Click here to register your team or to request a team.
Event Dates:
Team Registration Deadline is Wednesday March 27, 2024
Brew Day – Saturday March 30, 2021 at High Gravity
Set-up starts at 11:00 a.m.
Brewing starts at noon
Entries will be judged at the July FOAM meeting.
Entry Fee:
The entry fee covers the actual cost of your ingredients and is given directly to High Gravity. The fee is per team, not per person. The fee is the same whether teams brew all-grain or extract-with-specialty-grains.
The fee for ingredients DOES NOT include yeast. Teams are responsible for bringing the yeast strains desired for their beer.
For obvious reasons, 10-gallon kits cost twice as much as 5-gallon kits.
The fees are:
5-gallon kit $45.00
10-gallon kit $90.00
Entry fees are paid for day of the event. Cash, check, and credit cards can be used to pay for ingredients.
Teams who register and fail to cancel before before the registration deadline will still be responsible for payment of the entry fee, and they will are entitled to receive their ingredients but will not be eligible to enter any beer brewed from the ingredients.
General Information:
The Iron Brewer competition concept is taken from the Iron Chef television show. The general idea is for teams of homebrewers to test their recipe formulation and brewing skills by brewing a beer from previously-unknown ingredients.
Teams must include at least two brewers with a max of 6, including the team captain.
Team members cannot belong to multiple teams. (The exception is if you are organizing teams to encourage participation but WILL NOT play a role in the recipe formulation. These teams must have 2 members outside of the organizing member.)
Team captains are responsible for registering their team. When they complete the registration form they will indicate whether the team will brew all-grain or extract with specialty grains. The captain will also indicate whether the team will brewing a 5 or 10 gallon batch. The grains will be ground when you get them.
On brew day teams will take their equipment to the brew site and set up by the start time. At the start time teams will receive a kit of ingredients to include base malt(s) or extract, specialty grains, hops in pelletized form, and special ingredients. Once the team receives their ingredients, the team will develop a recipe and brew the beer. Teams will bring their own yeast. Teams are allowed to pitch yeast off-site. There is no need to bring the yeast if pitching off site.
Teams will be required to submit an entry form before they leave on brew day. The form includes a written description of how the beer will taste, what the base beer is and how you used the specialty ingredient(s).
If the team wants their beer to be in the running for awards, they must get some of their beer to the July meeting.
We will have two awards.
The FOAM Iron Brewer Award is determined by judges. Qualified judges and/or guest judges will use the BJCP guidelines and what the team said their beer should taste like to determine the winner. Winners will receive a prize 🏆 as yet to be determined.
The Joe Six-pack award will be the people’s choice decided by those attending the meeting. Please bring at least eight 12-oz bottles to the meeting. More would be better. Of course it’s best if the entry is in a keg. The six-pack winners will receive a prize 🏆 as yet to be determined.
IRON Brew Official Rules
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Teams can brew any quantity they wish. The ingredient kits will have sufficient grain and/or extract to brew 5 (or 10) gallons of moderately strong beer. However, teams can brew a smaller quantity of higher gravity beer or a larger quantity of lower gravity beer.
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Teams must provide all brewing equipment and fuel. If teams need electricity they will need to provide the extension cord.
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Teams may use computer programs, brewing books, and other references on brew day.
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Teams must pay the entry fee on the day of the event.
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Teams must completely brew the beer at the brew day event. Yeast can pitched on-site or off-site.
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Teams use their own yeast and can be dry form or liquid. Teams may prepare starters in advance. Teams can, if desired pitch the yeast of-site.
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Teams may bring their own water although water and a carbon filter will be available on brew day.
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Teams may bring and use water treatments such as gypsum, salts, etc.
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Teams may bring and use clarifying agents.
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Teams may bring as many hop bags or grain bags as you wish. Extract brewers will receive one grain bag to steep grains.
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Each beer ingredient kit will include:
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At least one type of base malt, or base malt extract
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At least three types of hops in pellet form
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At least three types of specialty grains
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Three Specialty Ingredients
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All grains will be ground when you get them.
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Each kit will contain sufficient ingredients to make 5 (or 10) gallons of moderate gravity beer. Teams may vary the quantity to affect the gravity.
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Teams may use any quantity of the base malts (or malt extracts), hops, and specialty malts. Any unused ingredients are the teams to keep.
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Teams must use at least two of the specialty ingredients. Judges will take into account the effective use of any specialty ingredient(s) you do use.
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Teams must submit a completed entry form before they leave on brew day. They must complete the form with sufficient detail to allow the judges to judge the finished beer against the beer described on the form. The form must include a description of how the team thinks the beer will taste, and how the team used the specialty ingredient(s). You will fill this out electronically on brew day.
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Only one beer per team can submitted for judging. Beers will be judged based on the forms filled out on brewing day and submitted on brewing day.
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Teams may use no ingredients other than:
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Ingredients provided in the kit
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The yeast you bring on brew day
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Water and water treatments
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Finings
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Teams may add ingredients to the beer after they leave the brew site (e.g., dry hopping), but those ingredients must come from the items received on brew day. The only exception is finings. Teams may add finings on brew day or after. Kits will not include any finings.
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Teams may bottle or keg their beer, and they may bring bottles or kegs to the July meeting for judging. Teams need bring only 8 bottles for the official judging, but it would be great to bring enough to share with your fellow homebrewers and be eligible for the Joe Six-pack bragging rights.
Questions? Please contact Desiree Knott at desiree@highgravitybrew.com