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Entry Registration

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Rules

About the Wort....

The wort will be brewed by the club's very own Mark Jensen at the Big Grove Brewery in Solon, IA. Wort make up will be 50% Rahr 2-Row and 50% Rahr Pilsner malt with a gravity of 14.7 degrees Plato or 1.060 SG. This is a light-colored wort and can be transformed into many beer styles. The wort will not contain any hops. The wort will be held at 190 degrees for 20 mins to pasteurize, cooled, and then moved to the vessels for pickup.

Wort Rally Registration Instructions

  1. Paying for your wort...Your payment must be made within 48 hours of submitting your Wort Registration and prior to Tuesday, March 19, 2024.
    NOTE: Please pay the fee associated with your wort entry, using Paypal at: //www.paypal.com, to: cedarrapidsbrewingsociety@gmail.com.
  2. Drop off your personal 5-gallon vessel(s) at the CRBS club meeting at Clock House Brewing, 600 1st Street SE, Cedar Rapids, IA, on Thursday, March 21, 2024 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Make sure your vessel is clearly and legibly labeled with your first and last name. Preferred vessel is a 5-gallon keg. If necessary a 5 gallon food safe bucket with sealing lid may be used. Glass vessels are not allowed.
  3. Pick up your wort at Big Grove Brewery in Solon, IA on Friday, March 22, 2024 beginning at TBD. Wort for participants in Cedar Rapids will be available at Big Grove Cedar Rapids 45 minutes after Solon wort pick up ends. Further pick up details will follow.

The wort will be provided on a first-come, first-paid will be first-served basis. Entries made once the wort limit has been met, will be canceled and any paid funds will be refunded to the applicant within 30 days.

Suggestions for Creating Your Brew...

Here are some of the guidelines to assist you in qualifying as a selection by Big Grove for the ProAM:

  1. Keep it economical - avoid using very expensive ingredients.
  2. Use ingredients that are readily available to breweries
  3. Avoid exotic grains, hops, amendments, spices, etc., which incurs a double whammy because they are usually expensive and are hard to get.
  4. Avoid onerous brewing requirements (barrel curing, long-term maturity requirements) and complicated brewing processes.
  5. Recommended to limit the amount of hops to no more than 1 pound in a 5 gallon batch. Kettle Sours are OK.

Suggested guidance is to see what has won the GABF in the past. Those past winners might provide some insight as to what styles the judges are looking for, or what seems to be the latest trend.

Good luck.

BG/CRBS GABF Pro-AM Qualifier Competition Rules

This competition is AHA sanctioned and open to any amateur homebrewer age 21 or older.

All entries must be crafted using the Big Grove base-malt wort received at the Wort Rally.

Entries must be brewed/co-brewed by the purchaser of the wort, entries are not transferable..

All entries will be picked up from drop-off locations the day of the drop-off deadline.

All entries must be handcrafted products, containing ingredients available to the general public, and made using private equipment by hobbyist brewers (i.e., no use of commercial facilities or Brew on Premises operations, supplies, etc.).

The competition organizers are not responsible for miscategorized entries or entries that arrived damaged.

The competition organizers reserve the right to combine styles for judging and to restructure awards as needed depending upon the quantity and quality of entries.

Qualified judging of all entries is the primary goal of our event. Judges will be professional brewers. They will evaluate and score each entry, and the average of the scores will rank each entry in its category.

Brewers are not limited to one entry in each category but may only enter each subcategory once.

The competition committee reserves the right to combine overall style categories based on number of entries. All possible effort will be made to combine similar styles. All brews in combined categories will be judged according to the style they were originally entered in.

The Best of Show judging will be determined by a Best of Show panel based on a second judging of the top winners.

From the pool of all placed winners of Best of Category (or Flight) and Best of Show, Big Grove Brewery will issue one or more invitations to the winners to submit their recipe and process for the purpose of brewing the selected beer(s) on the Big Grove system, for the purpose of sale in the Big Grove taproom and for submission for the 2024 GABF ProAM competition.

AHA membership is not required to participate in the Big Grove/CRBS Pro-AM Qualifier Competition. However, if Big Grove selects your beer to compete in the GABF Pro-Am competition, you will be required to hold a valid AHA membership prior to your beer being brewed at Big Grove, and that membership must remain valid throughout the 2024 GABF event(s).

Bottles will not be returned to entrants.

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BJCP 2021 Judging Styles

If a style's name is hyperlinked, it has specific entry requirements. Select or tap on the name to view the subcategory's requirements.

1A American Light Lager1B American Lager1C Cream Ale
1D American Wheat Beer2A International Pale Lager2B International Amber Lager
2C International Dark Lager3A Czech Pale Lager3B Czech Premium Pale Lager
3C Czech Amber Lager3D Czech Dark Lager4A Munich Helles
4B Festbier4C Helles Bock5A German Leichtbier
5B Kölsch5C German Helles Exportbier5D German Pils
6A Märzen6B Rauchbier6C Dunkels Bock
7A Vienna Lager7B Altbier8A Munich Dunkel
8B Schwarzbier9A Doppelbock 9B Eisbock
9C Baltic Porter10A Weissbier10B Dunkels Weissbier
10C Weizenbock 11A Ordinary Bitter11B Best Bitter
11C Strong Bitter12A British Golden Ale12B Australian Sparkling Ale
12C English IPA13A Dark Mild13B British Brown Ale
13C English Porter14A Scottish Light14B Scottish Heavy
14C Scottish Export15A Irish Red Ale15B Irish Stout
15C Irish Extra Stout16A Sweet Stout16B Oatmeal Stout
16C Tropical Stout16D Foreign Extra Stout17A British Strong Ale
17A1 Burton Ale17B Old Ale17C Wee Heavy
17D English Barley Wine18A Blonde Ale18B American Pale Ale
19A American Amber Ale19B California Common19C American Brown Ale
20A American Porter20B American Stout20C Imperial Stout
21A American IPA21B Specialty IPA 21B1 Belgian IPA
21B2 Black IPA 21B3 Brown IPA 21B4 Red IPA
21B5 Rye IPA 21B6 White IPA 21B7 Brut IPA
21C Hazy IPA22A Double IPA22B American Strong Ale
22C American Barleywine22D Wheatwine23A Berliner Weisse
23B Flanders Red Ale23C Oud Bruin23D Lambic
23E Gueuze23F Fruit Lambic 23G Gose
24A Witbier24B Belgian Pale Ale24C Bière de Garde
25A Belgian Blond Ale25B Saison 25C Belgian Golden Strong Ale
26A Belgian Single26B Belgian Dubbel26C Belgian Tripel
26D Belgian Dark Strong Ale27A Historical Beer 27A1 Kellerbier
27A2 Kentucky Common27A3 Lichtenhainer27A4 London Brown Ale
27A5 Piwo Grodziskie27A6 Pre-Prohibition Lager27A7 Pre-Prohibition Porter
27A8 Roggenbier27A9 Sahti28A Brett Beer
28B Mixed Fermentation Sour Beer 28C Wild Specialty Beer 28D Straight Sour Beer
29A Fruit Beer 29B Fruit and Spice Beer 29C Specialty Fruit Beer
29D Grape Ale 30A Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer 30B Autumn Seasonal Beer
30C Winter Seasonal Beer 30D Specialty Spice Beer 31A Alternative Grain Beer
31B Alternative Sugar Beer 32A Classic Style Smoked Beer 32B Specialty Smoked Beer
33A Wood-Aged Beer 33B Specialty Wood-Aged Beer 34A Commercial Specialty Beer
34B Mixed-Style Beer 34C Experimental Beer LSX1 Dorada Pampeana
LSX2 IPA ArgentaLSX3 Italian Grape Ale LSX4 Catharina Sour
LSX5 New Zealand Pilsner  

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Entry Acceptance Rules

Number of Bottles Required Per Entry: 2

Each entry will consist of capped or corked bottles that are void of all identifying information, including labels and embossing. Printed caps are allowed, but must be blacked out completely.

12oz brown glass bottles are preferred; however, green and clear glass will be accepted. Swing top bottles will likewise be accepted as well as corked bottles.

Bottles will not be returned to contest entrants.

All requisite paperwork must be submitted with each entry and can be printed directly from this website. Entry paperwork should be attached to bottles by the method specified on the bottle label.

Be meticulous about noting any special ingredients that must be specified. Failure to note such ingredients may impact the judges' scoring of your entry.

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Judging Sessions and Dates

Big Grove Brewery - Cedar Rapids Taproom
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 7:00 PM, CDT

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Awards

The awards ceremony will take place once judging is completed.

1st place overall will be awarded.

Both score sheets and awards will be available for pick up that night after the ceremony concludes. Awards and score sheets not picked up will be mailed back to participants. Results will be posted to the competition web site after the ceremony concludes.

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Awards Ceremony

Big Grove Cedar Rapids Taproom
Sunday, May 26, 2024 3:00 PM, CDT

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