2024 National Homebrew Competition News, Dates, Prizes, Oh My!

By Chris Williams, National Homebrew Competition Director

As we bring 2023 to a close, we’re looking forward to the future of the National Homebrew Competition (NHC)—the world’s largest amateur homebrew competition for celebrating the most outstanding beer, mead, and cider, brought to you by the American Homebrewers Association with support by the Beer Judge Certification Program. Collectively, NHC has judged more than 160,000+ homebrewed beers, meads, and ciders in its 46-year history.

The 2024 competition will boast exciting new plans, including expanded award categories, variable shipping dates for first round sites, winners announced on-site during the Great American Beer Festival®, great prizes, and more! In addition, the Final Round of NHC will once again be hosted in San Diego.

• More Mead & Cider: Mead award categories have expanded from 5 to 13, and Cider categories from 2 to 4
• Finals in San Diego: The final round judging will be in San Diego, Calif., on the weekends of August 18 and August 24. The fine folks in San Diego showed excellence in managing the largest singular first round site in 2023 (nearly 900 entries!) and assisting in a very successful final round competition. Let’s do it again!
• Finalist Awards Announced at The Great American Beer Festival: Want to hear your name called on stage at the country’s largest beer festival in front of thousands of other beer lovers? You bet you do. The medal ceremony will be hosted at the 2024 GABF® on Thursday, October 10, in Denver, Colo. (Costumes encouraged, game faces required)!
• Hello, Portland and Thank You, Seattle: In 2024, Portland, Ore. will be the home of our Pacific NW regional first round site in lieu of Seattle which graciously hosted in 2023.

The NHC website has been updated for 2024. Sign up for the newsletter and keep an eye on the site between now and when registration opens on February 27. Read on for more information:

2024 First Round Regional Judging Sites

• Judging and shipping/receiving dates will be shared in early 2024, prior to the February 27 registration date.
• These sites will determine the entries in each award category that will advance to the Final Round of judging. – So get ready to represent.
• Entrants select first round judging site preference during registration (February 27- March 15) on a first-come, first-served basis.
• Entrants are not required to choose the site that is geographically closest to them. Choose your site wisely as it may make all the difference in how your beers compete!
• Registration to each first round site will be limited to 750 beers per location.
• The 2024 nine first round locations are:
  • Chicago, Ill.
  • Denver, Colo.
  • Indianapolis, Ind.
  • Kansas City, Mo.
  • New York, N.Y.
  • Philadelphia, Pa.
  • Portland, Ore.
  • San Diego, Calif.
  • Tampa, Fla.

Entry Feedback

• Once again, entrants will receive written BJCP structured scoresheets for their entries from some of the world’s top homebrew judges. Feedback will be distributed within two weeks of regional competition’s judging date.
• In addition to the first round BJCP scoresheets, final round entrants will receive written judge feedback for their entries from judges (non-scored). NHC final round judge pool is the most robust, advanced, and experienced judge pool of any homebrew competition in the world.

Competition Registration

• Registration opens February 27 at 10:00 am MT.
• Entrants may enter up to a max of 10 beers. Individual beers may only be entered once.

This competition is made possible through the generous support of entrants, volunteers, judges, and our sponsors. Thank you!