Fwd: Invitation for 2026 Stout Bout to Join the American Specialty Homebrew Cup Circuit

[Cory Meisch]

Is this something we should join?

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: PBC Stout Bout <pbcsto...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 16:22
Subject: Fwd: Invitation for 2026 Stout Bout to Join the American Specialty Homebrew Cup Circuit
To: Cory Meisch <cory....@gmail.com>

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: in...@americanspecialtyhomebrewcup.com <in...@americanspecialtyhomebrewcup.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 13:59
Subject: Invitation for 2026 Stout Bout to Join the American Specialty Homebrew Cup Circuit
To: <pbcsto...@gmail.com>

Hi PBC,

We’d like to invite your homebrew club (Stout Bout) to 
participate in the American Specialty Homebrew Cup (ASHC) — a new 
nationwide competition circuit created to celebrate creativity, 
specialty brewing, and the vibrant homebrew community that keeps it all 
alive. The ASHC Circuit connects existing homebrew competitions from 
clubs around the country into one unified leaderboard. There’s no cost 
to participate, and each club maintains full control of its own event. 
We simply gather your final competition results — the medal standings — 
and assign points to the winning brewers and clubs. These points 
accumulate across all participating events to determine the national 
standings for the year.

Participation brings several benefits to your club. You’ll gain 
increased visibility and participation, as every competition in the 
circuit is promoted on the ASHC website and social media, bringing new 
eyes and entries to your event. That means more participation and 
greater entry revenue for your club — helping fund ongoing expenses, 
educational activities, and social events that strengthen your 
community. On top of that, your members gain national recognition as 
their names and results appear on the ASHC leaderboard alongside the 
country’s top homebrewers.

Joining is simple — we only ask for two things: (1) an export of your 
final competition results (medal standings) once your event concludes, 
and (2) a copy of your 2025 results, if available, so we can build and 
test the 2026 leaderboard ahead of time. This ensures everything runs 
smoothly once new results begin coming in. There’s no paperwork, no 
fees, and no change to how you run your competition — we’ll handle all 
scoring and leaderboard updates on our end.

ASHC tracks individual brewers, teams, and clubs through cumulative 
points earned across all circuit competitions. Annual medals and awards 
will be presented for top performers on the leaderboard, and we’re 
working with industry sponsors to provide additional prizes and exposure 
for the winners. Sponsors like SoCal Brewing Supply are already helping 
distribute promotional materials and QR codes that drive brewers 
directly to the ASHC homepage — where participating clubs and sponsors 
are featured.

As part of helping one another grow, we also ask that participating 
clubs add a brief mention or link to the ASHC Circuit on their 
competition webpage. This simple step helps promote the circuit to other 
brewers, boosts visibility for your own event, and supports fellow clubs 
by increasing awareness of all competitions in the series. The goal is 
to strengthen the homebrewing community, encourage friendly competition, 
and make it easier for brewers to discover and participate in events 
nationwide.

To see how everything comes together, visit the ASHC Homepage:
👉 https://americanspecialtyhomebrewcup.com

We’d love to include your club’s competition in the 2026 circuit and 
help promote your event to brewers across the country. If you’d like to 
participate or have questions, just reply to this email — we’ll help get 
your club listed and ready.

Cheers,
Travis Johnson
The American Specialty Homebrew Cup Team
in...@americanspecialtyhomebrewcup.com
https://americanspecialtyhomebrewcup.com

[Mark Beck]

My first instinct is that this sounds similar to MHP. It would increase the number of out-of-region entries. My inclination is to say no.

-Mark

[Cory Meisch]

Seeing as how this is our money maker, more entries are better. Remind me why out of town entries are bad?

On Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 17:16 Cody <cody...@gmail.com> wrote:

I would also say no, unless you want to judge double the amount of entries.

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[Cody]

I would also say no, unless you want to judge double the amount of entries.

On Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 4:30 PM Mark Beck <mbe...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Mark Beck]

It's the burden it puts on the judges. More entries mean more beers to judge. Personally, I don't really like judging stouts all day. I do it because it's our club comp. If PBC didn't run this comp, I wouldn't judge it.

[Russell Berger]

My gut also says no. While more entries means more revenue for the club, circuits end up getting dominated by a relative few who have the skill, the time, and the means to spam (I know, I am guilty of this). Take Bill Boyer at YHoYL as an example. Is that really better for our local community? Or would we prefer to foster our neighbors and new brewers getting to taste success without the top 1% scooping up all the medals?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pdxbrewerscollective/3560db6e-9a84-4947-b9fe-88b267051752%40gmail.com.

[Mark Beck]

What he said.

[Michele Wonder]

Agree with Mark, Russell and Cody on this one. Too much like MHP and we have seen how that has influenced entries and judging experiences. 

I am a NO. 

—Michele W

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pdxbrewerscollective/22beb2bd-8ff4-45d7-a381-4f34b70d3f77%40gmail.com.

[corey morton]

As long as they are good stouts. I'll judge em. 

Corey

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
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---

From: pdxbrewers...@googlegroups.com <pdxbrewers...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Mark Beck <mbe...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2025 6:02:34 PM
To: Cory Meisch <cory....@gmail.com>
Cc: Cody Gabbard <cody...@gmail.com>; Portland Brewers Collective <pdxbrewers...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [PBC:] Fwd: Invitation for 2026 Stout Bout to Join the American Specialty Homebrew Cup Circuit

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pdxbrewerscollective/3560db6e-9a84-4947-b9fe-88b267051752%40gmail.com.

[Cody]

If we get more entries you'll need to get more judges. If you can scale, that's fine, but you'll have to make sure you get those judges locked in