A new
brewfest is appearing in Montana, and Great Falls is the host city. Presented
by and in conjunction with the Harvest Montana Grain Conference*, the
Montana-only Harvest
Montana Brewfest will take place on Friday November 21, 2014 at the
Best Western Plus Heritage Inn from 6:00 to 11:00 p.m. Only 400 tickets are available
for this premiere event. Each ticket is $50 and includes unlimited tastings.
Organizing
the brewfest is Evan Bowser, owner of Bowser Brewing Co. The Harvest Montana
Brewfest, however, will be quite different than a “typical” Montana brewfest.
“We’re
flying in certified beer judges from all around the country to judge Montana’s
beers,” says Evan Bowser. “This will eliminate any unintentional biases toward
host city breweries, and the beers will be judged based solely on their merits.
We’ll award gold, silver, and bronze.”
“I’m also
requiring that any Montana brewery that wants their beer judged must send an
owner or brewer so the attendees will get to engage with the brewery and their
beer more personally,” says Bowser. “This will add value to the ticket price. We’ll
be advertising the event in national magazines and up into Canada.”
Bowser has
sent out invitations to all Montana’s breweries, and so far he’s received over
a dozen positive responses, including from a few breweries that don’t typically
pour at in-state brewfests.
“The
breweries have told me they appreciate the fact that we’ll have BJCP judges on
hand,” says Bowser.
“There will
also be many elected state officials at the conference, and we’ve invited all
of them to attend the brewfest afterwards,” says Bowser. “This will give them a
chance to meet the brewers and craft beer fans, and vice versa, before we enter
into another legislative session next year.”
The list of judges brought in for the event (as listed on the event page):
Bill
Downs lives in Durango, Colorado. He is a BJCP Certified Beer Judge,
home brewer and a Beer Journalist for the Rocky Mountain Brewing News. He also
blogs [www. homebrewingnews .com] and is the author of 12 Things I Wish I Had
Known When I Started Homebrewing.
Steve Luke is the Lead
Brewer for Elysian Brewing in Seattle, Washington. He runs the experimental
brewhouse at the Elysian Fields location. Previously, he was the Head Brewer
for Rogue's Issaquah Brewhouse, the Cambridge House Brewpub in Connecticut, and
a brewer for Allagash Brewing in Portland, Maine. He has judged at the Great
American Beer Festival since 2011.
Janet Hinkel has judged
the National IPA Championship, the National Imperial IPA Championship, and the
Global Warming Open since the inception of each beer competition. Janet is the
former and original writer for the Beer Beacon, a snarky and honest tasting
column in the Great Lakes Brewing News. While she no longer proselytizes in
print, she will tell you how it is whether you want her to or not. Some of
Janet’s fans call her the Original Beer Bitch, but it’s not true. She’s the
Buffalo Beer Bitch, the East Coast counterpart to the West Coast legend. Janet
now lives in Springfield, Oregon, where she refuses to denounce her East Coast
beer roots.
Charlie
Gottenkieny has been brewing since 1988 and is the only two-time winner
of the AHA's Homebrewer of the Year award. He has been part of the Beer Judge
Certification Program since 1994 and is a National-level beer judge. He is
co-founder of Better Beer Scores, LLC, a webinar-based company that specializes
in preparing beer judges for the BJCP exam. Charlie is opening an artisanal
brewery in Denver, Colorado, in 2015.
Ron Carlson
is a commercial beer judge living in Brooklyn, New York. He represents
Pennsylvania's Voodoo Brewery, and has judged the National IPA Challenge and
the Global Warming Open international competition since their inception.
Jamie Magee lives in
Natick, Massachusetts. His beer journey began in Düsseldorf in 1984. He passionately
discovered the newly minted microbrew scene at home, first in Colorado, where
he was a journalism student; then in New England, where he worked in the
publishing industry. He is a co owner of several Brewing News papers as well as
American Brewer. Jamie's beer judging resume includes the the National IPA
Championship, the Great International Beer Festival and the Alpha King
Challenge.
Jen Schwertmann has been professionally
involved in the Craft Beer world for over 20 years, having spent time behind
notable beer bars in Denver, Colorado and New York City, before recently
settling in Santa Barbara. She has started Jen Schwertman Consulting LLC, in
order to help train bars and restaurants in the successful promotion of craft
beer. The runner-up for Beer Drinker of the Year, in 2013, Jen is currently
working on her BJCP certification.
Bill Metzger
is the publisher of the Brewing News papers and owner of the Old First Ward
Brewing Company, in Buffalo, New York. He is the founder of the National IPA
Challenge and the Global Warming Open competitions. He also coordinates the
judging for the Alpha King Challenge. Bill has judged in all of these, as well
as over 100 home brew competitions.
*The Inaugural
Harvest
Montana Grain Conference is co-presented by Montana Farmers Union and
the Lake County Community Development Corporation. It will “bring folks
together from sectors of the grain industry to expand the grain, pulse, and
oilseed economy through collaboration and business development, leading to
additional profit retention and job creation in communities across the state.”
Full disclosure: as a member of the "media," this author has been offered a free media ticket to attend the brewfest if he can/wishes.
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