Pisgah Brewing Company

Please pass this on to any your homebrew friends! Below are some details from the competition webpage. For full details please visit that page.

Organized by MALT (Mountain Ale and Lager Tasters Homebrew Club, Asheville North Carolina), this competition is the first in what hopefully will be an annual event for North Carolina’s first brewery to become certified organic.

 Pisgah Organic Pro-Am Homebrew Contest Guidelines

An AHA/BJCP Sanctioned Competition

Pisgah’s inaugural homebrew competition will be held Saturday, July 11 at Pisgah Brewing Company in Black Mountain, NC.

• Acceptable beers styles under the BJCP style guidelines are categories are 1-16, and 18-23.  Categories 5D, 17A-F and 22C are not permitted.
• Entries may be brewed from malt extract, all grain or a combination of both.
• Pisgah must be able to brew your beer (from grain to glass) in no more than eight weeks.
• Any type of yeast may be used under the White Labs list of viable, available yeast strains, with the exception of wild yeasts (brettanomyces, lactobacillus, other bacteria, etc), mead or wine yeasts.
• Pisgah uses Briess Organic malt, including 2-row brewers malt, 20L Crystal, 60L Crystal, Munich, Chocolate, Black, Roasted Barley, Extra Special Malt. Briess also makes organic Carapils. Since the winning recipe will be brewed with these organic malts, it is suggested (not required) that each brewer use these specific malts in their grain bill. If other grains are used, they must be an approximate substitute for our organic malts (ex: Briess Pale Malt rather than Organic 2-row, Marris Otter Chocolate Malt rather than Briess Organic Chocolate Malt).
• Entries must be brewed from start to finish on a non-professional, homebrewing system.
• Pisgah uses all whole leaf hops, so it is also suggested each entry uses the same. We use Nugget, Magnum, Apollo, Bravo, Centennial and Mt. Hood hops. Each entry must approximate these hop varieties or use a substitute within the same family. Nugget may be substituted with Cluster, Galena, Brewers Gold, Warrior, Eroica, Target or Millennium.   Magnum with Horizon or Newport.  Centennial with Amarillo, Cascade, Columbus or Summit. Finally, Mt. Hood may be substituted with Hallertauer, Liberty, Crystal, or Strisselspalt.  Apollo and Bravo, being newer, high alpha hop varieties, may be substituted with other high alpha hops provided their flavor/aroma can be approximated with the hops we use.

            Pisgah invites brewers to purchase malts, hops and free California Ale yeast from the brewery.

• Entries will be accepted from North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. However, Pisgah’s distribution range is currently limited to the Buncombe County area, so the winning entry will be on tap and in bottle only within this area. If the winning brewer lives outside of this area, an allotted portion of the finished product will be shipped to him/her. The winning brewer will be responsible for their own transportation to the brewery on the day we brew the winning recipe.
• The winning brewer will be allowed to help brew his/her winning recipe at Pisgah Brewing Company sometime in late July.
• The winning brew will also be on tap at Brewgrass in September.
• There is no limit on the amount of entries a brewer can enter.
• Entry fee is $3.

Pisgah Brewing Company, will take the Best Of Show first place winning recipe and reproduce, as faithful as possible to the original recipe, on a professional scale with the help of the homebrewer.  By entering the contest the winning homebrewer agrees to disclose their complete recipe to The Pisgah Brewing Company and grant The Pisgah Brewing Company all commercial and intellectual property rights to the winning beer. Entering the Contest, constitutes permission to The Pisgah Brewing Company and its agencies to use your name, likeness, picture, signature, voice, audio and video recordings and biographical information in any manner or media whatsoever (whether now known or hereafter devised) anywhere in the world in perpetuity for the purpose of advertising and trade, without further compensation, unless prohibited by law. 

Quality judging is the primary goal of The Pisgah Organic Pro-Am. We make every effort to ensure that each entrant receives the best possible feedback for their entries. We need volunteers to step forward to judge and steward to make this happen.  July is a great time to visit Asheville!  Breakfast and lunch will be provided by Pisgah Brewing.  Judges and stewards should use the same convenient on-line form as the entrants.  No paper work is necessary.  When your on-line form is received, you’ll be contacted by the appropriate coordinator.  If you prefer, judges and stewards may contact competition organizer, Steve Morgan at jnsmorgan@bellsouth.net    All entries and payment in full must be received by the date specified below.  This deadline applies to every entrant, without exceptions.  Late deliveries will not be returned.  This procedure will allow us to conclude the competition in one day and better assure quality control.