The Underground Brewers were formed 46.5 years ago with the express purpose of tasting each other’s homebrew and offering suggestions for improvement. That much is well-documented. Less well-documented is when the first friendly competition between members arose. But, people being people, we can confidently assume that it happened sometime within the first few months.
The annual in-house competition, complete with trash talk and deeded bragging rights, was well-established by the time I joined the club 19 years ago. It already had a name and a history. The name was in questionable taste even then and did not survive into our more-PC era. So now we just call it “the in-house competition”.
A decidedly non-PC trophy was also involved at that time. Subsequent efforts to replace it with a much more appropriate trophy – the brewing spoon used by the late Von Bair when making his many award-winning brews – have been less successful. Everyone loves the spoon, but the other … um … thing continues to live on. It has been censored in the winner’s photo.
(Don’t worry, folks. That thing really will disappear at some point. We aren’t complete cretins, and the spoon really is better.)
This year marks another break from the competition’s history. For the first time, we gave out two awards, one for beer and one for mead/cider. To some extent, this just recognizes the fact that we are making a lot more mead and cider than we used to. But it is also recognition that it’s really hard to judge one against the other on a Best-Of-Show table.
The competition was small this year, no doubt due to covid worries. But it was no less enthusiastic. Nor was there any shortage of fantastic brews in the running. One thing that has not changed at all in 46.5 years: we make damn good homebrew.
I had intended to write up the tasting notes. I may still scan them and attach the images. But I had my covid booster today and I lack the will to decipher the handwriting. Suffice to say that there wasn’t a bad brew in the mix.
Matt Jordan took Beer BOS with a Munich Helles which was grainy and clean and perfectly to style. Heaven in a bottle. But Mara Henek’s Saison – dry and spicy with just a hint of Brett – was so close behind it that we took a VERY long time to choose between the two. Two outstanding brews.
Andy Cox took home the Mead/Cider trophy with a New World Cider to die for. Nearly white in color and crystal clear, backsweetened just enough to take the edge off the acids, with an apple aftertaste that lasted forever.
Special thanks to the great folks at Reverie Brewing in Newtown for hosting us in their wonderful new event space at very short notice!
Congrats to our two winners! Start brewing for next year’s competition!
