New England Homebrewers Jamboree

This year I have rejoined and have been more active with the Northshore Brewers. This year was also my first year attending the New England Homebrewers Jamboree. The club brought an astounding 100 beers to the event. I brought a keg of the Galaxy IPA, and several other members brought their single hop beers.

That's my beer!

In hindsight I wish I had planned ahead and brought some of my better beers like Curly's Milk Stout, Camp Randall Red IPA, or Walk-Off White. The club had a series of randalls set up including a coconut porter randalled through fresh coconut, fruit beers randalled through fresh fruit. A fresh batch of Walk-Off White randalled through fresh orange peel would be awesome.

There were several other clubs there at the event and lots of great beer. I probably enjoyed too much great beer to have as many clear recollections of the event as I otherwise would. That the event is held at a campground allows attendees to enjoy their beverages responsibly by camping the Friday night before and Saturday night after the event.

Attendees are each given a token. Each participating club has a container, and attendees use their token to vote for his/her favorite club. The Northshore Brewers won for the second year in a row.

There was also a competition at the event. I haven't entered any of my beers into competition this year. Usually you have to ship or drop off contest entries to a specific location. This year I kept forgetting to send my entries in on time. The competition was not a Beer Judge Certification Program sanction competition, so I didn't bother to judge.

They announced the competition winners at the end of the day. I was pouring beer for the club at the opposite end of the field and couldn't hear anything. Evidently none of my beers placed. The only ones I really had hopes for were Curly's Milk Stout and Midlands Mild because the other beers I entered were old. The competition does not mail scoresheets, and I was not around on Sunday morning to pick them up. I bought camping tickets, and brought a tent and air mattress, but my girlfriend had no desire to camp. She stopped drinking and drove my car home Saturday night.

Alastair Hewitt, a member of the Northshore Brewers that works at Mystic Brewery in Research and Development won best in show. I do remember having one of his IPAs and it tasted like a commercial beer; it was that good.

Now I know what Jamboree is about I am already looking forward to next year. I plan to be there for the entire weekend and bring more beers and better beers. I'll see if Andy and his wife Juli would want to go. We could bring a keg of his Flagship Rye-PA.

The Jamboree is a great event that raises money for Make a Wish. Any beer lover would have an excellent time.

Follow me on Instagram @wouldbebrewmaster
Like The Would-be Brewmaster on Facebook
Share what beers you are drinking with me on Untappd