If you are willing to judge or steward, please return to register on or after Sunday, January 25, 2026 8:00 AM, PST.

PLEASE NOTE: ENTRY LIMIT CAPPED AT THREE (3) PER ENTRANT FOR THE FIRST TWO WEEKS.  The goal is to allow entry for all individual entrants who wish to participate.

This competition is AHA sanctioned and open to any amateur homebrewer age 21 or older.

All mailed entries must be received at the mailing location by the shipping deadline - please allow for shipping time.

All entries will be picked up from drop-off locations the day of the drop-off deadline.  Bottle sort will take place the day after the shipping deadline.  Please ensure that all entries are delivered prior to the deadlines.

All entries must be handcrafted products, containing ingredients available to the general public, and made using private equipment by hobbyist brewers (i.e., no use of commercial facilities or Brew on Premises operations, supplies, etc.).

The competition organizers are not responsible for mis-categorized entries, mailed entries that are not received by the entry deadline, or entries that arrived damaged.

The competition organizers reserve the right to combine styles for judging and to restructure awards as needed depending upon the quantity and quality of entries.

Qualified judging of all entries is the primary goal of our event. Judges will evaluate and score each entry. The average of the scores will rank each entry in its category. Each flight will have at least one BJCP judge ranked Certified or higher.

Entrants may only enter each beer subcategory once; entrants may enter up to two entries in each mead or cider sub-category, so long as each entry is unique enough to be judged as a separate and distinct entry.

Entries will be grouped according to BJCP style guidelines with a minimum of 42 tables (34 beer, 4 cider, 4 mead).  The competition organizers reserve the right to break large categories into smaller categories for judging and awards purposes.  Medals will be awarded to first, second, and third place in each category.

The Best of Show judging will be determined by a Best of Show panel based on a second judging of the first place entries in each category.

Bottles will not be returned to entrants.

Entry Acceptance Rules

Preserving anonymity: to prevent bias in judging, please use bottles and caps that prevent association with a brewer or region.  Bottles or cans should be free of any print or embossing.  Caps should be silver, gold or black - if a cap is a different color or contains print or logos, it should be blacked out completely.

12oz brown, green or clear glass bottles are acceptable; black or silver cans (that fit into a standard case box) are acceptable.  Swing top bottles and corked bottles will be accepted so long as they fit into a standard case box.

NOTE: Bottles must fit in a standard case box for 12oz long neck bottles (no taller than 9.75" and no wider than 2.75" in diameter) to be stored safely.  Bottles that exceed the dimensions (height or width) of a standard 12 oz bottle cannot be stored in cold storage and therefore will not be judged. 

NOTE: Smaller bottles will be accepted, but may not contain enough volume to be judged by a full panel and mini-BOS.  Send smaller bottles at your own discretion.

Bottles will not be returned to contest entrants.

Entry labels generated by the competition software must be submitted with each entry and can be printed directly from this website. Entry paperwork should be attached to bottles by rubberband only (no glue, no tape).  Please print labels at 100% size - do not reduce the size of printed labels.  It is acceptable to laminate or enclose the label in a plastic bag to prevent condensation damage to the label.

Be meticulous about noting any special ingredients that must be specified. Failure to note such ingredients may impact the judges' scoring of your entry.

Entry Fees

$12.00 (USD) per entry.

Entry Limits

Entry Limit – Paid:

650

Entry Limits Per Participant

Per Style Entry Limit:

1

Per Style Exceptions Limit:

2

Style Exceptions:

• M1A: Dry Mead
• M1B: Semi-Sweet Mead
• M1C: Sweet Mead
• M2A: Cyser
• M2B: Pyment
• M2C: Berry Mead
• M2D: Stone Fruit Mead
• M2E: Melomel
• M3A: Fruit and Spice Mead
• M3B: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Mead
• M4A: Braggot
• M4B: Historical Mead
• M4C: Experimental Mead
• C1A: Common Cider
• C1B: Heirloom Cider
• C1C: English Cider
• C1D: French Cider
• C1E: Spanish Cider
• C2A: New England Cider
• C2B: Applewine
• C2C: Ice Cider
• C2D: Fire Cider
• C3A: Fruit Cider
• C3B: Spiced Cider
• C3C: Experimental Cider
• C4A: Common Perry
• C4B: Heirloom Perry
• C4C: Ice Perry
• C4D: Experimental Perry

Pay Entry Fees

After creating your account and adding your entries to the system, you must pay your entry fee(s). Accepted payment methods are:

• Credit/debit card and e-check, via PayPal

BJCP 2021 / 2025 Styles Accepted

Indicates that the style's entry limit has been reached and no more entries of that style will be accepted.

Drop-Off Locations

Entry bottles accepted at our drop-off locations Monday, April 6, 2026 8:00 AM, PDT — Wednesday, April 15, 2026 5:00 PM, PDT.

Please pay attention to the notes provided for each drop-off location. There could be earlier deadlines for some drop-off locations listed, particular hours when entries are accepted, certain individuals to leave your entries with, etc. All entrants are responsible for reading the information provided by the organizers for each drop-off location.

AleSmith
9990 AleSmith Court, San Diego, CA 92126
(858) 549 -9888
*Shipping & judging location. Please pay attention to business hours.

SoCal Brewing Supply
747 Shadowridge Drive, Vista, California 92083
(760) 420-3774
*Business Hours: M-F 9a-530p; Sat & Sun 9a-12p. Entries must be received no later than 5pm on Wednesday 2/15/2026.

Windsor Anaheim
1045 N Armando St, Suite E, Anaheim, CA 92806
(714) 666-8727
*Drop off during business hours only. Entries must be received no later than 5pm on Wednesday 2/15/2026.

Windsor Costa Mesa
743 Baker St, Suite D, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 668-9850
*Drop off during business hours only. Entries must be received no later than 5pm on Wednesday 2/15/2026.

Shipping Info

Entry bottles accepted at our shipping location Monday, April 6, 2026 8:00 AM, PDT — Friday, April 17, 2026 5:00 PM, PDT.

Ship entries to:

AFC2026 c/o AleSmith Brewing Company
9990 AleSmith Ct, San Diego, CA 92126

Packing and Shipping

Carefully pack your entries in a sturdy box. Line the inside of your carton with a bag (i.e. zip top or plastic trash bag). Partition and pack each bottle with adequate packaging material - bubble wrap is preferred. Please do not over pack!

Write clearly: Fragile. This Side Up. on the package.

You may enclose each of your bottle labels in a small zip-top bag before attaching to their respective bottles. This way it makes it possible for the organizer to identify specifically which entry has broken if there is damage during shipment.  DO NOT GLUE OR TAPE ENTRY LABELS TO YOUR BOTTLES.

Every reasonable effort will be made to contact entrants whose bottles have broken to make arrangements for sending replacement bottles.

Judging Sessions

Pre-Judging Tuesday
Sunday, April 19, 2026 8:00 AM, PDT

Pre-Judging Thursday
Thursday, April 23, 2026 8:00 AM, PDT

Main Judging Saturday AM
Saturday, April 25, 2026 8:00 AM, PDT

Main Judging Saturday PM
Saturday, April 25, 2026 12:00 PM, PDT

Main Judging Sunday AM
Sunday, April 26, 2026 8:00 AM, PDT

Main Judging Sunday PM (If Needed)
Sunday, April 26, 2026 12:00 PM, PDT

BOS
Sunday, April 26, 2026 12:01 PM, PDT

Best of Show

Traditional BOS plaques will be awarded for 1st Place BOS in Beer and 1st Place BOS in Mead/Cider.

Additional BOS prizes may be awarded (TBD).

Awards

The awards ceremony will take place after judging is completed.

Medals will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each category/table.

*NEW FOR 2026* first place medal winners at each table will also receive an embroidered patch.

AFC has historically run one table for every BJCP category.  We are using 2021 Beer Guidelines (34 categories), 2025 Cider Guidelines (4 categories) and 2015 Mead Guidelines (4 categoires) - which means there will be at least 42 tables - each with 1st, 2nd and 3rd placement awards. We will not collapse tables, even if there are a limited number of entries in a specific category.  If there are a signficant number of entries in a specific sub-category, we reserve the right to judge that sub-category as a separate table and would award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places accordingly.

The 1st place entry from each table will advance to the Best of Show (BOS) round with a single, overall BOS beer and overall BOS mead/cider selected.

Additional prizes may be awarded to those winners present at the awards ceremony at the discretion of the competition organizers.

Brew Machine: The brewer who accumulates the most total points (6pts 1st, 4pts 2nd, 2pts 3rd) in beer categories will be named the "Brew Machine".

Awards will be available for pick up at the awards ceremony; awards not picked up at the awards ceremony will be mailed out the following week. Scoresheets will be made available online through this site after the awards ceremony concludes.

Awards Ceremony

TBD
TBD - San Diego, CA
Saturday, May 9, 2026 1:00 PM, PDT

Circuit Qualification

AFC is part of the Master Homebrewer Program Circuit of America, the California Homebrewers Association Club of the Year circuit, and the California Homebrewers Circuit.