The Powerhouse Pro-Am Porter Challenge:  Robust Porter 

Sponsored by:  The Powerhouse Restaurant and Brewery, WAHA & Click Distributing

The Powerhouse Restaurant & Brewery, Click Distributing & WAHA announce the "Pro-Am Face-Off", a competition that matches up homebrewed "amateur" beers against commercial examples of Robust Porter.  This will be a fun, educational event that meshes the homebrewing, or "Amateur Brewer" community with the commercial brewing community.  The main event will be held on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 at 4:00 pm at The Powerhouse, 454 East Main, Puyallup.

You can pre-register here and receive a discount for yourself and those you wish to pre-register.

Prior to the event, 5 finalist amateur beers would be selected from the participating clubs.  All participating clubs would solicit entries and hold their own judging to select (1) entry to forward to the semifinal judging.  Membership with a club is not a requirement; however, the clubs will organize the selection.  The selection criteria will be left to each individual club.  Each club will submit their entry to Larry's Brewing Supply for a semifinal judging on or before Thursday November 20th.  The judging panel will be made up of (1) representative from each of the participating clubs so plan to have a club rep attend.  The equivalent of (2) 10-12 ounce plain brown bottles will be provided for the semifinal judging.  Typical bottle labels will be used to identify the entries.  The selection criteria to identify the 5 to 8 beers to be forwarded to The Pro-Am Face Off will be based on the 2008 BJCP Guidelines.  A "Best of Show" round evaluation will be used to select the top 5-8 beers to advance.

On November 23rd, up to 25 participants including the finalist amateur brewers will meet at The Powerhouse for the final judging.  All 25 participants will be able to judge the beers.  Each amateur brewer will bring 1 gallon of their beer for the final judging at the event either in bottles or growlers.  A blind evaluation of each of the amateur beers, each of commercial examples provided by Click Distributing, and 1 beer from The Powerhouse will ensue.  Each sample will be judged and scored by each judge.  At the end of the judging, the combined total score for each beer will be tallied and the one with the highest score will be declared the winner.  Judging will be based on drinkability and representation of the style.

If a commercial beer or The Powerhouse beer is declared the winner, no grand prize will be awarded, however, a raffle will be held to give away a random bottle of one of the 4 commercial beers to everyone in attendance.  If an amateur beer is declared the winner, a grand prize will be given to the brewer and a similar raffle will be held.

The Powerhouse will host the tasting in their upper room and will provide finger food type appetizers for all.  The maximum number of people for the event is 25 due to the size of the venue.  The fee will be $20 per person for those who register by Nov 20th, and $27 for those who register afterwards (registration information coming shortly) and covers entry, tastes, appetizers & gratuity for the wait staff.  It is recommended that each participating club sponsor their member by paying the fee for them.  By charging a nominal entry fee for the club round of judging, say $3, this amount can easily be collected.