A great way to know whether your beer is any good (besides just drinking it) is to enter one of the many club competitions. The judges feedback can be very helpful to you. You can also study to be a beer judge yourself.,

April Competition

- Extract Beers - Anything category 1-23 where 50% or more of the fermentable were extract.

June Competition

- Meads - NOTE: This is an internal competition for the club so only 1 bottle is required, however additional bottles makes the judges happier !!

July Competition

- Amber Hybrid Beer Styles - Category 7 from the BJCP guidelines.

September Competiton

- European Amber Lagers - Category 3 from the BJCP guidelines.

November Competion

- Belgian Strong Ales - Category 18

That rounds out this years competitions. To enter you need to supply 3 bottles with bottle ID tags found here -http://www.bjcp.org/docs/SCP_BottleID.pdf

Guidelines can be found here - http://www.bjcp.org/docs/2008_Guidelines.pdf

And of course a filled out recipe sheet found here - http://www.bjcp.org/docs/SCP_EntryRecipe.pdf

Caps must not have any marks, black sharpie will fix that. Judging will occur at the meeting for each of the month's styles. Any questions feel free to send me an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Cheers !!

Keith Michalek

F.O.R.D. Club President