A few weeks ago, we published a post about bottling from the kegerator. One of the reasons we wanted to bottle our kegged beer was to be able to enter the beer in a homebrewing contest at Side Gate, a local brewpub. And guess what – we won a medal! Here’s how the competition process unfolded for us.

First, we learned about Side Gate’s competition on their Facebook page. Since we had a Belgian beer already on tap, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to show off our beer.

We paid the $12 entry fee and then got an email from Beer Awards Platform (BAP) to register our entry. The trickiest part of the entry process proved to be deciding which of these categories was the best fit for our entry. Zack didn’t use a recipe that directly defined the specific Belgian style. Which one?

• 21B. Specialty IPA: Belgian IPA
• 24A. Witbier
• 24B. Belgian Pale Ale
• 24C. Bière de Garde
• 25A. Belgian Blond Ale
• 25B. Saison
• 25C. Belgian Golden Strong Ale
• 26A. Belgian Single
• 26B. Belgian Dubbel
• 26C. Belgian Tripel
• 26D. Belgian Dark Strong Ale

Ultimately, we decided to enter our beer as a Belgian Dubbel, described as “A deep reddish-copper, moderately strong, malty, complex Belgian ale with rich malty flavors, dark or dried fruit esters, and light alcohol blended together in a malty presentation that still finishes fairly dry.” We called our beer Winter Spiced Belgian Ale.

BAP then produced anonymous, barcoded labels for us to print and attach to the three bottles required for entry. I dropped off our entry at Side Gate on January 22.

The Side Gate team followed up by email letting us know how many entries were received and announced the judging/awards date and time, February 25. Ultimately, about 46 entries were received and were divided into five tables of 8-10 beers each. Our table was the “Strong Dark” category.

Although we didn’t attend the judging/awards, we were promptly notified by email of the award.

We also received detailed tasting scoresheet from two judges, including some very nice feedback notes.

Side Gate sent us an email letting us know that, since we were local, they were holding our medal at the bar, and a few days later we dropped by and picked it up. Overall, it was a great experience and we were stoked to take home a prize.

JMN