For its first ever Homebrew Competition, Third Hill Brewing in Silver Spring will announce the contest’s winners on Saturday, February, 24. The celebration kicks off at 6 PM, at their brewery, 8216 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
Third Hill’s inaugural competition netted ~75 entries with a somewhat surprising popularity of entries. IPA was a highly entered category but similarly popular was Schwarzbier. Perhaps needless to say, should a black lager win the competition, this beer historian would be thrilled.
The grand prize is helping brew and naming the scaled-up version of the homebrewed beer on Third Hill’s commercial system plus a $50 gift card and merch. Second place earns a $30 Third Hill gift card and merch and a Maryland Homebrewer gift card. Third place will receive a $20 gift card and merch and a Maryland Homebrewer gift card.
Naturally the brewing date of the competition-winning scaled up batch has yet to be scheduled. But come Saturday we will know who the overall winner is as well as the runners up.
Entry fees for entries to the competition benefit the Harvey-Wilder Foundation, who has worked with Third Hill before (DC Beer co-owner Jordan Harvey, is director of community outreach with the foundation). The donations provided by Maryland Homebrew are also a testament to the ways in which Third Hill continues to bridge the craft brewing and homebrewer communities.
At a time when homebrewing has been charting a decline, this competition is a nice consolation to some very passionate people who make beer at home. With the Homebrewers Association announcing a hiatus to the annual Homebrew Con™ in 2024, there is some concern over the overall health of the hobby today. But there is the competing thought that less could be more: perhaps smaller competitions but more frequent gatherings would actually promote the health of local homebrewing groups, even if the national annual convention is on hold. Earlier this month, DC Brau hosted JamBEERee!, a joint meeting of local homebrewing clubs, including DC Homebrewers. In addition to the meetings of the clubs, Pizzeria Paradiso is also running a homebrewing competition with the winner’s beer being scaled up at Silver Branch.
