Steve Koenemann

New England Homebrewer’s Jamboree

Last Saturday I traveled to tiny and quite rural W. Campton New Hampshire to visit the 14^th Annual New England Homebrewer’s Jamboree. Sponsored by at least six homebrew clubs and featuring more than 120 competition entries of beer, wine, cider, mead and other specialty beverages, this has to be the quintessential event for all the talented homebrewer’s across the northeastern US… a true celebration of handcrafted beverages.

For the last several years this day-long event has been held at the Branch Brook Campground. The event has grown in each of its 14 years and this year was attended by approximately 400 homebrewers and/or enthusiasts, all of whom showed up on a beautiful early fall day to taste some of the best fermentables that no money could buy. These are not commercial entities, but individuals that simply produce this stuff for their own as well as their friends enjoyment. While the competition of the day was important to some, most that I spoke with were simply there to sample the craft brews of their friends and to share the camaraderie of others that are also excited about brewing their own.

The event only cost $10 at the “door”, which entitled you to unlimited samples, free entertainment and an opportunity share in the excitement of the day. This is a “bring your own glass” event, although many of the clubs had modestly priced glasses of various sizes for sale at their tents; all proudly emblazoned with their club logos, of course.

As it turns out, while the beer, wine, mead and cider were the main attraction for most of the attendees, this event is actually a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Hampshire. Each year the “profits” from this event, money collected from the sale of event tickets, food, t-shirts, raffle tickets and other paraphernalia is donated to this worthy cause. Last year this event raised nearly $4,000 and this year, Steve Ainsworth, the event’s organizer for all of their 14 years, estimated that they would be closer to $5,000 for the day.

I had a chance to visit with the volunteers manning the Make-A-Wish tent as well as with 12-year old “Emily”, a Make-A-Wish ambassador and former benefactor of the foundation (5 years ago she went to Disney World for her “Wish”). It was obvious to me, from the way that these volunteers interacted with the homebrew clubs and event organizers, that this was a long term, co-dependent relationship between these groups that has built up over the many years that the event has existed.

Event Organizer Steve Ainsworth and Make-A-Wish's Emily

As you could probably expect, I did not spend my entire time talking at this event and did take some time to sample some of the excellent handcrafted beverages that folks brought to share. I did not get to the event soon enough to participate as one of the 17 volunteer judges for the “Peoples Choice” competition of the day, but that might be something to look forward to next year. With well over 100 of these beverages being shared at the event, I was (unfortunately) only able to sample a tiny fraction of those being offered. Below are just a few of my favorites for the day:

Rob North, 2010 Winner Sam Adams Patriot Homebrew Contest

• Rob North’s Rauchbier – Rob was this year’s winner of the Sam Adams Patriot Homebrew Contest and this rauchbier was his winning brew. For those of you not familiar with this annual contest, as winner, Rob’s chosen brew will be served alongside the traditional Samuel Adams beers at the Samuel Adams Brewhouse® in Gillette Stadium during the entire New England Patriots 2010-2011 football season. This beer was slightly sweet, mildly smoky and extremely well balanced. It was easy for me to see why Rob’s beer was selected by Sam Adams at this year’s contest. While Rob has only been brewing three years, he was also selected “Homebrewer of the Year” at last year’s Jamboree. Rob is a member of the homebrew club “Brew Free or Die”, based in New Hampshire.
• Francois Espourteille’s Sweet Mead – Described as a “mead master” by his colleagues, Francois poured me a sample of a special stock of his sweet mead. While I do not have an extensive background in drinking meads, the extremely high quality of this mead was apparent immediately. I sampled other meads at this event during the day, but this one stood out as really the only one I sampled that had retained the subtle flavors of the unprocessed wildflower honey he used to make it. Francois told me that very slow fermentation was his “secret” to ensuring that the honey flavor was retained during the lengthy fermentation process. Francois is a member of the “South Shore Brew Club”, which is based out of southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
• The event’s organizer, Steve Ainsworth, brought me over to the tent of his homebrew club, “Winnipesaukee Area Brew Crew”, to sample an English-style barleywine made by Eric Sprague, one of the club members. Malty, smooth and slightly sweet Eric explained that the Maris Otter malt he had used was responsible for the smoothness and drinkability of this relatively young barleywine.

The “People’s Choice” competition results were announced at the end of the day:

1. First Place, Best of Show – Ed Ramshaw – Apple Pie Cider. I sampled some of Ed’s cider and it was truly “apple pie in a glass”… a good choice from my perspective. This was the only one of the winners in this list that I got to sample… just too many choices!
2. Second Place – Kevin Abelli – Black Pearl
3. Third Place – Laramie Bobar – Ginger Brown Ale
4. Honorable Mention – Harriet Santtie – Green Apple Wine

Ed Ramshaw's Apple Pie Cider

This event was decidedly different than most other beer events that I have attended recently; not only because of the fact that these were amateur brewers, but because of the tremendous variety of very high quality beverages that were being offered. I can honestly say that there was not one of those that I sampled that could not stand up, very well, to their commercial cousins. Next year’s event will be held on September 10^th (always the first Saturday after Labor Day) at the Branch Brook Campground and it is already on my event calendar. You can find out more about the 2011 New England Homebrewer’s Jamboree at their Web site. I’ll see you there…

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