Digital award ceremony of the fifth Hobby Brewer Competition by Maisel & Friends and BrauBeviale

As in 2021, the 2022 hobby brewing competition could not take place as part of the hobby and home brewing event "HOME BREW Bayreuth" due to the Corona pandemic. Nevertheless, the expert jury met on Friday, 4 February at Maisel & Friends in Bayreuth to professionally evaluate the 106 beers submitted and to determine the winners from them. Hobby, home and garage brewers from all over Germany submitted their American-style amber and red ales and these were tasted and evaluated by the twelve-member jury - consisting of master brewers, brewers, beer sommeliers, hobby brewers and the trade press - according to appearance, smell, taste, bitterness, recency and personal impression. The best ten beers went into a final round and were judged again by all jury members. At the end of the tasting, the jury very quickly agreed on which beers belonged on the podium.

Classic Amber Ale wins
The award ceremony took place live on the Maisel & Friends YouTube and Facebook channel on Saturday, 5 February. Brewery boss Jeff Maisel, brewmaster Markus Briemle and beer sommelier Michael König led the programme and joined co-organiser BrauBeviale, sponsors Barth Haas, Braupartner and "Hopfen & mehr" as well as the ten first-place winners. Third place went to Florian Erdel from Chaos Homebrewing and second place went to Johst Dallmann from Hobbybrauer Nordheide. Both beers are modern amber/red ales that have been hopped. The winning beer is a classic and very drinkable Amber Ale with a beautiful malt character and subtle aromas of red berries, honey and caramel. It was created in his cellar by Markus Stüttgen from the home brewery Bestes! Since the beginning of the pandemic, the 35-year-old has been brewing it there, sometimes alone and sometimes together with his friends, who cheered with him at the award ceremony. As a former self-employed restaurateur, Markus has a great affinity for food and had long carried around the idea of brewing his own beer one day. He never expected to win first place in the hobby brewing competition. He brewed his "Flaming Amber" with 5.8 % vol. Alk., 38 bittering units and 14°P original wort and brewed it with the hop varieties Mittelfrüh, Magnum, Hallertauer Blanc, Pacific Gem, Motueka and Zamba.

In September, Markus Stüttgen will come to Bayreuth to re-brew his beer in the 25-hectolitre brewhouse together with the Maisel & Friends team and to help design the label. As a prize, he will receive a pallet of his winning beer delivered to his home and will be able to present his creation to the interested beverage community on myBeviale.com in autumn. The strictly limited beer will then be available for purchase in the Maisel & Friends online shop.