mentioning any variation)
3. A $20 dollar registration fee will be collected from each entry. Registration fees are in place solely to help ensure that brewers serious about attending and competing will fill the open registration slots. Registration fees are non-refundable, but WILL translate into prize money for the competition.

• Competition will be limited to the selected class and style of beer. Variations, such as the addition of fruit, specific hop strains, etc will be allowed, as long as the brew base stays true to style. Brewer’s choice to either keep it simple or to get creative. If you aren’t sure, feel free to ask us.

• Brewers may register alone, or in pairs, but only one beer will be allowed to compete per paid registration. No more than 2 brewers per registration.

• 15 maximum brewer registrations will be accepted. Once we reach 15, we accept up to 3 alternates, with no guarantee of participation by alternates. Alternates will NOT be charged the registration fee.

• Beer entered into the competition MUST be received in as follows:

A minimum of 2 gallons of beer, brought in bottled OR kegged for sampling. Beer samples will be enjoyed by both the judges and the attending public. Bring more if you care to. Keep in mind that we had over 100 attendees to the first event. 3 gallons would be recommended. Running out of beer could severely hurt your points in the people’s choice category. 12-16 ounces extra will also be necessary, to bottle one of each beer submission for the winning brewer. Screw bottles or swing tops will be provided on scene by Hy-Vee for this, or you can bring it in already bottled if you prefer.

• Brewers must select a name for their creation to be submitted for judging (i.e. Bob’s 24 Hour IPA-a-Thon). The name of your creation will not be a part of the judging criteria, however it is important in the final stages, as the winners brew will be commercially produced with labels.

• Brewer’s may not approach judges in any way regarding their creations prior to or during the judging sequence. Questions judges may have regarding submissions will be handled with brewers by a 3rd party as a go-between. Verbal, written, physical, or any other form of contact with judges by registrants or proxy of registrants will be grounds for immediate disqualification. Win with your skills.

• Top 3 finalists may be invited for a Q&A with judges prior to final decisions. Questions regarding entries at that time will be at the sole discretion of the judges. Questions may be answered as asked, but prepared statements will not be read by registrants.

• Labels and artwork are NOT required for bottles, however, they may be considered when scoring in the creativity category. Submitted name and/or artwork will be used for commercial bottling label based upon approval. If no label art is submitted, label art will be created by the Brew-tality team.

• Judging criteria will be rated on a simple 1-10 scale, and will include the following specific categories:
1. Flavor
2. Color and aesthetics
3. Complexity
4. Representation of selected style
5. Quality of brewing(this would refer to lack or presence of fault in over-all beer such as poor balance, astringency, over carbonated, etc, etc, etc.)
6. Originality and creativity. This refers not only to creating a stand alone brew that isn’t a clone or copy of currently available retail package beer, but also creativity used in making your style your own. For instance, brewing an Amber Lager is fine; just don’t go out of your way to re-create Fat Tire or Blue Moon.
7. People’s choice rating.

• People’s choice will be added to score as follows: The 1st place(most votes for best beer) will have 10 points added to their overall judges score. 2nd place will have 8 points added to their overall score. 3rd place will have 6 points added to their final score.

• Registrants will be issued a discount card good for 10% off all craft and import beer, as well as all homebrew supplies through Sunday, April 22. This should help offset some of the cost of brewing. Registrants will be contacted and issued discount card with 1 week of registration. In most cases, cards will be issued within 48 hours.

GOOD LUCK! COMPETITION WILL BE HELD SAT, APRIL 21, 1PM-4PM AT THE FIELD HOUSE ON BLAIRS FERRY ROAD IN CEDAR RAPIDS. PRIZES TO INCLUDE CASH, HOMEBREW, AND AN OPPORTUNITY TO GTE YOUR BEER COMMERCIALLY BREWED!

The public as well as the media will be invited!

If you have a good wee heavy that is ready to go, you should enter it. In my experience, wee heavies do well versus other styles like in the Best of Show round. It would really stand out in these categories and the second place beer from Brewtality 1 was a smoked wee heavy. I met the brewer of that beer and I would not be shocked if he entered it again.

This is a good opportunity for me to break out of my IPA/Heffe rut. I will definitely be brewing for this event. Thinking of a scottish 80 shilling.

Too bad there isn't more time, otherwise I'd re-brew my Scottish Strong Ale. As it is, I'm planning to enter a Scottish 60/-. Mostly b/c I think it would be hilarious to see a 2.5% ABV beer win.

I am throwing down the gauntlet! I propose a challenge to all beer nuts. I will give a bottle of 2011 Surly Darkness to whichever beer nut gets the highest score in the competition.

Well I was going to enter with an ESB anyway. That's just icing on the cake!


On 01/31/12 12:07, brownbeard wrote:

I am throwing down the gauntlet! I propose a challenge to all beer nuts. I will give a bottle of 2011 Surly Darkness to whichever beer nut gets the highest score in the competition.



You can't get with this with a bad hip - Matt

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I was thinking of brewing the Burton ESB that I brought to Brew-B-Q.

DrPaulsen wrote:Too bad there isn't more time, otherwise I'd re-brew my Scottish Strong Ale. As it is, I'm planning to enter a Scottish 60/-. Mostly b/c I think it would be hilarious to see a 2.5% ABV beer win.

I will go thru the line many times to sample this...

Decided this morning I'm going to enter too. Going to brew an Irish Red...

I think I will enter as long as I am available on April 21. Planning on a Scottish 80 or something along those lines.

Don't to wait to register. They're only taking 15 entries this time. I forgot to check when I entered last Friday how many they had at that point.


On 02/07/12 09:30, hoboscratch wrote:

DrPaulsen wrote: Too bad there isn't more time, otherwise I'd re-brew my Scottish Strong Ale. As it is, I'm planning to enter a Scottish 60/-. Mostly b/c I think it would be hilarious to see a 2.5% ABV beer win.

I will go thru the line many times to sample this...

Decided this morning I'm going to enter too. Going to brew an Irish Red...

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I was in today and there are still twelve openings.

I entered officially last night. They still had some more forms but I did not ask how many spots they still had open.

I have officially entered.