Beerfest, a short History
Beerfest was first held in 1993 after the (then) brewer at the Grand Ridge Brewery in Mirboo North floated the idea of hosting an annual craft brewing competition at the recently established brewery.
A committee was formed to run the inaugural competition, which included members of the Bayside Brewers club and the original owners of Greensborough Home Brew, Grain & Grape, the Brewers Den, (Edithvale) Brew N Grow and Sale Home Brewing.
Significant prizes were offered at the first competition including 500 stubbies of Grand Ridge Beer for the winner of the Best Beer of Show award. The brewery also offered to allow the brewer of the winning beer to assist in brewing the winning recipe at the Brewery as a limited edition beer to be sold locally. Winners of individual categories also received 100 stubbies of Grand Ridge Beer in addition to trophies as prizes.
The second weekend in February was chosen as the date for the competition to coincide with a local folk festival held in the town at the time. The folk festival no longer runs but Beerfest continues on the same weekend and is now the oldest open craft brewing competition in Victoria. The competition drew 134 entries in 1993.
In 1994 the Sale Area Amateur Zymurgists club (SAAZ) assumed responsibility for the running of Beerfest. SAAZ continued running the event upto 1999. In January 2000 SAAZ asked the Vicbrew committee to take over the running of Beerfest because club membership had declined and SAAZ no longer had the resources to run an event the size of Beerfest. By 2000 Beerfest had become the longest running open craft brewing competition in Victoria and was second in size only to Vicbrew (the Victorian state championship competition). The Vicbrew committee decided the Beerfest competition was too important to let die and ran the competition in 2000 then offered the event to The Melbourne Brewers in 2001 who continue to run the event today.
Beerfest is well supported drawing entries from all over Victoria from both independent brewers and members of Victorias major craft brewing clubs. The Beerfest award for most successful club is keenly contested and has been won by all of Victorias major clubs including SAAZ, Bayside Brewers, The Worthogs, The Melbourne Brewers and Westgate.
Note: In 2004/2005, Beerfest has been promoted on Australian web forums and some entries from interstate are anticipated. Only time will tell what effect this may have on the comp.