Hopster’s Hosting Homebrew Competion

Hopster’s and The Urban Grape are collaborating on a seasonal homebrew competition.

In honor of Boston Beer Week, Hopster’s Brew & Boards and The Urban Grape are teaming up to find the next great brewer master in Boston. Massachusetts home brewers are invited to drop off their best home brew examples to either Urban Grape location (Chestnut Hill or the South End) between April 1 – 18 to be considered for the grand prize: a featured tap line at Hopster’s and a 30-gallon bottling to be sold exclusively at The Urban Grape.

Among the five judges in the competition will be Hopster’s owner Lee Cooper and The Urban Grape’s beer manager and Cicerone Certified Beer Server, Ben Bouton.

“There’s so many good brewers around Boston,” says Bouton. “We have a lot of clients at our stores that brew themselves. I wanted to figure out how we could do something like this despite the fact that we don’t have the brewing capability at our stores—at least not yet. That’s how we teamed up Hopster’s, who is just down the road from us in Newton. They’re a new business that’s locally focused and craft beer focused. We thought it would be a perfect way to work together and to put on an awesome event for the community.”

Interested brewers are invited to submit up to four ales (no lagers, ciders, or meads). All examples must be commercially viable, so no extended aging, lagering, our souring processes. The five finalists will be announced on April 22 and Hopster’s will honor the winner on May 2 at the first annual Homebrewing Finals.

“We want this to become a recurring seasonal series,” says Bouton. “That we can see several styles of beer and it’ll give people multiple opportunities to have their beer exposed to a larger audience. I think a lot of home-brewers are excited about the idea of having their beer in someone else’s home.”