San Diegans shine on national stage

If there’s one thing brewers love, well, it’s beer. But if there’s another thing brewers love, it’s competition, and that extends to the amateur ranks. Just as professional brewers enter their beers in the Great American Beer Festival each year, recreational beermakers do the same for the National Homebrew Competition (NHC). Both are the largest and most prestigious contests of their kind, with the latter being the highlight of the American Homebrewers Association’s (AHA) annual Homebrew Con convention, which took place last week in Louisville, Colorado. It was the 43rd edition of the NHC, and 126 medals were awarded in 40 categories. Four of those awards went to domestic artisans hailing from San Diego County.

Paul Duddles and Fred Brophy took first place in the Belgian Ale category with a Belgian-style witbier. Both are members of local homebrew club, the Mash Heads, and Brophy recently had one of his beer recipes selected by Kilowatt Brewing as part of San Diego Beer News’ program, San Diego Homebrew Summer. That recipe for a more modern take on a spiced Belgian-style wheat ale brewed with butterfly pea flower called Purple Tears will be brewed on a professional scale at Kilowatt’s Kearny Mesa brewery and released at its taprooms (Kearny Mesa, Ocean Beach and Oceanside) in August.

“Wibiers are a personal favorite of mine going back to the very first Hoegaarden I had many years ago. It was such a pleasant, refreshing surprise of a beer,” says Duddles. “Our beer is a classic representation of the style, though we used sweet orange rather than dried Curacao orange peel to give it a little more fresh orange flavor, and we bumped up the coriander a bit before throwing in a little grains of paradise for complexity.”

John Thompson of Encinitas took second place in Strong Belgian Ale, which had more entries than any other category at this year’s competition with 246. The next most-entered categories were Pilsner (199 entries), Amber European Beer (185), Imperial Porter and Stout (191) and New England IPA (191).

Meanwhile, in the mead categories, Stephen Kilburn of Bonita not only took first place for Traditional Mead, but was also named Meadmaker of the Year, a prestigious honor to be sure. Another local, Scott Voak from QUAFF (Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity), was awarded silver in the Spice Mead category.

This year’s NHC included 5,045 beers entered by 2,037 homebrewers from all 50 states, as well as Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and 13 other countries. The winner of the coveted Ninkasi Award recognizing the entrant who accumulated the most points in the final round of the NHC was Jason Lowery of Amherst, Ohio, while the Homebrewer of the Year Award went to Ben Amidon of Arlington, Massachusetts, and Homebrew Club of the Year was awarded to the Diablo Order of Zymiracle Enthusiasts based in Walnut Creek, California.

“Past medal winners from the supportive, vibrant San Diego homebrew community encouraged Paul and I to keep submitting beers to competition and to use tasting notes to improve them, which we did,” says Brophy. “It’s valuable advice. Grab a friend, brew some beer, enjoy.”