THE BREWSPAPER / SAN DIEGANS WIN BIG AT NAT’L HOMEBREW MANO Y MANO

San Diego area club Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity (QUAFF) won the Radegast Club of the Year Award, which acknowledges “one club’s efforts to better their local community through the power of homebrewing and beer.”

Each year, recreational fermentationists from across (and beyond) the country get together at Homebrew Con to celebrate and revel in the homebrewing spirit. As part of that three-day convention put on by the American Homebrewers Association, winners of the country’s most prestigious recreational brewing competition are announced.

This year’s event was held in Providence, Rhode Island, where six San Diegans collected medals:

Gold Medals

Pale British Ale—Patrick Leon with Nick Corona, San Diego (QUAFF)

Spiced Beer—Tom Lawrence with Zach Dixon, San Diego *

Bronze Medals

Strong European Lager—Derek Springer, San Marcos (Society of Barley Engineers)

Amber & Brown American Ale—Derek Springer, San Marcos (Society of Barley Engineers)

Specialty Cider & Perry—Chris Banker, Oceanside (QUAFF)

* – Spiced Beer was the second-most-entered category with 430 entries.

Additionally, local club Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity (QUAFF) won the Radegast Club of the Year Award, which acknowledges “one club’s efforts to better their local community through the power of homebrewing and beer.”

QUAFF missed out on the coveted Homebrew Club of the Year award for the first time in four years (the recipient of that honor was the Arizona Society of Homebrewers).

In 2019, the National Homebrew Competition featured 9,189 entries from 3,492 homebrewers in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C. and 17 countries.