Liffey Brewers Mini Homebrew Competition

The first Liffey Brewers Homebrew Competition kicked off on Thursday June 27th at 7pm. Yes lads, that was 7pm, not 7:30 as many chose to believe.

So while we were waiting, we sat around and chatted and had some pints. Sure what else are you to do in an excellent pub like The Lucan County? Especially when the prices are so extraordinarily reasonable.

Brian and Kevin looked like they were having a great chat while we were setting up the beers on the judging table, well that or Brian was having a great chat and Kevin was just nodding. Come to think of it, that’s probably what happened. Just kidding Brian.

The way the competition worked was simple. Every beer you entered costs €2. That went in to a winner takes all pot.

Finally we were ready and myself (Saruman) and Shane (Tube or some variation) got stuck in with it. When I saw how many beers there were, and remembered I hadn’t eaten and the Lucan County doesn’t serve food, I was a little worried.

All was saved when Padraic showed up to relieve Shane and he brought my dinner of 39c crackers for palate cleansing. The only time I got a break from judging was when my own beer came up and Padraic and Shane took care of that one.

It was an informal affair, no effort was made to hide whose beers we were drinking. We used the BJCP score sheets from the NHC competition. Most of the beers were outstanding of course, though there was one or two infected beers. There was a trend in the judging though. Every time one of Dodge’s beers came up, it was scoring incredibly high. It should be noted that we were judging consistently with only a point or two in the difference.

In the end, the expected result was nearly a clean slate for Dodge. He got first and second place as well as joint fourth and by joint I mean that he was joint 4th with himself! Third place went to the bottle conditioned version of my stout, the one that won second place at the NHC competition.

But there were no prizes for second or third place. It was winner takes all and Dodge took the €30 in the pot for his astounding Oud Bruin. This was good luck since he was paying for a hotel that night.

Of course since Dodge entered either 4 or 5 beers, he probably only really came away with €20. That said, the bragging rights might make up for that.


I expect we will be holding another one soon, probably in Autumn as many of us can’t brew in the summer due to no temperature control, especially in this heat. I also expect a little inter club friendly competitions to whet our appetites for the real NHC competition.
By Reuben Gray

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close