Everything you need to know about entering the 2019 Beer, Pie and Infusion Challenge

There's a distinctly Wild West flavour to this year's Beer, Pie and Infusion Challenge, so don your chaps, saddle up your Cayuse and tip yer ten gallon hat at a jaunty angle, cuz there's silverware in thum thar hills, yessir.

When and where

The final will be held at 1pm on Saturday 14 December at THE SWAN, Chertsey. This is confirmed. Write it in blood somewhere so you don't forget it. The judging will all be done and dusted by 630pm, so plenty of time to head off to Christmas parties, work-dos and the like, should the need be.

Prize categories

There are two competitions for the beer. One for craft and one for creativity.

GRAND PRIX BEER 2019 (Craft)

All entries in this category must be the Competition Recipe: Midnight Cowboy. With everyone brewing roughly the same thing, it creates a level playing field and ensures this is a challenge based on brewing skill rather than who has the most toys and/or can throw together the fanciest recipe. Myles.

FREESTYLE BEER 2019 (Creativity)

Entries in this category can be whatever you damn well please. It's your chance to express yourself creatively through any form of grain-based, undistilled alcoholic beverage. Go at it, you loco muchacho. Fill your boots.

BEST LABEL 2019

This may be of any format or size, so long as it fits on the bottle. The name of the beer must be clearly legible. Competitors must declare (honestly) who created the artwork for their label and must describe the creative journey that led them to it. Additional merit for flair in presentation. This category also incorporates Best Name, which as of 2018 is no longer a category in its own right.

GRAND PRIX BEST PIE 2019

This will be the seventh year the piemakers join the brewers at the bleeding edge of the human imagination. The pie may be of the style, size and recipe of your choosing. A pie is defined as any foodstuff elevated to greatness by being enclosed in pastry. This must include the base, but not necessarily a lid. A pastry lid on its own is basically stew and a dodge for those who fear the soggy bottom. Don't do it. The categories are:

- BEST SAVOURY PIE
- BEST SWEET PIE

An overall winner is awarded the Grand Prix.

BEST INFUSION 2019

This is the fifth year for the exciting, multi-coloured, expansively flavoured category we have previously called Oddka until getting called for copyright infringement. It's any spirit plus any flavour you see fit to marry together in a single bottle. The categories are:

- SWEET INFUSION
- SAVOURY INFUSION

An overall winner is awarded the Grand Prix.

PLEASE ENSURE NO NUTS. One of our infusion judges is allergic and killing a judge is definitely going to get you marked down.

SUBMITTING YOUR BEERS, PIES AND INFUSIONS

All competitors must submit the following on competition day:

Beers

- Two unmarked bottles of your competition beer for the blind taste test.
- One bottle of your competition beer bearing your beer's label and name.

Pies

- One unmarked pie for the blind taste test, bearing a card with a brief description of the ingredients. 


Infusions

- One unmarked (small) bottle of infusion for the blind taste test. Please write somewhere on the bottle what the spirit and flavour combination is, i.e. vodka and Werther's Originals. Operation Yew Tree has been notified.


JUDGING

Best Recipe Beer 2019 will be judged by Hugo Anderson, a professional brewer who is also an all-round smashing bloke and sainted individual. Despite having, in previous years, been catastrophically hung over, Hugo never fails to be a model of professionalism in the face of some fairly 'challenging' ales, many of which I have personally brewed. Each beer will be 'blind tasted' according to a randomised list (so no possibility of favouritism) and will be scored on points given for Taste, Head and Clarity. In the event of a tiebreak, the judge will have the casting vote. Hugo may be joined by a second, yet-to-be-revealed judge this year. Which is exciting.

Best Label will be voted for by the brewers and their supporters on a one-person-one-vote basis, not the one pound for one vote free for all we had last year. Mind you, that free for all made £150 for Sam Beare so we might do it that way again.

Best Pie will be judged by Rob Betteridge, a pie man of the highest order, ably abetted by Assistant Judge Phil 'The Assassin' Bachelor if he isn't off putting a cap in the ass of some Middle Eastern dictator. This is a blind tasting, although if Rob and Phil like it, don't expect too much to be left over. The pies are typically judged on Flavour, Appearance and Soggy Bottom. In the event of a tiebreak, the chief judge will have the casting vote.

Best Infusion will be judged by a recklessly heroic pairing, probably consisting of one or more of Colin Carter, Rachel Harris and Denise Cassar, all of whom have the (required) constitution of a concrete elephant. Each infusion will be 'blind tasted' according to a randomised list (so, again, no possibility of favouritism) and will be scored on Taste and Appearance. In the event of a tiebreak, the judges will have the casting vote.