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Homebrewers Keep it Local with Skagit Valley Malt

The 2022 Ale Trail homebrew competition kickoff begins!  The 2022 Ale Trail Pale Homebrew Competition slots are available immediately at Northwest Brewers Supply.  Only 50 spots are available, and the last two years sold out quickly. The entry cost is $55 and includes malt donated by Skagit Valley Malting and one general admission entry to the 2022 Skagit Farm to Pint FEST (valued at $55/on-sale in February), a month-long, local beer and bounty celebration held at breweries around Skagit County during April 2022. “We are happy to sponsor this event which helps raise awareness of the Skagit Valley and its contributions to the local beer scene across Washington. Our farmers grow a wide variety of crops that barley plays a part in, and it’s part of their sustainability program for their soil. So, every pound a brewer uses in a beer helps promote sustainable farming practices in the Valley,” says Erik Youngren, VP, Skagit Valley Malting.

 

The homebrewers will have eight weeks to create their Ale Trail Pale and will receive 10 lbs. of Skagit Valley Malting Pilot Pale malt to be used as the primary base malt. Brewers can make their beers unique by using any amount and variety of specialty grains and hops. Winner of the 2019 competition, Ben Holm, says “I wanted to create a well-balanced beer with the available ingredients. I think the Pale Ale category was an excellent showcase for Skagit Valley Malting’s products, and that gave me a great starting position to try to keep the hop bitterness and flavors balanced with the malt flavors from Skagit Valley Malting.”

Ben Holm

The judging will take place at the end of February at Cardinal Craft Brewing with 13 judges, including experienced judges, instructors, brewers, brewery owners, and Skagit Valley College Craft Brewing Academy students. “It will be interesting to taste the similarities with the malt, but also the differences with how the brewers add their touch with other grains, hops, and yeast,” says Trevor Lawrence, owner of Northwest Brewers Supply. Tony Savoy, Cardinal Craft instructor, formatted the judging, including notes and scales on appearance, aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, and style.

Cardinal Craft Brewing brews the winning Ale Trail Pale.  The winning brew is served during the Skagit Farm to Pint FEST. Prizes include a $100 gift certificate to Northwest Brewers Supply for 1st place, 2nd place winner receives a $50 gift certificate, and 3rd place gets a $25 gift certificate.

cardinal_craft_brewing

All proceeds from Skagit Farm to Pint FEST benefit the local non-profit Viva Farms. Viva Farms is a bilingual (Spanish-English) farm business incubator program based in Mount Vernon. Their mission is to create a more resilient and just local food system. They teach beginning farmers about sustainable farming and farm business management, and provide access to land, training, equipment and infrastructure, markets and capital.

skagit valley homebrew competition

 

 

Homebrewers Go Local to Compete for the Heavy Medal

The 2020 Farm to Pint (F2P) Pale Ale competition slots are available starting December 3rd at Northwest Brewers Supply.  Only 50 slots are available, and last year sold out quickly.  Entry cost is $40 and includes malt donated by Skagit Valley Malting, yeast donated by Northwest Brewers Supply, and one general admission entry to the 2020 Skagit Farm to Pint FEST.  Proceeds benefit Viva Farms.

The homebrewers will have eight weeks to create their Pale Ale and are given 10 lbs. of Skagit Valley Malting Copeland Pale malt to be used as the primary base malt, along with American ale yeast.  Brewers can make their beers unique by using any amount and variety of specialty grains and hops. Winner of the 2019 competition, Ben Holm, says “I wanted to create a well-balanced beer with the available ingredients. I think the Pale Ale category was an excellent showcase for Skagit Valley Malting’s products, and that gave me a great starting position to try to keep the hop bitterness and flavors balanced with the subtle malt flavors from Skagit Valley Malting.”

The judging will take place in February at Cardinal Craft Brewing with 13 judges, including experienced judges, instructors, brewers, brewery owners, and Skagit Valley College Craft Brewing Academy students. “It will be interesting to taste the similarities with the malt and yeast used, but also the differences with how the brewers add their touch with other grains and hops,” says Trevor Lawrence, owner of Northwest Brewers Supply.  Tony Savoy, Cardinal Craft instructor, formatted the judging, which will include notes and scales on appearance, aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, and style.

The winning beer is brewed by Cardinal Craft Brewing and served at the Skagit Farm to Pint FEST on April 4, along with more than 28 other beers from all 14 of the Skagit Valley breweries.  “Winning last year felt amazing.  The reaction from the crowd at the Skagit Farm to Pint FEST was excellent.  I still get comments from the brewing community a year later,” says Holm.

Three homebrewers will have some heavy medal to show off after the Skagit Farm to Pint homebrew competition awards during Skagit Beer Week at the Skagit Farm to Pint FEST 2020.

Ben Holm, Winner of the 2018 and 2019 F2P Homebrew Competition

2019 Skagit Farm to Pint Home Brew Competition Winners Announced

Update April, 2019: The Skagit Farm to Pint FEST 2019 was a great success!  Ben titled the winning home brew “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner”.  We hope you had a chance to enjoy this winner at the FEST!

Three home brewers will have some heavy medal to show off after the Skagit Farm to Pint home brew competition awards at Skagit Farm to Pint FEST on March 30th.

farm-to-pint-home-brew-competitionThe 2019 identicALE Pale home brew competition sold out with 50 home brewers participating.  All the home brewers picked up the same bundle of ingredients to create a five-gallon, all-grain Pale Ale recipe.  Three different types of grain were donated by Skagit Valley Malting along with three different types of hops donated by North Sound Brewery and yeast donated by Northwest Brewers Supply.

The home brewers had six weeks to create their Pale Ale.  They had to use all the Skagit Valley grains provided, any amount of the hops provided with no other additions and ferment the beer with the yeast provided. Winner of the competition, Ben Holm, said “I wanted to create a well-balanced beer with the available ingredients. I think the Pale Ale category was an excellent showcase for Skagit Valley Malting’s products and that gave me a great starting position to try to keep the hop bitterness and flavors balanced with the subtle malt flavors from Skagit Valley Malting.”

The judging took place at the Cardinal Craft Brewing with 13 judges including experienced judges, instructors, brewers, brewery owners, and industry leaders.  Tony Savoy, Cardinal Craft instructor, formatted the judging which included notes and scales on appearance, aroma, flavor, mouthfeel and style.   The judging took place in two rounds – the first round the four tables of judges pushed forward three of their top beers to the final round.  The final round consisted of all the judges and included an elimination process in where the round director asked each judge which beers they recommend removing.  If there were no objections to the removal, the beer was eliminated until the top three were left.  Ben Holm took first place (for the second time!) with second place going to Darin Hamm and third place to Glen Grisham.

“Winning last year felt amazing.  The reaction from the crowd at the Skagit Farm to Pint FEST was excellent.  I still get comments from the brewing community a year later.  I am still in a little shock to find out I won again.  I know many of the brewers in this year’s lineup and they are amazing brewers with trophies and medals of their own”, said Holm.

Holm’s winning beer is being brewed by Cardinal Craft Brewing and served at the Skagit Farm to Pint FEST on March 30t along with more than 26 other beers from all 13 of the Skagit Valley breweries.  Proceeds from the festival go to the non-profit Viva Farms. “If the crowd has a good reaction to the beer again this year, then I am going to be thrilled. I really enjoy the food pairing with local restaurants.  Ultimately, I thought the festival had it all, great beer, food and live music. I’ll take a double helping of that please”, said Holm.