The 2014 Vancouver Samuel Adams Samley Cup Homebrew Competition
The home-brew craft beer scene in BC is massive. Chances are that many of your friends may just be brewing beer in their closets, basements or living rooms across the province. The number of people brewing their own beer is on a steady rise and this is not the home-brew your father was making decades ago. Today the beer that is concocted at home can rival that of your favorite craft brewery thanks to the creativity of brewers and the tools available to them in brewing equipment and ingredients.
Coming together around the idea of home brewing, Boston based brewery Samuel Adams put together a competition for local pubs and liquor stores here in British Columbia. Bringing together 12 different establishments that sell the widely known Samuel Adams brand, each was tasked with brewing up something unique and delicious. Given a basic brewing kit and no limit on their creativity, each of the 12 groups got to brewing up their own home-brew recipe for a bit of a competition.
The idea was simple, brew a beer and the winner takes home a prize. Not just any prize was up for grabs however; A trip to Boston and the iconic Samuel Adams brewery was the grand prize followed by two runner-up, limited edition packs of Samuel Adams reserve brews.
Brewing a beer does not happen in a night but the final judging event did. After the brewing process was complete and each of the 12 teams had bottled their brews everyone gathered for the judging event at Vancouver’s Doolin’s Pub. Beer Bloggers, Beer Me BC, East Van Beer Blog and Beer Birds each took to the arduous task of sampling and rating each beer. The combined scores from each of the three judges would award the top prize of a trip to Boston and beer prize packs.
With nearly no guidance given to the contestants beer submissions ranged from IPAs to Reds and Wheat ales. Some beers even defied convention and were difficult to peg down. We will just have to assume that these outliers to tradition were intentional and on plan… Regardless of style or ingredients the most exciting part about the whole tasting experience was the fact that there were no bad beers. All the teams, regardless of experience, were able to create something of quality with unique and rather delicious characteristics.
In the end three teams took home the hardware. The judging was not easy but the concoctions of these three teams surpassed the others and were awarded the prizes from the event. One thing is for sure, homebrewing is alive and is pushing the boundaries of tradition. All the beers submitted to this year’s Samley Cup were fantastic!
The winners are:
1. I’d Tap That Brewery (Frog & Nightgown) – Red Ale
2. Brewery Creek – Cerveza de Libertad
3. Legacy Liquor “Mosiac” – Wheat Ale
Congratulations to the contestants and the winners of the 2014 Vancouver Samuel Adams Samley Cup Home Brew Competition!
Click on the thumbnails below for more photos from the event.
Wish I had saw this event that sounds really cool!
Next Year! Some great brews all around!
For sure!