Snowdown Homebrew Competition returns

Several of you have asked whether the Snowdown Homebrew Competition will be returning later this winter. It is. Here's the release from Ska:

Ska Brewing is proud to announce the return of the Snowdown Homebrew Competition for 2009. The event will take place on January 30th at the Ska Brewing World Headquarters in Durango, during Snowdown —Durango’s annual winter festival.

The event is also a preliminary for the 2010 Great American Beer Festival Pro-Am category, and will be an AHA/BJCP certified competition. Entry opens December 15th, and closes on January 15th. Beer entries must be in Ska’s possession no later than January 18th. The Snowdown Homebrew Competition’s website is here.

The winning recipe will be brewed in a Ska Local Series batch, to be sold at the brewery and in liquor stores around Southwest Colorado. The homebrewer who submits the winning beer will also help oversee large-scale production of the brew at Ska’s state-of-the-art brewing facility in Durango. In addition, the professionally-brewed version of the recipe will be entered into the Pro-Am category at the 2010 GABF in Denver. GABF is the nation’s largest beer festival and competition.

2008 marked the inaugural Snowdown Homebrew Competition, and according to Ska co-founder and President Dave Thibodeau, its success ensured that it would become an annual event. “Last year Chris Vest of the Mesa Verde Mashers won this competition with Merlo Stout, which went on to become a very popular release in our Local Series (#12).” Thibodeau also notes that this is not Ska’a only collaboration with homebrewers. “We started out as homebrewers, and we strive to keep that spirit alive, even in a professional craft-brewing operation. Between this event and our recently announced beer-blogger collaboration, we hope to support the homebrewing community and stay close to our roots.”