The Carolina Renaissance Festival is a medieval amusement park, a nine stage theater, a twenty acre circus, an arts and crafts fair, a jousting tournament and a feast all rolled into one non-stop day long adventure. The 11th annual festival will run weekends, Saturdays and Sundays, from October 2nd to November 14th, 2004. The fairgrounds are located just north of Charlotte off Highway 73 . 

To support this competition, Homebrew Adventures will have on sale its Crimson Oktoberfest and Sedylmayr Munich Dunkel recipes for the month of September. So start your burners! This competition is going to be a blast!

Now for the fine print:
 
• In order to provide you, the brewer, ample time to brew, condition, and bottle your beer, the judging will be conducted in February of 2005 by a panel of BJCP ranked judges. The judging will be blind and impartial. Entry deadline is 01/28/2005. Entry form PDF is available here. The judging will take place February 19th.

•Ship entries via UPS or FedEx to:
The Gambrinus Cup
c/o Homebrew Adventures
209 Iverson Way
Charlotte, NC 28203
We will be issuing store credits for
entry shipping costs up to $15.00.
 
• This will NOT be an AHA or BJCP sanctioned event. No entry fees will be required and no score sheets will be issued. This competition will essentially be a large 'Best of Show'.
 
• Two bottles will be required. Entries should be packaged in 12 oz. bottles without raised glass or any other markings. Caps should be plain gold or silver. Any designs or marking need to be blacked out with a magic marker.
 
• Remember that the winning batch will be brewed in a commercial facility. Step infusion mashes are possible but decoctions are not. Extract batches are welcome, but will need to be converted to grain.
 
Any questions or concerns should be addressed through the pinned thread on the HBA forums.

 

King Gambrinus: Who Was He?

King Gambrinus, known as "the patron saint of beer," has long been a universal symbol of beer and brewing. Particularly during the late nineteenth century, the image of Gambrinus was used by countless brewers to promote their products and remind consumers of the rich heritage of beer-making. Many breweries were even adorned with life-size statues of the King.


In 1891, George Ehret, the great New York City brewer, published a book entitled Twenty-Five Years of Brewing. In his book, Ehret briefly related the common wisdom as to the origins of King Gambrinus:

"While some attribute the invention of hopped malt-beer to Jan Primus (John I), a scion of the stock of Burgundy princes, who lived about the year 1251, others ascribe it to Jean Sans Peur (1371-1419), otherwise known as Ganbrivius. A corruption of either name may plausibly be shown to have resulted in the present name of the King of Beer, viz., Gambrinus, who we are accustomed to see represented in the habit of a knight of the middle-ages, with the occasional addition of a crown. Popular imagination, it seems, attached such great importance to beer, that in according the honor of its invention, it could not be satisfied with anything less than a king."

Source :www.beerhistory.com