I was led to my Georgia medal when I saw two Georgia based homebrew clubs repeatedly appear on Florida competition winner boards: Marietta Association of Schoolhouse Homebrewers (M.A.S.H.) and the North Georgia Malt Monkeys. The first club name caught my eye because Florida also has a club that goes by M.A.S.H. in Miami, and the second club grabbed my attention because it’s a great name.
Searching for both clubs, I found they held a joint venture competition in 2023 called the “2nd Annual North Georgia Homebrew Competition”. When I saw it, it was only a couple of weeks until registration opened, and I still had plenty of canned beer to ship out of state.
I entered my Dark Mild, Scottish Heavy, and Black IPA for this competition. My Dark Mild, I am still working to get recognition. I can’t seem to dial it in to hit enough style characters to pull off a good example of the style. The beer comes out ok, but only ok, never good or great. The Dark Mild score reflected my opinion of the beer, and it didn’t medal. But my Scottish Heavy and Black IPA have been consistent medal winners all season, and they did not disappoint in the competition, winning gold medals in their categories.
Once again, to my utter surprise, the day wasn’t over yet. Both the Scottish Heavy and the Black IPA went on to the Best of Show round, and the Black IPA brought home a 3rd place bronze Best of Show Medal!
A week later, I was equally surprised when a sizable package arrived in the mail from Georgia. Not only were it only my medals that were shipped, but it was also a North Georgia Homebrew Competiton branded silicone coasters, four North Georgia Homebrew Competiton flight glasses, and a plaque for my 3rd place best of show with the competition, my name and the name of the beer printed on it. The plaque I was particularly excited about because of that beer’s name- “These Judges Made a Huge Mistake.”
Cheers!
Track the progress of this pursuit here, at the the 50 State Medal Tracker Page.
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