WAHA Awards Announcements 

The Washington Homebrewers Association is proud to announce the winners of the 2008 Awards Program.  They were announced and presented at the 2009 Cascade Exbeerience.

Washington Homebrewer of the Year

Awarded to the homebrewer who scores the most points in sanctioned WAHA competitions

Winner: James Golovich (15.7 points)

First Runner-Up: Mark Emiley (7.81 points)
Second Runner-Up: James Brischke (7.47 points)

Bert Grant Competition Results

Awarded the "best of show of the BOS winners" 

Winner: Mike & Steve Brown
Training Wheel - Cream Ale

2nd Place: James Brischke
"Fairly Common" - California Common 

3rd Place: Mark Emiley
"Baltic Mystery" - Baltic Porter 

Honorable Mention: Dean Priebe
"Siberian Sunshine" - Russian Imperial Stout 

Golden Mash Paddle

Recognizing homebrewers who help progress the Washington Homebrewing scene

Presented to Mark Emiley 

Congratulations to all of the winners.  Best of luck to all homebrewers and clubs in the 2009 awards!

BJCP Exam

Congrats to everyone who took the BJCP exam on February 28th.  We are anxiously looking forward to everyone getting their scores and growing our judging pool in Washington.  Welcome to the BJCP family and we look forward to seeing you soon at upcoming competitions to start building your points!

We are scheduling another exam for November 14th for another round of new judges and a retake opportunity for current judges!  Talk to your club members about organizing a study group.

Legislative Effort

The Washington Homebrewers Association is working to change our homemade beer and wine transportation laws in Washington.  As it is right now, you can't take homebrew outside of your house except for competitions!  We have drafted legislation to allow more communal celebration of the hobby and support the future professional beer and wine makers in Washington.  We are proud to announce that Senator Ken Jacobsen has agreed to sponsor our bill (Senate Bill 5060). 

We need you to get involved and contact your legislators asking them to support Senate Bill 5060.  It is easy and will greatly increase our chances of getting the bill passed.  For more information on how you can help, please check our legislative section at www.wahomebrewers.org/legal  

UPDATE: The amended Senate Bill 5060 passed the Senate again (43-0)!  The bill now goes to the Governor's desk.  Please call (360-902-4111) and/or write the Governor a message asking for her to sign Senate Bill 5060 when it comes to her desk.  Check the Legal Efforts Section to find out how you can help us through the last hurdle!!!

2009 WHOTY Qualifying Competitions

We are putting together the list of the 2009 WHOTY Qualifying Competitions.  Here is the current list:

Cascade Brewers Cup
Puget Sound Pro-Am
Evergreen State Fair
Novembeerfest

Make sure to enter these and all other competitions in Washington!

NHC Attendees Yahoo Group

For people planning to attend the 2009 National Homebrewers Conference in Oakland, California this June, a Yahoo Group of Washington homebrewers has been formed to prepare for the conference.  The WAHA will have a table at the Homebrewer's Night event so we'll be putting together a booth and bar, organizing transporation of beers, and figuring out other details like themes and beer styles.  If you are going to be attending the conference, please go get registered on our Yahoo Group site (WAHAAHAConf2009) at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WAHAAHAConf2009/

2009 Puget Sound Pro-Am

On behalf of BEWBC, the Impaling Alers, and WAHA, we are happy to announce the kick-off of the 2009 Puget Sound Pro-Am!  This is the country's largest GABF Pro-Am qualifying competition with 10+ breweries selecting homebrew recipes to scale up (more breweries still being added!)  Last year the PSPA sent 11 of the country's 58 entries into the GABF Pro-Am and brought home the gold medal!  We are hoping for a repeat!

This is an AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition aimed at providing award winning homebrew recipes to be brewed by Puget Sound breweries with the goal of capturing a medal from the Great American Beer Festival's Pro-Am Competition.  The Puget Sound Pro-Am is unique in that it will have at least a dozen breweries selecting their favorite homebrew beers from the best of show round to scale up and brew on their systems.  Winning beers of AHA members may be sent on to the GABF for a shot at national glory!  Non-AHA members can still enter the competition and win other awards and prizes (the Powerhouse Brewery will not be submitting to the GABF and will be free to pick any entry).  Go to http://www.bewbc.org/pro-am for the complete competition overview.  This is a 2009 Washington Homebrewer of the Year Qualifying Competition so get your entries in!

Washington Homebrewers Association Facebook Site

The Washington Homebrewers Association is launching a Facebook site.  You can become a fan and receive updates on WAHA happenings.  We'll use it to post photos from events as well as meeting information and anything else from our events.  The wahomebrewers.org website will continue to be the central repository, but we will use this as another way to keep in touch with Washington homebrewers.