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.

Pick your own Chertsey hops!

We've just discovered (through the twin agency of Hugo the Brewer and Sean the Roof) that the hedgerows of Chertsey are literally heaving with hops. How massively cool would it be to brew your own Chertsey beer for the Chertsey St George's Beer Festival with native, hand-picked Chertsey hops? I know. Unspeakably.

So we're organising a posse for mid-September to go out and scrump a fair tonnage, with Hugo as our tracker and guide. We're currently targeting the weekend of 17-19 September for optimum 'hop on' time, although we apparently need a dry day so that may be subject to some variability.

All those in favour say 'aye'!

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


Chertsey St George's Beer Challenge Blog [LINK]

Results just in: Otters clean up yet again at the Chertsey Show!

Well done all on another awe-inspiring Otter performance at the Chertsey Show. There can be no truer exemplar of the Otter motto 'Just turn up and win' than this year's showing, which was hastily cobbled together at the eleventh hour but yielded more rosettes and little brown envelopes stuffed with cash than a closely fought by-election in an East End marginal.

Apologies for taking so long to post the results, but once again real life intervened and I found myself having to do stuff like make a living, run a(nother) rugby club, wrestle a bear, defeat the dark legions of the resurgent Sith Lords, etc. You know, the usual.

Results

Ann of the Lists - Apple pie (6" to 8") - sixth
Sean the Roof - Loaf of bread most closely resembling a doorstop - first

Sean the Roof - Homebrewed beer - third

Max the Power - Chutney - fourth
One-take Lumsden - Sculpture - not as good as the Dead-eyed Otter from last year
Craig and Molly Christ - Shortbread - first

Gen Christ - Picture of something in the garden - first

Janosch Unmenkable - Victoria sponge - unclassified
Franka Unmenkable - Cookies - fourth
Alan Shearer (Greenwood) - Mis-shapen fruit or vegetable most closely resembling his old fellah - first
Dibs Greenwood - Photo portrait in black and white - third
Nicole di Dutchy - Handmade soft toy - first
Dark Side Lucy - Chutney - first

Tom and Josh Tractor - Favourite meal on a plate - first; Plant grown from seed - second

Unusual Steves of the World - Homebrew beer - second
Fat Lad a.k.a. Richard - Fruit cake - third

Jaego, Jessame and Richard (with unhelpful comments by Janosch) - Scarecrow - first

Jessame - Self-portrait - first; Picture of something in the garden - highly commended; Young gardener - commended

Jaego - Model or collage of a bird - first; Picture of something in the garden - third; Young gardener - highly commended

Jaego and Jessame - Decorated cakes - highly commended

Jaego and Jessame - Vegetable monsters - highly commended

Lyne and Longcross School - Unusual planter - first

Beer challenge results and update!

Check 'em out over at the Chertsey Beer Challenge Blog.

• Chertsey St George's Beer Challenge: Results and 2011 Competition [LINK]
  

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

Thank you!

Huge thanks to the brewers, designers, drinkers and spectators who helped make the second annual Chertsey St George's Beer Challenge such a success. Special thanks go out to Hugo for yet another diligent and sparkling turn as our judge, and Tony for gifting us the function room at the Crown for the day. He's apparently quite a nice bloke really.

There were 18 beers entered by 16 brewers, all of whom put a fabulous amount of time and effort into their entries. At the current rate of growth, in 18 years the beer challenge will feature more than a million brewers and we will have collectively caused the collapse of conglomerate brewing in the UK. Reach for the stars...

The beers ranged from "skunky" to "excellent", and their labels from "filthy" to "inspired". As for the names, anyone who doesn't spend the rest of the week humming "I can't believe it's not butter beer" clearly wasn't in the room.

I'll be posting the results, etc., in more detail shortly, but in the meantime here's a list of the winners, FYI. If you have any photographs of the day, can you email me asap and I'll set up a Flickr stream for your collective delectation and pleasure.

Best beer: Romp of Runnymede; brewer: Big Gay Al
Best name: I can't believe it's not butter beer; brewer: Kayte and a cast of a thousand munchkins
Best label: Yellow and Blue; brewer Anna R and the Swedish Dream Team

Until the next time, remember...

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

THE FINAL: Sunday, 25 April, 2 - 5pm

The final countdown has begun. The moment of truth is imminent. A massive 21 brewers have entered the Chertsey St George's Beer Challenge, pouring their heart, soul and cheeky magic ingredients into lovingly crafted ales. Awesome.

Entry details, rules and regulations all detailed below, but if you're entering a beer, here are the key things you need to know:

• Registration for your beer entry is from 130pm on competition day.
• You will need your £5 entry fee.
  
• You will need three unlabelled bottles for the blind tasting.
• You will need one labelled bottle for the label competition.
• You will need to be able to explain your beer's name and the creative journey that led to your label. Short and sweet is fine!
  

In addition to the three Beer Challenge titles - Best Beer, Best Label, Best Name - there will be some additional on-the-day challenges which everyone can get involved in. These include beer tasting, dwyle flunking, eskimo longjump, yards of ale and boatraces.

Suggestions for additional activities welcome!

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

SAVE THE DATE! Chertsey St George's Beer Challenge - THE FINAL - Sunday 25 April

Save the date and be there for the epic Chertsey St George's Beer Challenge Final. We're currently looking at a 2pm kick off for the event, so no need for babysitters. Kids, friends, relatives, random people pulled in off the street, ALL WELCOME.

We currently have 20 competitors in the brewing comp, so we're more than double the size of last year. Great effort by all concerned!

In addition to the three Beer Challenge titles - Best Beer, Best Label, Best Name - there will be some additional on-the-day challenges which everyone can get involved in. Nothing heavy - just fun stuff.

More details as we have them!


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

WARNING: Brewing deadline fast approaching!!!

A friendly warning, mind. If you want to have a beer ready for 25 April, you pretty much have to have to get it under way this weekend (27, 28 March) latest. You need a week for your initial fermentation and probably 3 weeks in the bottle to ensure it clears in time.

That said, last year's winner (Willingale's Willing Ale) was brewed super-late and delivered to the judge still cloudy, so you never can tell!

Bottles!

Right, next up is bottles. Rather than spend a bleedin' fortune on these, I've negotiated with the landlords of local hostelries, chiefly the Crown, to go rummaging in their bins and recycle suitable glassware for your awesome brews. Let me know if you'd like any. First come, first served. (Likely to be 500ml rather than pints, but it shouldn't affect the flavour ;)