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Competition Info

Updated November 20, 2024

Changes for 2025

The Bluebonnet Brew-Off brings in Term Limits.

With entrants rushing to enter the moment that registration opens, we felt we must do something to throttle the inrush of entries so everyone gets a chance to enter. The Term will be 24 hours. We assume there will be a rush at the start of registration and again when the limited registration period expires.

We will be upgrading our cloud server to support the now expected rush for entry registration.

Here are the new rules/limits:

Overall rules:

  • Login id creation starts a week in advance
  • Entry registration starts at 3pm on Saturday January 4th, 2025
  • There will be a maximum of 36 entries per medal category
  • An entrant can enter a maximum of 1 entry per sub-category (this is business as usual)
  • All rules are subject to change

First 24 hours of registration:

  • Entrant can enter a maximum of 2 entries per Medal Category
  • Entrant can enter a maximum of 10 entries for the entire competition

After first 24 hours:

  • No limit on entrant entries in a medal category
  • Entrant can enter a maximum of 20 entries for the entire competition

If you have any questions about any of the Bluebonnet Brew-off rules, do not make assumptions, please contact either the director or the head judge for clarification. If you have the question, others will have it too.

All Medal Categories (called “tables” in BCOEM) will be limited to a maximum of 36 entries. To keep entrants from blocking other entrants trying to enter the full Medal Categories, we will automatically delete “unpaid” entries after 1 hour. Entrants can still edit their entries after they are paid. We are working to keep the competition fair for everyone.

This contest is open to all homebrewers throughout the Universe. The competition is restricted to non-commercial home-brewed beer. Beers produced on the premises of commercial brewers, including Full Service brew-on-premises establishments, are not eligible.

DEADLINES AND FEES
Online Entry: Refer to the Calendar
Entry Receipt: All entries must be received at an authorized drop off location or the ship to location no later than close of business for the location. Late entries will not be accepted

After login of entries, the BCOEM system will be updated with the status of received entries. An email will be sent to entrants requesting them to check and make sure their entries were received.
Commemorative electronic scoresheet fee: $15.00 per entry; scoresheets will be made available online only and paper copies will not be distributed.

Authorized Shipping and Drop Off Locations
Our Shipping Location:

Drop off location: 

  • Brewhound Homebrewing Supplies
    January 14 through January 25. Closed Sundays and Mondays.
    8808 Camp Bowie West #160 Fort Worth, TX 76116 (link)
  • North Texas Homebrew Supply
    January 13 through January 25. Closed Sundays.
    17811 Davenport Rd., Suite #11 Dallas, TX 75252 (link)
  • Kettle to Keg
    January 13 through January 25. Closed Sundays.
    1620 Texoma Parkway Sherman, TX 75090 (link)
  • Peace Lutheran Church
    February 1, 9am-10:30am
    941 W Bedford Euless Rd, Hurst, TX 76053 (link)
  • The Bluebonnet Brew-off encourages clubs and groups to create local drop off locations in their area and transport entries to Peace Lutheran Church in the 2/1, 9am-10:30am window.

NOTE: New for 2024, The Bluebonnet Brew-Off is providing case boxes to the drop off locations. Place your entries in the provided case boxes. This will help us at Bluebonnet login to not unbox entries. It also provides a save way to transport entries from the drop off locations to login. Make sure your Entry Form is in the case box that has your entry.  All entries must be boxed and sealed prior to dropping of at these businesses. DO NOT LEAVE OPEN BOXES OR SIX PACK CARRIERS. Think about the handling your entry will have. Package your precious entries in something that can moved without damage. There will be close to 1,400 entries (times 3 bottles) going to Entry Login. Don’t be that person that has their entry broken due to poor packaging.

ENTRANT ACCOUNT CHANGES
Entrants are responsible for all information entered in their BCOEM account when they register, especially their club and co-brewers. In no case will the Bluebonnet Brew-off change the club and/or co-brewer for an entrant after the winners are announced.

BLUEBONNET MEDAL CATEGORIES
For 2025 the Bluebonnet Brew-off will use the 2021 BJCP Guidelines with no changes or additional rules. This might change in the future. Be sure to read these rules every year to see changes.

Bluebonnet Brew-off will be judging all BJCP beer, mead, and cider styles using the 2021 BJCP style guidelines. The Bluebonnet Brew-off rearranges the BJCP styles into Bluebonnet medal categories. This allows us to award medals in more than the standard 40 BJCP categories. The Bluebonnet reserves the right to re-group, split or condense medal categories based on final sub-category entrants.

Click here for Bluebonnet Medal Categories

Pro-Brewer Welcome
Pro-Brewer are welcome in our competition. The same rules apply as non-pro-brewers in that the entries cannot be brewed in the brewery and must be brewed on normal homebrewer equipment. No pro-brewer facilities can be used in making the entries.

BREWER LIMITS RULES
Entries for the competition can be made either as an Individual and/or as a Team. There is a 20 entry limit per individual or teams. Teams must use the same primary entrant name (account) for all team entries. Don’t make us try to figure out the entries for a team.

Further, Entrants will be limited to 1 (One) entry per Sub-Category (or entire Category if there are no sub-categories) except for the mead and cider sub-categories that allow 2 entries. An entrant may enter a category both as an Individual and as a Team however you cannot have an entry as an Individual and a Team in the same sub-category; you can only have your name listed once in a sub-category.

The Bluebonnet Brew-Off will have no overall entry limit.  Each medal category is restricted to a maximum of 36 entries.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Each entry for the competition requires three bottles. To ensure anonymity of the entrants, we require that bottles be standard 12 ounce or 333 ml green or brown bottles with all paper or ink labels removed. Smaller bottles (187 ml) are allowed for Mead only. Standard homebrew caps accepted (gold, silver, solid color, stars or stripes). BOTTLES MUST FIT IN A STANDARD BEER CASEBOX DIVIDER (2 5/8” x 2 5/8” square). Any lettering or graphics on the caps should be completely obscured with black ink. Traditional “long-neck” style bottles are encouraged, while bottles with Grolsch-type swing tops and unusually shaped bottles are not allowed. Canned entries are likewise not allowed. Corked bottles meeting the above restrictions are acceptable; however, you must crimp a crown cap over the cork. Bottles not meeting these requirements may be disqualified. Brown bottles are encouraged for maximum protection from light. All bottles must be clean with a properly completed entry label attached (generated via our BCOEM system) by a rubber band. DO NOT TAPE OR GLUE ON BOTTLE LABELS as this will result in immediate disqualification without a refund!

Our on-line entry system will ask you to enter your beers based on the 2021 BJCP Style Guidelines. After receiving all the entries, the BJCP styles will be grouped into Tables (Bluebonnet Medal Categories) for judging and awards. Category selection on the entry system is a drop down box that will include only the BJCP Category/ Sub-Category. For example, a Kolsch is Category 5B under BJCP Guidelines, but will be separated out as Bluebonnet Medal Category 55-Kolsch and Blonde for this competition. The cross reference of BJCP Styles to Bluebonnet Tables is located on the Categories page. Note, the Bluebonnet Table numbers start with 51 to avoid confusion with the BJCP Category numbers.

It is the responsibility of the entrant to select to best BJCP style for their entry. Taste your entry and read the BJCP guidelines and decide the best style to judge your entry against. Remember, enter in the best style that for how your entry tastes, not what you brewed it as.  The Bluebonnet Brew-off staff will not decide the entry style for an entry. Your homebrew community, homebrew stores, clubs are always willing to help you determine the best style for your entries.

We are printing Entry Forms with the bottle labels. The Entry Forms are needed at login so please include your Entry form with your entry.

TEAM REGISTRATION

If you want your team name read for winning an award follow these instructions: Teams must list the team head as the Brewer. If you want a team name, put the team name as the first part of the Co-Brewer field, then list all the co-brewers for the entry.

Do not put two names in the Entrant First Name field. The entrant name must be a single person. If you put in multiple names the data guy will try to find and correct. Putting multiple names in the entrant name fields might cause a miscalculation that removes you from some of the awards.

All entries for a team must use the same Brewer and Co-Brewer fields. It must be identical for all entries in the team. This is required when sorting Brewer/Co-Brewer/Team names to determine Team of the year. Failure to make Brewer/Co-Brewer/Team names identical may cause your team to appear as separate teams. Failure to list co-brewers for a team will remove the possibility for an entry to go to the Best of Show judging.

CLUB DESIGNATION

All entries for a club must use the exact same value for club to be considered the same club. The Data Team will try to locate entry errors related to things like club but data entry errors ultimately belong to the  entrant.

PACKING INSTRUCTIONS

If you must ship your entries, we recommend that you allow 2” of packing materials between the borders of the box you use to ship your beer and any beer you enclose with in. Fill with packing material. Wrapping each bottle in bubble wrap may also be helpful. Enclose all entries in a plastic garbage bag, and then seal the bag. Do not use US Mail – it is ILLEGAL!!. UPS will accept your package, but not if it is labeled “beer”. You may want to label it “Yeast Samples” or “Kitchen Supplies” or simply “Fragile”.

In addition to your properly labeled bottles, make sure to include the entry sheet that is printed along with your bottle labels– we need this to properly track your entries in the database.  In addition, please be sure to fill out a BOL form and include it with your entries in order to remain compliant with state rules regarding competitions such as this one.  The blank BOL form can be found here.

ONLINE ENTRY AND ELECTRONIC PAYMENT INFORMATION
Brewers are required to use the BBO BCOEM system and Paypal payment to be eligible to receive a commemorative scoresheet. We use pay before print so you must pay for your entries before you can print your bottle labels.  To ensure all contestants have equal opportunity to enter a specific medal category and receive a scoresheet, Bluebonnet must receive payment within 1 hour of registering an entry.  Otherwise it will be removed from the system.

Bluebonnet Brew-off Awards

PRIZES
Prizes will be awarded in each of the medal categories available at this competition. The Bluebonnet Committee reserves the right to collapse categories not receiving adequate entries and/or to not award all places if the entries do not merit it. Honored Winners will receive:

1st Place – A coveted handmade Bluebonnet stein and a BBO Gold medal.
2nd Place – A BBO silver medal.
3rd Place – A BBO bronze medal.

BEST OF SHOW
Changed for competitions in 2021 and after, only an award for the single Best of Show Beer and the single Best of Show Mead/Cider.

Beer medal category winners will compete in a Best of Show round. Only the best beer will be announced and awarded. BoS Beer will come from medal categories 51 – 88.

Mead/Cider medal category winners will compete in a Best of Show round. Only the best mead/cider  will be announced and awarded. BoS mead/cider will com from medal categories 89 – 93.

A Custom Display Plaque will be presented to the two  BoS winners.

Tie breaker rules for ties for Homebrewer, Team and Mead/Cider Maker of the year

  1. Most 1sts, then most 2nds.
  2. Winning BOS with an entry.
  3. Highest winning percentage based on number of entries.
  4. Coin toss.

Bluebonnet Homebrewer of the Year

The homebrewer accumulating the most placement points for Individually submitted entries from categories 51 – 88 will be recognized as the Bluebonnet Homebrewer of the Year. Points are awarded as follows:
1st place – 3 points
2nd place – 2 points
3rd place – 1 point.

A Custom Display Plaque will be presented to the BBO Homebrewer of the Year

Bluebonnet Homebrew Team of the Year

The homebrew team accumulating the most placement points for a named team’s submitted entries from categories 51 – 88 will be recognized as the Bluebonnet Homebrew Team of the Year. Points are awarded as follows:
1st place – 3 points
2nd place – 2 points
3rd place – 1 point

Two Custom Display Plaques will be presented to the BBO Homebrew Team of the Year.

Bluebonnet Mead/Cider Maker of the Year

The individual or team  accumulating the most placement points for their submitted entries from categories 89 – 93 will be recognized as the Bluebonnet Mead/Cider Maker of the Year. Points are awarded as follows:
1st place – 3 points
2nd place – 2 points
3rd place – 1 point

A Custom Display Plaque will be presented to the BBO Mead/Cider  Maker of the Year.

BLUEBONNET CUP

The Homebrew Club receiving the most placement points, both from Individually and Team submitted entries on behalf of the Club, in categories 51-93, will be awarded the Bluebonnet Cup. In case of a Tie, the tie breakers will be in the following order: Most 1st place winners, then most 2nd place winners, then most 3rd place winners. A coin toss will settle any further tie.

There will be no stein, only the traveling trophy will be presented to the winning club

BLUEBONNET PRO-AM

Bluebonnet Pro-Am award is at the discretion of commercial breweries that will be evaluating entries along with our judging staff.  Only entries winning a gold medal in their category will be eligible for a Pro-Am opportunity.  If a gold medal winning entry is selected by one of our commercial brewery sponsors for a Pro-Am opportunity, it will be announced during the awards ceremony.  Being selected for a Pro-Am brewing opportunity does not obligate the entrant to participate– it is simply an offer to participate in having a commercial batch of the winning recipe produced and offered for sale.  If all criteria for the GABF Pro-Am competition are met by the beer and entrant, the entrant may also have the opportunity to have the commercial version of their beer entered into this competition.

DISCLAIMER

All decisions of The Bluebonnet Committee and the Judging Staff are to be considered final. Be assured that every effort will be taken to create an uncompromising, blind-tasting environment for the judging of all entries. The Bluebonnet Committee reserves the right to re-align medal categories based on final sub-category entries. Entries that appear to be dangerous to consume will be reviewed by the Head Judge. Examples include, but are not limited to; 1) A mixup appears to have occurred and entry looks and tastes like PBW, StarSan, etc., 2) The aroma creates an immediate negative reaction such as eye watering, hiccupping, or the urge to vomit. The Head Judge reserves the right to disqualify an entry by sight or aroma alone. Should this occur a refund may be requested. Should it be determined that an entry/entries have been doctored, that entrant may be banned from future participation.

The Bluebonnet Brew Off does not condone drinking and driving, participants are expected to drink responsibly.