http://www.lincolnlagers.com/cup/

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Shipping Your Entries:

Please refer to this page:

http://www.lincolnlagers.com/sowers-cup/sowers-cup-shipping/

If you have questions or concerns, please contact us at lincoln.lagers.beer.club@gmail.com

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Entry Categories:

We are accepting entries in all categories – Beer, Cider, and Mead – using the 2008 BJCP Style Guidelines.

We will be providing feedback using standard BJCP Scoresheets – specifically, we will use the “old” write-in version, not the new check-box one.

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Nebraska Brewing Company Best Of Show in Beer:

We’re proud to announce that Nebraska Brewing Company of Papillion/LaVista, NE is the sponsor of our Best Of Show award in Beer.

The winner will receive a specially designed and crafted trophy made just for our competition. The BOS Beer winner will also receive a 7.5 gallon Brew Bucket stainless steel fermenter, donated by Ss Brewing Technologies.

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Moonstruck Meadery Best Of Show in Mead:

We’re proud to announce that Moonstruck Meadery of Bellevue, NE is the sponsor of our Best Of Show award in Mead.

The winner will receive a specially designed and crafted “Golden Honey Dipper” trophy made just for our competition. The BOS Mead winner will also receive 1 Gallon of premium honey ($75 value), donated by Kirk’s Brew of Lincoln, NE.

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Fermenter’s Supply Specialty Beer Contest: “Anything Red”

We’re excited to announce that Fermenter’s Supply of Omaha, NE is the sponsor of our special “Anything Red” beer contest.

Rules: Enter any beer, mead, or cider that is red in color — in an approx. SRM range of 7 – 28 — and make sure it tastes really good.
Entries in this category will be judged in a very simple “Best Damn Beer” format, and will receive specially-designed score sheets (which are non-BJCP-conforming).

The “Anything Red” category is not eligible for overall Best Of Show, but the winning beer in this category will receive a special Big Red Certificate commemorating their achievement. Our winning Big Red Brewer will also receive A Textbook Of Brewing, Vol. 1 & 2 by Jean De Clerck, donated by the Siebel Institute of Technology.

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Special Guest Speaker:

We are proud to announce that, with the generous assistance of Ploughshare Brewing Co. and managing partner Matt Stinchfield, the inaugural Sower’s Cup Homebrew Competition will our guest of honor:

Michael “Mufasa” Ferguson
BJ’s Director of Brewing, and host of the Emmy-nominated television series Beer Geeks.

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Local Beer & Food Pairing Banquet Dinner:

In conjunction with Ploughshare Brewing Co. and Lincoln Beer Week, we also want to invite you to our Local Beer & Food Pairing Banquet Dinner from 6:00pm-8:30pm on Saturday, September 13th. We will be treated to an social/mingling beer from the Modern Monks to get things started, which is followed by three courses of local, sustainable, and delicious hand-crafted food from the Ploughshare Brewing Co. kitchen. Each course is paired with a locally-brewed beer, featuring offerings from Empyrean Brewing Co., Zipline Brewing Co., and a special, very limited release from Ploughshare Brewing Co.

Our co-hosts for our banquet dinner are Matt Stinchfield, founder and managing partner of Ploughshare Brewing Co., and Michael “Mufasa” Ferguson, BJ’s Director of Brewing, and host of the Emmy-nominated TV show Beer Geeks.

The banquet dinner will be a separate event from The Sower’s Cup, with tickets priced at $40 each.

Initially, we will set aside 2/3 of the Saturday banquet tickets specifically for Sower’s Cup participants to claim – the other 1/3 of tickets will be open to the public.

We will be subsidizing a portion of the banquet cost for all of our Sower’s Cup volunteers who wish to attend. The exact dollar amount will depend, to some extent, on our final beer entry count and accompanying fees. Please stay tuned for more details on that as we finalize funds, pricing, etc. in the upcoming few days. We should have a final number for you shortly after entry registration closes on 8/29.

You can get a head-start by reserving your banquet tickets on the phone by calling Ploughshare at (402) 742-0420. Only 50 seats in total are available, be sure to claim yours today!

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Sower’s Cup Awards Ceremony:

After the banquet dinner concludes, we will grab a fresh pint and move back into the brewery for our final event of the weekend – the Sower’s Cup Awards Ceremony and Grand Prize raffle drawings, from 8:30pm-10:00pm.

We’ll announce the winners of each category, as well as our Best Of Show winners. Results will be live-tweeted on @TheSowersCup for those following us from afar. All Sower’s Cup volunteers, stewards, and judges are invited to attend the ceremony. We will draw winners for our awesome Grand Prize Raffle items, including generous contributions from our sponsors.

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Sponsorship and Our Current Sponsors:

The Lincoln Lagers are extremely grateful for all of the support we have received from our friends in the local community, craft breweries, brewpubs, industry and homebrewing equipment sponsors, and our volunteers. We’ve set up a special page to show our thanks and to provide you with links to each of their web pages. Please help us reward them for their efforts, and click on through to check them out!

Click here:

Thank You, Sower’s Cup Sponsors!!

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Beer Judge, Beer Steward, and Other Volunteer Information:

Please visit this link for information:

Volunteer, Judge, and Steward Sign Up Page

Judging/Volunteering Perks:

All of our judges, stewards, and volunteers will be provided with free meals on Friday evening, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon to reward them for their efforts.

– Volunteers participating on Friday evening will be treated to a hot pretzel bar, featuring new, creative test flavors from the genius minds inside the Ploughshare kitchen – and after judging concludes, you will receive a drink ticket for one free pint up to $5.00 at the bar.

– Those volunteering on Saturday morning will enjoy a hot breakfast spread featuring local, organic, and sustainable ingredients served up by Ploughshare Brewing Co.

– If you help us on Saturday afternoon, please arrive a little while before your judging round begins. Upon arriving, you’ll enjoy a variety of hot and cold sandwiches from Jersey Mike’s Subs, with a few side items and dinnerware provided by Ploughshare – Then after lunch, our guest of honor, Michael Ferguson, will give a guest lecture.

For each round that you work, you will receive raffle tickets to enter in our Volunteer prizes raffle.

We will also be selling tickets throughout the weekend for two additional prize raffles: our “Brew Swag Grab Bag” – a very large pile of merchandise and other brewing swag contributed by our competition sponsors – as well as our “Big Daddy Grand Prize Raffle”, which features massively awesome prizes including a Brewmaster Bucket steel fermenter from Ss Brewing Technologies, an enormous Draft Beer Prize Package from Micro-Matic Draft Solutions, an 11 Pound Box of Hops from the folks at Indie Hops, and much, MUCH more!

One more thing: All volunteers will receive a commemorative The Sower’s Cup Homebrew Competition beer glass (Belgian tulip style)!  
We are extremely grateful to Empyrean Brewing Company for doing all the heavy lifting for us – they’ve coordinated the production of, and are donating all of the custom Sower’s Cup glassware for this event! Thank you Jim, Carla, Dakota, Ben, and the rest of the crew at Empyrean Brewing Co. for your support!

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Homebrewers’ Social Gathering:

On Friday, after we finish judging entries in the brewery, we will move out front to the Ploughshare Brewing Co. bar and hold a Homebrewers’ Social Gathering from 10:00pm-Midnight.

Whether you’re able to help us on Friday evening or not, we invite any and all of you to stop by after 10pm to drink quality craft brews on tap at Ploughshare while socializing with your fellow brewers and judges, and for an opportunity to mingle and talk shop with our guest of honor, Michael Ferguson.

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Facebook Event Page:

https://www.facebook.com/TheSowersCup

Twitter Feed:

Follow us at @TheSowersCup

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Important Dates & Schedule:

Entry registration opens: 7/21/2014
Entry registration deadline: 8/29/2014
Entries must be received by 8/29/2014.
Pre-judging of small rounds: Tuesday 9/9, Wednesday 9/10, and Thursday 9/11 – 7:00pm Each Day – Ploughshare Brewery (back room).

Friday Evening Beer Judging: 9/12/2014 – Ploughshare Brewery (back room)
Judge Check-In starts / Appetizers served at 5:30pm.
Ploughshare Brewing Co. will provide a pre-judging Hot Pretzel Bar for judges/stewards featuring creative new test flavors from the Ploughshare kitchen. This meal sponsored by Moran’s Liquor Works – Thanks!!
You will receive 1 free Drink Ticket (up to $5.00) after judging.

Friday Night – Homebrewer Social Party at Ploughshare Brewing Co. –10:00PM to Midnight – Ploughshare Front Taproom.

Saturday Morning Judging: 9/13/2014 – Ploughshare Brewery (back room).
Judge check-in starts and Breakfast & Coffee served at 7:30am.
We’ll have a local, sustainable hot breakfast buffet served up from the Ploughshare kitchen staff!

Saturday Afternoon Judging: 9/13/2014 – Ploughshare Brewery (back room).
Judge Check-In starts and Lunch served at Noon.
We’ll serve a pre-judging lunch featuring a variety of hot and cold sandwiches catered from Jersey Mike’s Subs, backed up with a few sides and dinnerware provided by Lincoln Lagers and Ploughshare. After lunch, we’ll have a beer-related lecture from our guest of honor, Michael “Mufasa” Ferguson.
You will receive 1 free Drink Ticket after judging.

Beer Pairing Banquet Dinner & Keynote Speaker: 9/13/2014 – Dinner starts at 6:00PM – Ploughshare Loft – See above info for ticket sales.
Discounted tickets for The Sower’s Cup Volunteers are sponsored by Zipline Brewing Co. – Thanks!!

Awards Ceremony: Saturday 9/13/2014 – approx. 8:00 PM. – Ploughshare brewery – after dinner.
Each volunteer, steward, and judge attending the Awards Ceremony will receive 1 free Drink Ticket upon entry.

Watch us on Twitter @LincolnLagers for live results!

These dates & times are always subject to change as we gain a better idea of how many entries, in what categories, need to be judged. We will do our best to keep the most current and up-to-date information posted here on this web page, at http://www.lincolnlagers.com/sowers-cup/.

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Copied from www.homebrewersassociation.org:

Event Details

Date: Saturday, Sep 13
Event Type: AHA/BJCP Competition
Entry Fee: $7.00
Entry Deadline: 08/29/2014
Competition Date: 09/13/2014

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Hotel Information:

Embassy Suites Downtown Lincoln – 0.5 Miles
1040 P Street
402-474-1111
http://embassysuites3.hilton.com/en/hotels/nebraska/embassy-suites-lincoln-LNKESES/index.html

The Cornhusker-Marriott – 0.6 Miles
333 South 13th Street
402-474-7474
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/fact-sheet/travel/lnkfs-the-cornhusker-a-marriott-hotel/

Holiday Inn Downtown Lincoln – 0.8 Miles
141 N 9th Street
402-475-4011
http://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/us/en/lincoln/lnkdt/hoteldetail?cm_mmc=GoogleMaps-_-hi-_-USEN-_-lnkdt

Super 8 Lincoln – 2.8 Miles
2545 Cornhusker Hwy
402-467-4488
http://www.super8.com/hotels/nebraska/lincoln/super-8-lincoln-cornhusker-hwy/hotel-overview?cid=local

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Posts from our Twitter:

Tweets by @TheSowersCup