Join in the fun of Homebrew Summer 2026
From now through May 15, submit your homebrew recipe for the chance to have it collaboratively brewed and tapped by a local brewery
In 2021, San Diego Beer News teamed with local breweries and homebrewers to launch a one-of-a-kind program developed to keep the ties between the county’s pro and recreational brewing communities strong. Over the past five years, that initiative, Homebrew Summer, has seen 50 brewing companies team with amateurs to produce 85 pro-am beers. Along the way, we’ve shared a whopping 128 homebrew recipes, including scaled-down how-tos for crafting popular beers from local breweries.
We’re gearing up for our sixth-annual Homebrew Summer and will once again be accepting recipes from local homebrewers. Those recipes will then be presented to brewers from this year’s participating companies, who will blindly select the recipe they would like to brew and tap at their taproom(s). Your name will not be included when the recipes are presented for consideration. Brewers will select their recipe based solely on their level of interest.
To submit up to four (4) of your homebrew recipes for consideration, click the button below and send them in by 12 p.m. on Friday, May 15, 2026.
Submission Instructions
- Your recipe must be submitted in text-only format. Do not send PDFs or graphic files (e.g., JPG, PNG).
- Please include your full name, the beer’s official name, style and target ABV (alcohol-by-volume), as well as all vital recipe information (e.g., ingredients, amounts, instructions).
- If you have submitted your recipe in past years and it was not selected, it is OK to resubmit it for consideration this year. However, if your recipe has already been produced by a commercial brewing company (within or outside of Homebrew Summer), it is ineligible for consideration.
- Please note that by submitting your recipe, you are authorizing San Diego Beer News to publish and share your recipe on our site should it be selected by a participating brewery. If your recipe is not selected, we will not share or retain a copy of it.
Homebrew Summer pro-am beers will be released and tapped between Sunday, June 21 and Tuesday, September 22, 2026 (the official dates of the summer season). In addition to announcing the dates that this year’s Homebrew Summer beers will be released, we will also include the full recipes for each of them on our website so that homebrewers can attempt to brew those beers.
The best way to keep informed about Homebrew Summer, its participants and the beers that will be released through the program is by signing up for our free weekly email newsletter. We send it out every Friday morning, and it will include everything having to do with Homebrew Summer as well as news related to San Diego’s brewing industry, information on new beers being released throughout the county, local beer events, job listings and more.
Cheers and best of luck to San Diego’s homebrewers! And thank you to our sponsor SoCal Brewing Supply, as well as our collaborators from Home Brew Mart. Lastly, if you own or work for a local brewery and would like to take part in Homebrew Summer, reach out to us via email and we’ll happily get you all set up!
Click here to see recipes from previous years’ Homebrew Summer programs!