Boy, you’d think I’d have been on top of this one but frankly, it hasn’t been well advertised anywhere that I’ve seen: this year’s Bend Fall Festival includes a homebrew competition by Deschutes Brewery—with a twist: it’s a competition for fresh hop (or “harvest”) beers only! This is the first year I’ve seen this type of event, and I’m bummed that I didn’t brew a fresh hop beer this year because the details look great:

Contestants must sign up in person Friday evening at the Main Bar on Oregon Avenue. First 15 to sign up win a spot!

• Competition will take place Sunday, Oct. 7 at 11am on The Peak 104.1 Mainstage presented by AT&T on Oregon Avenue
• First 15 homebrewers to sign up at the main bar on Oregon Avenue on Friday night will have the opportunity to enter LIVE TASTING judged by four esteemed Bend brewers (Bar opens at 5pm.)
• The next 30 homebrewers to sign up will be chosen to enter the Deschutes Brewery Sensory
• Accepting Harvest or Fresh-Hop brews only
• Grand Prize: “Brew Day” with Deschutes Brewery Brewer Robin Johnson!

This is a fantastic opportunity for some lucky homebrewer to not only get their beer judged by a professional panel (which gives great feedback to the brewing process) but the prize of a “brew day” at Deschutes would be hard to beat. Plus this will just be a lot of fun!

Note the “harvest” beers there along with fresh hop; I’m not exactly sure what they mean by that, unless that’s simply what they’re designating for the fresh hop beers. (For a quick explanation of what a fresh hop beer is, see my previous post.) For more information you can contact melissa@c3events.com directly to get the details.