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2024: Brewers and beer lovers raise another $7,362 for cancer research!

Posted on by Tim Maxwell

For the 10th time, the Buffalo beer community came together with two goals: enjoy delicious beer and raise some money for a great cause. Mission accomplished! The 10th Annual The Dude’s Homebrew Competition raised $7,362 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and with a record 38 beers registered in the competition, there was no shortage of great beer.

Thank You’s are in Order

Before we get to the results from the day, there are some important people and businesses we need to thank for their support of this event.

First and foremost, a HUGE thank you goes out to Jeff Ware, Andrew Zach, Conner Bradbury, Brigid Taylor, and the entire staff at Resurgence Brewing Company. To put it plainly, we couldn’t have this event without the generosity and hospitality of Resurgence, our presenting sponsor, and to say that we’re grateful for their support would be an understatement.

We also need to thank our distinguished official beer judges, who scored and provided feedback for all of the beers in our contest:

These experts all volunteered their time and talents to score our beers and choose an official judges’ Best in Show winner. We were so lucky to have them!

Of course, it wouldn’t be a homebrewing competition without the homebrewers, and Buffalo’s homebrewing community is second to none. A huge thank you to all of the brewers who donated their beer to the event, and a special shout out to the Niagara Association of Homebrewers and Sultans of Swig for their contributions towards making this event possible.

No event is complete without a great soundtrack, and the super talened Russ Burton once again provided that for us. Thanks for the playlist, Russ!

More thanks go out to Ellen, Meg, Hunter, Eric, Chris, and Andy, our defacto organizing committee who do a lot of the setup and work on the day of the event, and to our friends David and Tracey Gardon who show up every year to help us sell raffle tickets!

Finally, big thanks go out to our sponsors the Premier Group and Premier Gourmet, who support this event logistically every year.

The Results are in

Without further ado, here are the winners from the 2024 edition of The Dude’s Homebrew Competition. Click here for the complete results

Judges’ Panel Best in Show Selections

  1. Smoke on the Water (#18 on our roster) by Mark Zambron
  2. Práce Lásky 13° (Labor of Love 13°) (#33) by Chad Chyreck
  3. Tropic Tonic (#15) by Garreth Wippel
  4. Look What You Made Me Brew (#12) by The Ale Gals
  5. La Jolla (#7) by Dave Torchia

Popular Vote Top Three Finishers

  1. Look What You Made Me Brew (#12) by The Ale Gals: 89 pts
  2. Champagne Problems (#13) by The Ale Gals: 64 pts
  3. Pendejo Pale Ale (#3) by UG3 Brewers Association: 56 pts

Overall Standings Top Three (a combination of judges scores and popular vote)

  1. Look What You Made Me Brew (#12) by The Ale Gals: 128 pts
  2. Champagne Problems (#13) by The Ale Gals: 99.5 pts
  3. Pendejo Pale Ale (#3) by UG3 Brewers Association: 93 pts

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We hope to see you again in 2025.

Click here for the complete results

2023’s The Dude’s Homebrew Competition sets a new record: $7,328 for LLS and cancer research

Posted on by Tim Maxwell

The 9th annual The Dude’s Homebrew Competition on Sun, August 20th, 2023 was all about setting records. The most beers entered into the contest (35), the most money raised at the event ($7,328), and the most fun had by all who attended (subjective, but we think this is accurate). In other words, it was a resounding success!

» View the complete results from this year’s event

Before we announce all of the winners, there are a lot of people that deserve recognition for their amazing contributions to this event, starting with our presenting sponsor, Resurgence Brewing Company. Simply put, we couldn’t hold this event without them, and this is the ninth year that they’ve graciously hosted our event (and our second time at the brewery on Chicago Street). Big thanks go out to Jeff Ware, Conner Bradbury, Brigid Taylor, and the whole Resurgence team for their generosity and kindness. Thank you, Resurgence!

Of course, we also couldn’t hold a homebrewing competition without homebrewers, and this year’s participants once again proved that Buffalo’s homebrewing community is second to none. The variety and quality of the beers served at the event was spectacular. Special shoutouts go out to the Niagara Association of Homebrewers and Sultans of Swig for their support of this event. Thank you, homebrewers!

A special thank you also goes out to our judges panel. These brewers are experts of their trade, and leant their knowledge and palate to tasting and rating a massive number of beers for us. This year’s panel featured Ethan Cox who you know from Community Beer Works, Karl Kolbe of Pressure Drop, and Jesse Kiser and Joe Mikos from Resurgence. Thank you, guys!

More thanks go out to Russ Burton, curator of the Lebowski-themed soundtrack to the event, and MC of festivities. Russ has been helping The Dude Hates Cancer with events since we started up in 2012, and we couldn’t be more grateful for it. Thank you, Russ!

Let’s give a round of applause to our in-kind sponsors, Premier and Premier Gourmet. They provided our printed materials, helped us promote the event, and helped us with day-of-the-event logistics. Thank you, Premier Group! Special thanks also go to Pizza Plant for donating some free beer tickets, which went to two lucky winners in our 50/50 raffle.

Speaking of the 50/50 raffle, let’s put our hands together for David and Tracey Gardon, our 50/50 raffle sales team! Since we met these two many years back at one of the early homebrew competitions, they’ve been offering to help us and we couldn’t be more grateful. Similarly, Meg Maxwell, Ellen Notarius, Eric Sliwinski, and Hunter Lane were essential to the event’s success, whether it be by helping get everything set up, manning our registration table, entering judges’ scores, tabulating fundraising totals, or all of the above. Thank you, David, Tracey, Meg, Slu, Ellen, and Hunter!

Thanks to Andy Morin of Avenir Cine for taking video and photos of the event (in addition to helping to brew two of the beers). If you need video work done in Buffalo, Andy is your guy (his studio space is incredible, I hear)!

Finally, thanks to everyone that attended, donated, and voted in this year’s competition!

The Results

As mentioned, there were 35 entries in this year’s competition — all donated by the brewers — and the quality of the beers was incredible. Some beers stood out, however.

» View the complete results from this year’s event

The competition works like this. Our judges panel made up of expert brewers samples and scores all the beers, then chooses their three favorites for the Judges ‘Best in Show’ picks. Meanwhile, attendees that donate to the cause taste the beers and vote for their top three favorites. In the end, the winner is chosen by adding the average score from our judges’ panel to the vote tallies from attendees. Here’s how it all went:

Judges ‘Best in Show’ Selections:

  1. Fun Times at the Carnival – Saison (#32) (Brewers: Eric Tucker and Todd Kramer)
  2. Morse Code – Hazy IPA (#34) (Brewers: Michael Lane and Chad Chyreck)
  3. El Dorado Common – Cream Ale (#25) (Brewer: Gabe Tanyi)
  4. The Belge Lebrewski – Specialty Belgian IPA (#15) (Brewer: Dan Muffoletto)

Popular Vote Winners:
(3pts per 1st place vote, 2pts per 2nd place vote, 1pt per 3rd place vote)

  1. Hefe Another Bite – German Wheat Beer (#20) (Brewer: Jennifer Hare) – 73pts
  2. Fun Times at the Carnival – Saison (#32) (Brewers: Eric Tucker and Todd Kramer) – 53 pts
  3. “…this isn’t ‘Nam!’ – Fruit and Spice Beer (Brewers: Stumblin’ Falls Homebrew Club) – 48pts

Overall Winners (combined Judges + Pop. Vote):

  1. Hefe Another Bite – German Wheat Beer (#20) (Brewer: Jennifer Hare) – 98pts
  2. Fun Times at the Carnival – Saison (#32) (Brewers: Eric Tucker and Todd Kramer) – 92.5 pts
  3. “…this isn’t ‘Nam!’ – Fruit and Spice Beer (Brewers: Stumblin’ Falls Homebrew Club) – 83pts

Thanks again to everyone that made this possible. We look forward to seeing you again next year!