BILLINGS — Home brewers don't often get the chance to serve their beer to anyone other than family and friends, but that changed in Billings on Saturday as nine home brewers gathered inside Thirsty Street Brewing Co. at The Garage to compete in the first-ever Billings Best Brew Off.
"It is insane. I think Billings has a high caliber of beer to begin with, but the home brew talent in town is insane, and we've thought that for a long time. That's a good chunk of the reason we wanted to do this, just because these guys don't get to share their product with people all of the time," said Shea Dawson, owner of Thirsty Street.
In an Iron Chef-style competition, the brewers were made aware of what style of beer they would create the night before the competition. They were tasked with brewing an American amber ale. The location and ingredients were provided by Thirsty Street, but the know-how and recipes came from the individual brewers.
"Finish drinking them and then brew them again. That's what you do, right? Brew the beer. Drink the beer. Brew the beer again," said Esther Davison, one of the only women in the competition.
The competition is unique, because normally home brewers have to mail their beer off for it to be judged. But the beers in the Billings Best Brew Off will be judged in the competition's namesake city and the winner will walk home with $1,000.
"The public is going to be able to try these beers, so there's a little bit of pressure. It's one thing to send your beer that you've already brewed to a competition. No one knows about it. But this is all happening live and it is happening in May and we're all going to get to try it. I think it's very unique," said Dawson.
On Saturday, the brewers crafted a sweet concoction known as a wort that can not yet be called beer. The sugars in the wort will provide food for the yeast, which is added at a later step. Then it's the yeast's job to eat the sugar and ferment to produce alcohol. The beers will all stay at Thirsty Street for their fermentation process.
Home brewer Mark Dickson has been making his own beer for about eight years, but this is his first competition. He's hoping the judges will smile on his recipe.
"I started off with a beer that I really liked, then I played with the different ingredients and changed them out to what was available here and also altered it a bit to bring a bit more character that I wanted to add," Dickson said.
Judging will take place inside Thirsty Street at The Garage on May 15 at 2 p.m. A panel of local professional brewers and a few special guests will decide who wins, but the public will also get a chance to taste each beer for a small entry fee, Dawson said.
"Just from what I'm seeing right now, I think they're going to be a lot different from one another. So I think there's going to be a lot of variety," Dawson said.
The judging will kick off Billings Craft Beer Week, with many breweries around town holding special events over the course of the week.
