I started my brewing career as a homebrewer. I fell in love with the creative art, and eventually the science, of brewing by experimenting with grains and hops and many other things 5 gallons at a time in the comfortable confines of my home. Brew days to me were exciting days of no boundaries freedom. I could put whatever I wanted in a pot and cook it all up. The worst thing that would happen is- I would make beer.
Now that I am brewing professionally, I don't have as much time as I used to, so my homebrew set up has grown quite dusty. And I have been wanting to make the Texas homebrewing community as big a part of my professional brewing career as possible. Homebrewing is where brewing began, afterall. I love the homebrewing community, and the camaraderie and creativity that it entails.
So, we came up with the Ranger Creek Sippy Cup. This is a Pro-Am homebrew competition, meaning the winningest beer will be brewed by us and entered into the Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am Competition, and released as the Ranger Creek fall seasonal offering that will be available at finer beer bars in central Texas this coming fall. Each category will have a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner, and the 1st place winners will go on to compete in a Best of Show round. The winner of this round will be deemed winningest beer and the victor of the Pro-Am competition. We are allowing entries in four BJCP categories. Our Ranger Creek twist, however, is that we want our fall seasonal to be a big beer- so we set a minimum of 7% abv limit on entries. We state it as "imperial versions," meaning bigger than normal. For the styles listed that are already imperial styles (imperial stout, imperial IPA, and Baltic porter), clearly the imperial part there is already taken care of. It does not mean an imperial imperial stout. Get it? It shouldn't be hard to figure out. We want a good, solid, creative beer. It doesn't have to be outlandish, and I would expect that a beer with panache and balance will win, so don't think the craziest beer will take the Cup. We are accepting beers in the following BCJP categories: (BOLD categories already allow for 7% abv or more, so for those categories, 7% is the lowest you can go, you don't have to make a 15% Russian Imperial. Get it? Good.)
Category 10- American AleIncludes 10A. American Pale Ale, 10B, American Amber Ale, 10C. American Brown Ale
Category 12- Porter
Includes 12A. Brown Porter, 12B. Robust Porter, 12C. Baltic Porter
Category 13- Stout
Includes 13A. Dry Stout, 13B. Sweet Stout, 13C. Oatmeal Stout, 13D. Foreign Extra Stout, 13E. American Stout, 13F. Russian Imperial Stout
Category 14- India Pale Ale
Includes 14A. English IPA, 14B. American IPA, 14C. Imperial IPA
I am very exited to be putting this competition on, and very excited to see all of the awesome beers that will be entered. I am looking forward to tasting that winning homebrew that I will be brewing (with the homebrewer who brewed it) and releasing as the Ranger Creek fall seasonal later this year! So get out there and start (home)brewing your best!
Remember: only ONE entry per person. This means ONE entry, not one per category. ONE. I want to taste the best Texas homebrewers have to offer, and we are very much looking forward to taking it with us to GABF later this year!
Cheers to all, and good luck!
- Rob Landerman
Head Brewer
Ranger Creek Brewing and Distilling
