Home brewers compete at Bend Fall Festival

Homebrewers: How would you like to have your beer judged by professional brewmasters?

That’s what happened at the first annual Deschutes Brewery homebrew competition Sunday at the Bend Fall Festival.

Fifteen homebrewers had the opportunity to be judged by four well-known Bend brewers: two brewers from Deschutes Brewery, one from Goodlife Brewing Company and the forth from Crux Fermentation Project.

We asked one of the judges, Casey Carhart from Deschutes Brewery, what goes into a good homebrew.

“Passion and love is the biggest thing,” Carhart said. “Brewing with whole grain and brewing with real hops, no extract makes a big difference.”

The beers were judged on color and appearance, aroma, bitterness, alcohol, flavor, carbonation and style.

The competition only accepted harvest or fresh-hop brews.

The lucky grand prize winner got a brew day with Deschutes Brewery brewer Robin Johnson.