Thank you for your interest in the Your Honey or Your Life mead competition organized by The Barreled Bee, LLC, Portland, OR.

You only need to register your information once and can return to this site to enter more brews or edit the brews you've entered. You can even pay your entry fees online if you wish.

If you are willing to judge or steward, please return to register on or after Wednesday, April 16, 2025 4:00 AM, PDT.

Rules

This competition is open to any amateur homebrewer age 21 or older. No Cannabis/CBD meads allowed!

All mailed entries must be received at the mailing location by the shipping deadline - please allow for shipping time.

All entries will be picked up from drop-off locations the day of the drop-off deadline.

All entries must be handcrafted products, containing ingredients available to the general public, and made using private equipment by hobbyist brewers (i.e., no use of commercial facilities or Brew on Premises operations, supplies, etc.).

The competition organizers are not responsible for mis-categorized entries, mailed entries that are not received by the entry deadline, or entries that arrived damaged.

The competition organizers reserve the right to combine styles for judging and to restructure awards as needed depending upon the quantity and quality of entries.

Qualified judging of all entries is the primary goal of our event. Judges will evaluate and score each entry. The average of the scores will rank each entry in its category. Each flight will have at least one BJCP judge.

Brewers are not limited to one entry in each category but may only enter each subcategory once.

The competition committee reserves the right to combine overall style categories based on number of entries. All possible effort will be made to combine similar styles. All brews in combined categories will be judged according to the style they were originally entered in.

The Best of Show judging will be determined by a Best of Show panel based on a second judging of the top winners.

Bottles will not be returned to entrants.

SPECIALTY CATEGORY 

(Custom Style 35A) - Mead of Lore – "Brew a mystical mead!

Channel your inner adventurer with Legend of Zelda, World of Warcraft, Skyrim, or Dungeons & Dragons-inspired brews. Include an exotic element from the realms and weave its tale into your concoction's lore." – The brewer is free to pick any “known” mead from the above settings (D&D means any official setting and even Baldurs Gate 3 if it has a connection to the RPG). An exotic ingredient should be one not commonly used in brewing, i.e. – “eye of newt” = mustard seed. The exotic ingredient can be a flavor adjunct, rare honey, or even uncommon yeast strain; this category has flexibility, but we need to see a creative flair. Please include a brief description of how your mead fits your setting. If an adaptation of a published mead from the game, the maker may use the official description from said game.

Special category entries will count towards your total entries (after 4 entries discount rate applies). We only need 2 bottles. This category is not judged as part of the larger competition and is not eligible for Best of Show or a category win. The judging for this category will be livestreamed as we announce the category winners and Best of Show on August 11th at TPK Brewing.

Entry Acceptance Rules

Number of Bottles Required Per Entry: 3

Each entry will consist of 3 capped or corked bottles that are void of all identifying information, including labels and embossing. Printed caps are allowed, but must be blacked out completely. Min

12oz brown glass bottles are preferred; however, green and clear glass will be accepted, as well as corked bottles. No swing top bottles will be accepted. 6oz and 10oz bottles will be accepted.

Bottles will not be returned to contest entrants.

All requisite paperwork must be submitted with each entry and can be printed directly from this website. Entry paperwork should be attached to bottles by the method specified on the bottle label.

Be meticulous about noting any special ingredients that must be specified. Failure to note such ingredients may impact the judges' scoring of your entry.

Competition Official

You can send an email to any of the following individuals via Contact.

• Lee Hedgmon — Competition Coordinator

Sponsors

The Barreled Bee, LLC is proud to have the following sponsors for the Your Honey or Your Life.

The Barreled Bee

Portland, OR

All the Goodness of Barrel-Aging Brought to Honey

Geek In The City Radio

Portland, OR

The original pop culture podcast highlighting diversity in geek entertainment. Delivering pop culture news, reviews, and socially biting commentary since 2005.

FH Steinbart

Portland, OR

The oldest homebrew store in America, FH Steinbart has graciously offered to receive your shipped and hand delivered entries.