2008 Home Mead Maker Competition

Held at the International Mead Competition

in scenic Boulder, Colorado at the Outlook Hotel

2008 will mark the third annual HMMC in and the quality of the mead that is being entered in each category just keeps getting better and better. This year since the International Mead Festival had to be cancelled, we will hold only one round of judging which will encompass all first, second, medall and best of show rounds. This will be especially historic since we'll have expert judges from commercial meaderies across the USA as usual, and also from Canada, Poland and the Slovak Republic. Watch for those business cards on their score sheets.

As always we will have an overview on the process of judging mead along with a judges' review and orientation session. The orientation will be followed with a review of BJCP style guidelines, and supplemental style reference packages will be placed at each table. Also as usual we will have a wonderful group of mead knowledgeable stewards there to assist and serve our judges.

We are especially proud to announce that Dani Parris-Exline will be our Steward Manager this year!

Judging will be conducted under the watchful eye of 2008 HMMC Judge Director, Glenn Exline. Judging will take place on Saturday, February 9 and our expert judging panel will be comprised commercial mead makers, BJCP certified judges, industry experts, and mead luminaries. We like to keep it as mead-centric as we can with persnickety palates, discerning noses and an intense commitment to and enjoyment of mead.

Our competition committee is comprised of people from different geographic locations, different mead making backgrounds and different experience levels which gives us a very diverse and well balanced gathering of talent and experience to make the HMMC a great experience for all who enter. Devora Lee, our 2008 Competition Facilitator and Entry Registrar has accounted for and organized all your entries and has them stored safely and securely for competition day. We're working on forming new partnerships with other competitions to ensure that the HMMC continues to evolve and grow each year into a world-class event.

Of course no event can be well run and organized without the many volunteers who are so willing to donate their time and effort to help ensure that everyone and everything is taken care of before, during and after that competition. All of the HMMC volunteers are organized and assigned to where they are needed most by our very own 2008 Competition Volunteer Supervisor Sheron Buchele-Rowland.

Please take a moment to visit the websites of our very generous sponsors. Special thanks to Wayne Boncyk, our 2008 Competition Sponsor Manager for hunting down websites, logos, and wrangling all of the donations shipped to the competition by our sponsors!

A new focus in 2008

The HMMC is part of the International Mead Competition which also hosts the Comemercial Mead Competition. Both events were previously associated with the International Mead Association and are still focused on promoting mead worldwide as a mainstream beverage to be enjoyed with meals, friends and family.

The HMMC is different from any other mead and homebrew competitions in that we are not sponsored by a single homebrew club. Our competition is sponsored by the International Mead Competition which is comprised of commercial mead makers, home mead makers, mead industry professionals and just plain mead enthusiasts. This really gives us a great deal of flexibility to structure our competition for continuous growth and build affiliations with other competitions and organizations.

As previously mentioned our competition committee is comprised of people from all over the USA with different levels of meadmaking, winemaking and brewing experience. This combination of regional diversity and differing perspectives provides the Home Mead Maker Competition with a rich pool of talent and experience that sets our competition apart.

Petar Bakulic, Chairman - 2008 International Home Mead Maker Competition

It's all about MEAD!