lootcorp – a brewing blog

I was cruising the aisles of the ol’ neighborhood purveyor of fine spirits when I came across the Sam Adams 2008 LongShot sixer. If any of you are unfamiliar with the LongShot Contest, it is Sam Adam’s annual homebrew competition. The main prize, of course, is that some beer blogger cruising his local liquor store is going to be able to buy your beer and write about it – that’s right, national distribution by the Boston Beer Co.

Each year, three winners are selected – two homebrewers, and one Sam Adams employee brewing on their own. The top four non-employee finalists in the competition get a “most expenses paid” trip to the GABF for them and a guest, and the two Grand Champions are announced at the festival. The Grand Champions get a $5,000 one-time royalty for their recipe, which is then mass-produced and sold in the LongShot six-pack (which contains two of each of the three winning recipes).

I’ve been planning to enter this competition since 2006, and guess what – I missed the deadline again! The cutoff for 2009 entries was yesterday, and that doesn’t give me much time to get a beer brewed up, bottled, and shipped out. That means it will be at least two years before you see my mug plastered on a Sam Adams label. However, it doesn’t mean I can’t enter some other competitions, which has been a homebrewing goal of mine since I started the craft.

Are any of you guys big competition brewers? I hear the first step is to actually brew a beer, so I’m going to get working on that. I’ll let you know if I wind up entering any comps this year. And if any of you sent some bottles to LongShot, good luck to you! Shoot me a comment and let me know you’re in the mix.