Brewing with the convenience of a good brew shop is something we have all been very fortunate to experience in the KC region. But what if that was not the case? What could you brew if all you had around you were local grocery stores?

Welcome to the 816Pack Grocery Store Brewing Challenge. The point of this exercise is to take your knowledge of brewing, and work to expand that into finding creative ways to create fermented beverages that we can enjoy.  

Participants will need to sign up at the January 816Pack homebrewing club meeting, and bring their entries to the March meeting for the judging session.

You can brew and judge or just do one if you like. All entries are welcome, all are single category (grocery store brew) and judging will be a “best of show” style based on simplified BJCP brewing standards.

Are you up to the challenge?

What are we doing?

Your goal is to make a home brew fermentation in which all of the ingredients are acquired only from physical brick and mortar grocery stores that you physically visit to get such items. This includes all fermentables (sugars, fruits, juices, grains, etc) yeasts (wild, baking, captured), or any other needed ingredients to go in your wort/must (nutrients, clarifiers, bittering agents, etc).

How to I participate?

To signup to provide a fermented entry you will need to attend the January 816Pack homebrewing club meeting on 1/18/23. Once you have entered at the meeting additional details will be provided around how to provide your brews specifics for judging.

To judge the entries, simply show up to the March club meeting, and ask to judge. No prior entry into the brewing portion of the competition is required. Judging may be limited, based on the number of entries.

What are the boundaries?

Any category of alcoholic fermentation is available to you. Cider, mead, tepache, for example can all be made from the grocery store. Anything you use must come from a physical grocery store, you physically traveled to and purchased ingredients. No “commercial homebrewing” stores are eligible for this contest. Big box and specialty store, not specific to homebrewing are fair game.