The Michigan Beer Cup Competition has changed locations. This year the judging for the Michigan Beer Cup Competition will be held at the Rochester Mills Production Brewery in Auburn Hills. The change was made to better facilitate our judges and to open up new judging opportunities in the State of Michigan.

Black IPA's will stand on their own this year.... No longer will these popular brews be judge as a specialty beers, instead they will stand next to their brothers as category 14-D. Guidelines for this category are being created for our competition by Mike Winnie Master BJCP judge. After the competition the style guidelines will be then submitted to the BJCP for future consideration.

The Michigan Beer Cup Competition will collect Soda Pop entries for the 2012 Michigan Homebrew Festival. The entries which are submitted are scheduled to be judged at the festival by children. These expert judges will seek out the best entries, using a top secret judging method... Awards will be given to the best ranked entires which are submitted. Note: Registration is only open to adults. Accounts for children should not be created. The registration site provides a field which give you the ability to assign your niece, nephew or child as the Primary brewer. Standard competition fees apply and will be applied to the prizes.

As an added convienience the Michigan Beer Cup Competition will start using PayPal to collect entry fees. When using PayPal please submite a copy of your recite with your bottles.

The Michigan Beer Cup Competition competition is open to anyone who can legally consume and make homebrew in the state of Michigan, or is a member of a AHA Sanctioned Club registered in Michigan.

All entries must have been brewed at home on a non-commercial system. Entries made at a "Brew on Premises" facility are allowed if the entrant(s) performed all the work required to make the entry, including fermentation, and bottling.

All entries conforming to the BJCP style guidelines categories 1 - 28 are welcome, and will be judged against their current BJCP guideline specification. Experimental categories will also be welcome; however these entries will be judged using a different method and will not qualify for the Best of Show judging. Please see the Competition Style Matrices for details.

All entrants must register their entries via the web site. Each submitted bottle will require an official competition form, which is generated from the registration site. All forms and checks should be affixed to the bottles using rubber bands only, do not glue or tape the labels to the bottles.

When registering your entry, it is advised to note any co-brewers which have helped you in the crafting your entry. If you fail to name your co-brewer they will not be eligible to receive credit for their accomplishment.

You are encouraged to enter multiple entries, however for many categories you will be only allowed to submit one item per sub-category unless otherwise noted. When adding entries into a sub-category which allows multiple entries, you must insure that the entries is distinctly different for the ones you have already entered. Be very clear to identify the fruit, honey, malt, etc which sets it apart from the entries you have already submitted. If an entry is determined to be a duplicate or is deemed too close in style to an existing entry, it will be disqualified. Please see the Competition Style Matrices for more details.

Each entry must consist of two (2) bottles from a single batch of beer, cider or mead; bottles should be amber in color, have no identifying marks and the label should be cleanly stripped off. Raised lettering on bottles is strongly discouraged, but bottles with generic raised lettering will be accepted. Caps must be plain or blacked out. Greater leniency will be given to the mead and cider categories as these bottles may be more decorative in nature, however these bottles should strive to be as generic as possible. Unique bottles will only be allowed at the discretion of the competition organizer. Failing to meet these requirements, may disqualify your entry.

Bottles submitted to the competition for judging must be within a range of 10 to 22 ounces in sizes, with the exception of Meads (BJCP styles 24, 25, 26). Meads may be submitted in smaller 6 once glass bottles, however if you are entering a Braggot it must conform the 10 to 22 ounce requirement. The minimum fill level is a mandatory requirement, failure to do so will disqualify your entry. Please see the Competition Style Matrices for a complete list of details.

Recipes are not needed for entries. However, upon request of the organizers, winning entrants may be required to submit detailed recipes at a later time.

Payment in the form of a check should be made out to Michigan Beer Cup. Please attach your check to one of the bottles using rubber bands only.

If you make your payment via PayPal please attach a copy of the recite to one of the bottles using rubber bands only.

The greatest of care will be given to the entries prior to the competition, however we cannot guarantee against harm or damage. Any damages caused by the Michigan Beer Cup competition will be handled on an individual basis. Our primary goal will be to obtain a replacement for the damage entry, however if the entrant is unable to provide an additional entry then a refund will be issued.

Once an entry has been registered, it will be stored at or below cellar room temperatures prior to the judging.

Categories containing a low number of entries may be collapsed or combined at the discretion of the organizer and registrar.

The address you provide the registration site will be the address to which your score sheets and awards will be sent. However, if you have indicated a club then your score sheets and awards will be packaged together and delivered by hand or mail to your club. All sheets will be made available to you following the awards ceremony. Any sheets or prizes which are returned back to us will be kept for a reasonable amount of time, as we attempt to make contact. Unclaimed prizes will become the property of the Michigan Beer Cup.

Entry dropoffs will begin and must be received at the designated drop-off points or delivered to the by . Late entries may be considered at the discretion of the competition registrar or competition organizer.

All entries submitted to the Michigan Beer Cup competition become property of the Michigan Beer Cup, and will not be returned. Entries failing to comply to these guidelines can and will be disqualified. Disqualified entries will not be issues reimbursement of monies paid to the competition.

Judging is open to who ever wishes to participate, we welcome and encourage anyone who is interested in judging or assisting as a steward. Inexperienced judges will work with experienced judges to help promote and develop a deeper appreciation of the styles that are assigned. Those interested in participating as judge or steward can contact the Judge Director, or use the registration tool to indicate your intentions.

All entries entered in category (1-28) will be judged using the current BJCP style guidelines. Entries which are entered in category 14-D Black IPA's will use guidelines crafted by a Master BJCP judge for use on this competition.

Entries submitted to the competition will get assigned to a panel of 2-3 judges. Each of the judging panels will consist of at least one BJCP certified judge. The judge with the highest ranking is designated as the primary judge and will help to mentor individuals with lesser experience. During the first round of judging, each of the judging panels will be given approximately 10 to 15 minutes to evaluate an entry and assign a score. When scores for an entry are more than 6 points apart, judges will be asked to discuss the entry in order to determine where the discrepancy occurs, and to adjust the score accordingly. Once the scores have been determined the scores are averaged and recorded on the coversheet. The primary purpose for the first round of judging is to provide feed back and to assign scores. In addition, the first round of judging is used to identify the top-quality entries which the primary judges will promote to a mini-best of show.

The mini-bos uses a panel of certified judges to determine the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place rankings of the entries which have been promoted.

The Best of Show is the final round of judging; where each of the first place entries are brought together in order to determine the best entry of the competition. The judging method used for this round is identical to the mini-bos, however only the best judges are used to determine a winner.

Style placement will be restricted for the judges who have entries in the competition. Great care will be taken to ensure that entrants are excluded from participation in the Flights, Mini-Best of Shows or Best Of Shows which their entry may be placed. Staff members may be allowed to judge, providing they are held to the same standard and do not have express knowledge of the entries details.

In some cases an entries will develop an issue where the beverage is deemed undrinkable. For entries which are deemed undrinkable, the judges will have been directed not to spend a large amount of time sampling the beverage, only to focus their attention on identifying the flaw. In addition to identifying the flaw, judges will attempt to provide information on how to reduce or eliminate the issue. This policy is in place to preserve the judge's palates.