If you’re a commercial brewer, or you’re friends with a commercial brewer, and are based anywhere on the African continent (including, of course, the islands), you have just a few days left to enter the African Beer Cup. Run in conjunction with the annual Craft Brewers Powwow, the competition aims to find the very best beers from across our wonderful continent. I know this because I am one of the founders, along with my husband, Shawn “Dissident” Duthie.

Inspired by international competitions, our goal is to create an African beer competition that creates a true African identity and unites breweries from across the continent in a bid to produce the very best beer possible. Judging will be to BJCP style guidelines, with gold, silver and bronze medals awarded in a maximum of 34 categories.

The African Beer Cup differs from other African beer competitions in two main ways. First, judges will be drawn from a variety of beery backgrounds, not just those who have passed the BJCP exam. Second – and most crucially of all, every beer entered in the competition will be judged twice, in a bid to eradicate any judging errors made through misunderstanding a style, having a bad day, being influenced by fellow judges or letting personal preference get in the way of to-style judging.

Entries are R750 per beer (including VAT). Breweries large and small can enter their beers online up until March 15^th. Beers must then be delivered or shipped to Bevplus HQ in Cape Town between April 1^st and 18^th. Judging takes place in Cape Town and Johannesburg in late April and early May, with winners announced at the Craft Brewers Powwow on May 18^th.

Enter now at www.africanbeercup.com. And please get in touch if you have any questions at all.