The Great Southern Beer Festival

Greetings Homebrewers!

We are only 2 months out from the Great Southern Beer Festival (April 27th) so we are calling on you all! Dust off that brewing equipment because it is time to brew your very best recipes!

GSBF will be a serving event and will feature three awards this year, People's Choice, Brewer's Choice, and The Bootlegger. The People's Choice and Brewer’s Choice voting works as usual with the new wrinkle being The Bootlegger. This new award will utilize the People’s Choice voting, however, this award will go to the Brewer, or Team of Brewers that receive the highest TOTAL amount of People’s Choice votes across all of their beverages.

For example: Team A brings 4 beverages and gets 100 People’s Choice votes total (25 votes for each beverage). Team B brings 2 beverages and gets 75 total votes, but one of their beverages receives 30 People’s Choice votes. In this scenario Team A would win The Bootlegger, while Team B would win People’s Choice as they have the highest voted single beverage.

The purpose of this is two-fold:

1. To encourage our homebrewing community to brew multiple beverages for this event, which makes the event bigger and better (We all know that Homebrew is KING!!!)
2. To incentivize our homebrewing community to come together and collaborate

Our hope is that folks who do not have many opportunities to brew, or lack equipment, and/or maybe feel inexperienced, might be able to partner with someone and collaborate on a beverage!

GSBF Details:

Date: April 27, 2024

Time: 4pm - 9pm

Location: Turnbow Park and Emma Street, Downtown Springdale, AR

Set-Up: 9:00am - 3:00pm (please have all vehicles removed from Emma Street by 3:00pm and ready to serve by 3:45). More details soon on the specific drop off as we progress with planning.

Attire: It is STRONGLY suggested that everyone gets in the spirit of GSBF and that includes the proper attire. This event is the antithesis of Oktoberfest so instead of celebrating a successful harvest, we will be welcoming in a season of renewal where Spring in the South signifies the beginning of the farming season. We encourage everyone to dress in “southern” attire like overalls, country shirts, straw hats, cut off jean shorts, boots, etc.

Parking: There will be designated parking nearby and we will have volunteers there to show the way

What will be provided:

• Space to set-up and serve from
• Ice
• 1 Table (if needed)
• Glassware for serving
• 1 volunteer to help serve if needed. (You are allowed to bring your own volunteer. One volunteer per two kegs. One additional volunteer if you bring 4 kegs)

What you should bring:

• Beer!!! We prefer 5 gallon kegs but bring what you got!
• Tent - OZ has one and I believe between the clubs we have at least 3 more
• Equipment to serve your beer (jockey box, kegs, CO2, party taps, bottles, etc)*
• “Country Attire” - Think overalls, cut offs, boots, straw hats, etc….
• Tent Weights - It could be windy / rainy
• Weather Gear - This event is rain or shine
• Voting containers - For people’s choice. Each Beverage needs one. Feel free to decorate and get creative!

*If you need help with serving equipment (or anything really), please let us know! We are here to help everyone participate and have a great time!

GSBF Homebrewer’s Sign-Up

Sign-up will be on a Google Sheet (Click the link above). We will use this sheet for tallying the votes as well. Follow the first sign up as an example. It’s okay if you do not know what you are brewing yet.