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HomeBrewer Contest South Tyrol 2025
The HomeBrewing Contest will take place as part of the Beer Craft Festival , at Schloss Maretsch, C. de Medici-Strasse 12 in Bolzano. The competition is open to all non-professional homebrewers, i.e., those who have never worked as brewers or assistant brewers at breweries in the country or abroad.
The categories in which beers can be submitted are as follows:
- 1: Beers with original gravity up to 12.0 °P
- 2: Beers with original gravity between 12.1°P and 18.0°P
- 3: Beers with original gravity over 18.1°P as well as Barrel Aged Beers
- 4: Special Category: Fruit & Sour Beers 5: Special Category: The BoB4 Gretchen Challenge
Use the online pre-registration form at the bottom of this page.
The beers will be judged by the international KuBo Jury.
Organized by the South Tyrolean Beer Stammtisch
📄 Download Beer Category & Beer Description
Download PDFReglement
For pre-enrollment, please use the online registration form at the bottom of this page.
General questions/inquiries can be sent to the following address: HBContestBZ@gmail.com
Last date for registration:
Sunday, April 27, 2025, 12 noon
Each participant may enter up to 5 different beers, even in the same category, but no beer may be entered in 2 different categories. Any style of beer (including personal style), brewed at any time, using any method, is permitted. The reference for judging the specified beer styles is the description according to the criteria of the Kubo Beer Awards. If “creative beer” is specified as the beer style, the beer will be judged as such and assigned to the appropriate beer style.
The BoB4 Gretchen Challenge
The HomeBrewing Contest 2025 joins The BoB4 Gretchen Challenge and gives all HomeBrewers the opportunity to compete in a special competition.
Who is The BoB4?
It is a friendly home brewing fraternity from Austria that is strongly committed to the home brewing scene in Europe and endeavors to network it across countries in order to enable a lively exchange between all beer brewing enthusiasts.
What is The BoB4 Gretchen Challenge about?
A beer is to be brewed according to a predetermined theme or some predetermined guidelines, whereby style guidelines are not taken into account. The only thing that matters is which HomeBrewer's beer best meets the given theme.
The beer will be submitted under the unique name “Gretchen”. The name is derived from Gretchen Lieberum - a modern jazz singer from Los Angeles, whose album title “when this kiss is over, it will start again” (unintentionally) provides the best beer description of all time. All “Gretchens” are tasted and evaluated in a separate category by the international judges of the KuBo Awards.
The requirements for the Gretchens 2025 are as follows:
Brew a beer hopped with Hopsteiner Sultana and Lemondrop. The type of hopping is free and unlimited, but both varieties must be used.
The aim is a full beer with an original gravity of between 12 and 13°P.
Pouring, mashing method and fermentation (top or bottom fermentation) are freely selectable. The beer should have a pronounced hop character, as this is decisive in the evaluation.
The entry fee is 20 € per beer. The fee is paid by bank transfer. The bank transfer details will be communicated by e-mail at the time of registration. The last transfer date is Tuesday, May 06, 2025.
Beers for which the transfer has not been made will not be admitted to the competition.
The minimum quantity to be sent in per beer type is 3 liters, in the following formats: 4 x 0.75l, 6 x 0.5l, 9 x 0.33l or combinations of the formats described, whereby the minimum quantity must be reached.
The mail confirming the registration of the beers will contain the delivery address of the beers. The labels with which the bottles must be provided will also be sent. The last date for delivery (receipt of the bottles) is Wednesday, May 7, 2025, 11 am.
Some of the bottles will be used for the first tasting; the other bottles will be opened for a possible re-tasting or for the final tasting phase.
The beer bottles sent in must be marked by the participant with the competition labels received by e-mail. The labels must be affixed to the bottles and fixed over a large area using transparent adhesive tape.
The beer bottles must not bear any identifying mark. Any markings must be covered with black insulating tape. Bottles that are not labeled according to these specifications will be excluded from the competition.
Unopened bottles will not be refunded.
Participation in the South Tyrol Homebrewing Competition includes 1 free entry per beer submitted to the award ceremony at the Beer Craft Festival at Maretsch Castle. In the case of brewing communities, additional participants (after registration) can claim a discounted entry fee of €10 (excluding tasting vouchers).
The winning beers will be invited to participate in a “Stammtisch” event dedicated to the competition after the event. Participation is not obligatory.
Ranking and Awards
The 3 best beers in each category will be awarded prizes.
The tasting and evaluation of the beers will take place behind closed doors as part of the Beer Craft Festival at Maretsch Castle. The evaluation and tasting of the beers will be anonymous. The jury consists of local beer sommeliers and international beer judges. A special tasting template is used to evaluate the beers. The jury's verdict is anonymous and cannot be challanged.
Beers from homebrewers who take part in the evaluation are automatically excluded from the competition.
The award ceremony will take place on Friday, May 16, 2025 as part of the Beer Craft Festival.
Further details will be announced
Ready for a few wonderful days with beer experts, top brewers, and an extremely interested audience? We look forward to your registration!