The National Homebrew Competition is taking place in less than a month now, so hopefully if you were planning on entering you have your beer at least brewed and fermenting.

The Bristol Homebrewers have organised the competition, and look to have done an excellent job on it, with lots of commercial support from the homebrew industry for the competition, heopfully that will be echoed by excellent support from us homebrewers submitting beers.

There are at least two good reasons to enter competitions, firstly there is the competitive element and to see how good your beer really is, in comparison to other homebrewers from around the country. The second reason is completely non-competitive. Competitions such as this allow you to get constructive feedback from judges that know the beer styles very well as to what faults may lie in your beer, so that you can improve and hone your beer.

Either way, it would be nice if a few Oxford Brewers submitted beers into the competition. If you wish to take part, entry information and further details can be found on the Bristol Homebrewers website at http://www.bristolhomebrewcompetition.org.uk/