The 2011 Beer Challenge is ON!!!

Every year we do a Beer Challenge, with the final held as near as possible to St George's Day. It's a brewing competition for first-timers and other amateurs and has been getting steadily larger each year. You are hereby cordially invited to take part in the 2011 challenge, which we hope will be the biggest yet.

Brewing beer is stupidly easy. It's virtually impossible to cock it up. You just need some basic kit, a bag of ingredients and away you go. Everyone brews the same recipe, with a little latitude for personalisation.

As ever, the final will be judged in a blind tasting by professional brewer and sainted beer guru Hugo Anderson. The Crown in Chertsey has once again kindly agreed to host, with the final taking place on Saturday 23 April - St George's Day - so we can carry on and get epic afterwards.

This year, for the first time, there are three categories to enter:

- Best Recipe Beer (this is the grand prix - click here for the recipe/instructions)
- Best Vintage Beer (for drinkable beers, made by you, that are over a year old)
- Best Freestyle Beer (this is basically like the fun dog show that takes place next to the serious pedigree stuff)

All you need to enter is to email chertseyotter@googlemail.com and tell me you're entering, then turn up on the day with your beer (click here for rules of entry).


To get a feel for the event, have a butcher's at the photos and results from the 2010 and 2009 finals. For the full site, with everything on it, click here: The Chertsey St George's Beer Challenge 2011.

Come on. You know you want to.

Any idiot can drink a beer. It takes a legend to make one.