Welcome to the Elfsea Springfaire Brewing Competition

This Elfsea Springfaire Brewing Competition continues a long line of brewing competitions that we have held at the Baronial Springfaire. This year we are proud to offer five categories for the competition:

Beer (or Ale)
Any beverage that has been brewed primarily with a malted grain as the base. Spices and/or hops may have been added, but if so, must clearly be noted in the recipe.

Mead
Mead is produced by the fermentation of honey, water, yeast and optional ingredients such as fruit, herbs and/or spices. These include styles known as: Traditional Mead (no flavors other than honey, the specific honey should be mentioned in the recipe -- different honeys give different flavors, and the honey character in the aroma and flavor should be evident), Braggot (made with malt and honey), Melomel is made with any fruit or vegetable except apples or grapes. Cyser is made with apples and/or apple juice. Pyment is made with grapes. Metheglin is made with any herbs or spices. Hippocras is made with spices and grapes (spiced pyment).

Cider
Ciders are produced by the fermentation of apple juices and optional ingredients such as fruits and spices.

Wines
Any fermented beverage that is produced by the fermentation of grapes or fruit.

Cordials and Liqueurs
Any other fermented beverage that does not meet the above definitions.

Each of the winners of each category will receive some brewing or vinting supplies, and some printed material dealing with period brewing or vinting.

What we want in terms of documentation:

1. Name of the beverage. (It's terribly disappointing to announce in court that the winner was "Brown Ale". Be inventive. Most beverages had some story behind what they called. After all, our middle name is "Creative".)

2. Recipe. (The judges will need to know if the banana flavor in your beverage is suppose to be there or if it is a result of something happening in the fermentation of your beverage.)

3. Historicity. (This is important is showing that you understand the history of the type of beverage you made.)

4. Periodicity. (Is it from a documentable period recipe (if so, this is required -- source, date, original recipe, etc.) or is it based on research that indicates that it was possible to have been brewed in period -- include a synopsis of your research.)

5. Your name on a separate piece of paper, turned in with the documentation. (Provide both your SCA name and affiliation (what canton, shire, barony,and if you want, your household or clan), your mundane name and address.)

Numbers 1 and 5 should be on a separate sheet from the others.

While there is not a category for "best documentation", if there are two beverages in a category that are judged equal by the judges, then the documentation provided will be used to break the tie.

Other Rules:

1. While judges will be solicited, all interested parties will be permitted to judge.

2. No one who has an entry in a category may judge that category.

3. The entries should have no distinguishing marks on them. This means no labels (though you may include them with your documentation) or anything that might say "This is a beer brewed by Ld. Ceatta o'Gulcleth". Anonymity is what we want during the judging.

Last modified on Friday, 31-Mar-2000 04:12:30 PST