Mead-Only
competitions – like Meadllennium are few and far between. In a
mead-only competition, your mead will be judged against other similar meads, by
judges that are only judging mead. You won’t have to worry that the judge
evaluating your sweet mead just finished a round of highly-hopped IPAs or sour Lambics.
Many homebrew competitions
award, at the most, three medals – Traditional (24), fruit mead (25), and other
mead (26), and some just award one medal for all meads.
Mead-Only competitions
usually offer six to nine medals, but the smaller ones may have to collapse
categories, due to the lack of entries in that category. In past years, Meadllennium, on the other hand,
has expanded the “Other Fruit Melomel” category (25c), and awarded medals for
Dry, Semi-sweet and Sweet in the sub-category, as well as medals for the rest
of the sub-categories. In 2007 we added a new category for Historical Mead. This
category is for the meadmaker that prefers to use the ancient recipes and
techniques.
Here are some Mead-Only
competitions that we are aware of. If you know of others, let us know at MEAD@cfhb.org, and we will happily include it
here.
MAZER CUP – Unfortunately, the last Mazer Cup was held in
2003. This was a class competition put on by Ken Schramm. It set the benchmark
all other Mead-Only competitions aspire to attain.
Domras Cup – For eight years, the Savannah Brewers League has had
a club-only mead competition. In 2008, theDomras Cup Mead Competition will be an AHA sanctioned competition open to all meadmakers. Ribbons
will be awarded to 1st place winners of each category. A “Best of
Show” round will follow with all category style winners competing against each
other for additional prizes and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd BOS ribbons. They are just asking
for $5 per entry, and only two bottles are required. Check out their website
at: http://hbd.org/sbl/index_files/DomrasMead08.htm
May Mead Madness – Hosted each May by Alcohol Through Fermentation (ATF),
in
Goblets of Gold – This is a new Mead-Only competition. It is in
Homer, AK and is being hosted by the Q & Q Brewers Guild and the Ring of
Fire Meadery. Competition date is 11 May 2007, and it is a BJCP/AHA sanctioned
event. Entries are only $5.00 and must be received by 10 May 2007 at the Ring
of Fire Meadery (
Email brewkahuna@hotmail.com or Laurence
Livingston at ringoffiremeadery@alaska.net
for more information.
http://www.valhalla-mead.com/index.cfm
AZ Mead Cup – Held annually, since 2003, in Buckeye, AZ. The date for the
2007 Arizona Mead Cup is Saturday, July 28th.
Even though they have not
registered this event with the BJCP/AHA, they are an AHA club. Many BJCP judges
help and they strictly follow the BJCP/AHA Guidelines during the competition. http://www.brewarizona.org/
IMF Home Mead Maker Competition - an
event hosted by the International Mead Association, held in conjunction with The International Mead Festival. 2006
was the first year they had a competition for amateurs, and it was the largest
Mead-Only contest of the year. The 2007 contest was even bigger. They are a BJCP/AHA sanctioned event, held on the
week-end closest to Valentine’s Day. Their website is:
http://www.hmmc.meadfest.com/
AHA
Club-Only Competitions – Periodically, about
every other year, the AHA has a Club-Only Competition for mead. This is for
members of clubs that are registered with the AHA. This is the way it works:
Each club has a competition to pick the best mead their members have to offer,
and that single mead is sent to the judging site to compete with the winners
from all the other clubs. They then award a first, second and third place medal
to the three best meads.
The next AHA Club-Only
competition for mead is August 2008. It is hosted by the Minnesota Home Brewers
Association of Edina, MN.
For more information,
contact Al Boyce at: allan.boyce@usbank.com.
Or check the AHA website: http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/schedule.html