The December DOTA was our first Brew Off competition for Marty's Acre. It wasn't a sanctioned event, but regardless there was some pretty good competition going into the event.  At the October DOTA we brainstormed ingredients to use and it was decided that these would be fitting for a winter beer in some way or another: orange, cranberry and pecans. 

The plan was to have a blind taste tasting and the attendees would vote for their favorite of the evening. Voting would be the same as our Myography contests. Put a pebble in a clay pot, the pot with the most pebbles wins. Pretty simple, no hanging chads!

Unfortunately, I had to be out of town for a meeting and missed the event.  I look forward to DOTA every month as lots of friendships have been made here. From what I understand, the samples were placed on the table and the brewers had an opportunity to talk about their brew. This was a good way to do the competition.  

Overall there were 7 entries. There were a couple of porters, pale ales, a brown ale and a sour or two. Randy Sommerfeldt and I collaborated on a porter with the 3 ingredients. The collaboration entailed Randy doing the brewing in the greenhouse on Saturday, November 14th, and I acted as his assistant. Brewing friends Justin Underhill and Frank Waugh were on hand to 'give advice', and 'hang out' in the greenhouse on the breezy day.  

The winning entry was...

Well I honestly can't get a straight answer from anyone that attended.  Randy calls the 'gotta be there till the end' rule and calls our porter the winner.  Others say their pot had more pebbles in it, but I didn't see the final count.  A couple of people mentioned that entry #4 was the winner. I'm not sure who's that was. One thing I do know is that all brewers had a good time with the competition. Next year we'll for sure do an official count and make sure the winner gets their bragging rights.

As things slow down a bit during January & February, we've reserved a couple of Saturdays, January 23 and February 20, to open up the greenhouse to home brewers that would like a warm (hopefully sunny) place to brew.  We will make room at in the greenhouse at the 2707 W. 13th store for brewing purposes. Let us know if you plan to attend so we will have enough space cleared out. We will be offering 20% off in the brewing department those days. Some exclusions will apply.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas holiday, and we'll catch you just after New Year for the Storewide Sale and 20% off all brewing merchandise!