Home Beer Brewers Compete for Honors in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Homebrewers from throughout the Carolinas have an opportunity to showcase their original beers at the 2019 US Open Homebrew Competition to be held on July 20th at Olde Mecklenburg Brewery in Charlotte.

The US Open competition will be open to 28 nationally recognized beer, mead and cider categories. Prizes consist of ribbons for each category, with the winners of each flight then narrowed to three Best of Show awards.

Also to be awarded is the 15th annual King Gambrinus Cup – sponsored by the annual Carolina Renaissance Festival and Foothills Brewing of Winston-Salem. The winning recipe of this prestigious competition will be brewed on a commercial scale by Foothills and offered to the public as a premium beer at the 2019 Carolina Renaissance Festival, held Saturdays & Sundays, October 5th – November 24th. The winner also receives a RenFest artisan crafted trophy, free admission for 20 guests, and a Joust in their honor. This year’s King Gambrinus Cup will be chosen from the top entries in the 63BA Juicy or Hazy IPA style.

Arguably a more diversely flavored beverage than wine, beer is a complex collection of a wide range of ingredients. Amateur brewers must carefully calculate the ratio of various malts, hops and yeast along with precision timing for boiling, cooling, fermenting, and storage. Slight variation and any one of the many ingredients and steps in the brewing process can seriously change the beer’s flavor and affect the category in which the beer may be entered. Judges in the US Open have undergone rigorous Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) training, enabling them to successfully identify top-quality beer by smell, appearance and flavor.

The US Open Homebrew Competition is hosted by the Carolina BrewMasters, a non-profit club whose members are dedicated to the time-honored craft of beer brewing, and is sponsored by Foothills Brewing and The Carolina Renaissance Festival. Amateur homebrewers who are interested in entering the competition can learn more online at www.usopen.carolinabrewmasters.com. The competition can be attended by competitors and judges only (not open to the general public).

More information about Foothills Brewing can be found online at www.foothillsbrewing.com.

More information about the Carolina Renaissance Festival can be found online at www.carolina.renfestinfo.com