Thank you for your interest in the LAB Open 2024 organized by London Amateur Brewers, c/o Hammerton Brewery, Unit 8 & 9 Roman Way Industrial Estate, 149 Roman Way, London, N7 8XH.

You only need to register your information once and can return to this site to enter more brews or edit the brews you've entered. You can even pay your entry fees online if you wish.

Thanks and Good Luck To All Who Entered the LAB Open 2024!

There are 300 registered entries and 207 registered participants, judges, and stewards.

As of 07:52, BST, there are 300 received and processed entries (this number will update as entries are picked up from drop-off locations and organized for judging).

Rules

IMPORTANT NOTE - UPDATE - 1 May 2024

We have now locked editing of entries ahead of LAB Open 2024, to allow the organisers to design balanced tables of beer and prepare paperwork.

Due to a quirk in the competition software, locking editing of entries requires us to set the shipping window at a date in the past(!). As referenced in emails to entrants, the actual competition shipping dates are Friday 10 May to Thursday 16 May, 2024 (e.g., the same dates and times as shown on box on the right, but 2024 not 2023!).

LAB Open 2024 is here!

The LAB Open Competition and Festival is a BJCP sanctioned competition where your homebrewed beers are assessed by qualified judges against current style guidelines.

Score sheets and written feedback are provided on each entry. Rosettes, certificates and prizes are awarded in each of 12 (or more) category groupings and for Best of Show places.

The beers are made available to sample and discuss with fellow competitors and friends in a festival-type setting on the afternoon of Sunday, May 19th from 1:30PM - providing a unique opportunity to sample hundreds of homebrews, arranged in their style groupings, with great and excellent examples of the styles flagged. A rare chance to compare your beers against others brewed to the same style, or just to explore the wide range of styles being made today.

This year the competition and festival will again take place at Hammerton Brewery, Islington, London. Registered competition brewers and staff (judges, stewards, organisers) will receive free entry to the festival.

Beers will be assessed against BJCP Style Guidelines 2021 available via this link.

Eligibility: This competition is open to everyone, worldwide. Competition Organizers, staff, judges and stewards may enter the competition. Measures are in place to ensure fair, anonymous, judging. Judges and stewards will not be assigned to categories that they have entered. Entries must have been made at home. Those made in commercial establishments, including brew-on-premise establishments, are not eligible.

ENTRY ACCEPTANCE RULES

Volume required (per entry) but bring more if you like:

3 bottles or cans of volume between 330-500ml. Please use the same shape/capacity vessel and same bottle-top colour for all 3 bottles/cans of a single entry if possible as this makes it easier for us to sort, store and identify entries. Please do not enter bottles/cans with volumes below 330ml (to ensure there is enough to judge and present). Please do not enter bottles/cans with volume >500ml or bottles that exceed 28cm in height when capped, as outsize vessels are difficult for us to store in the limited cold storage space available to us ahead of judging and tasting.

As this is a home brew competition and festival only one bottle/can is certain to be judged.

The remainder will be available for sampling to all attendees after judging. This is a great learning opportunity for attendees and judges and we appreciate having enough of your beer for this rare experience to sample beers of one style category set out side by side, with good and excellent examples of the style flagged.

One bottle/can will be judged in the first round. A second, fresh, bottle will be judged if the beer progresses to Best of Show.

Remaining bottles/cans that did not progress to Best of Show and the remaining beer not assessed during Best Of Show judging will be available for sampling after the event. You're more than welcome to attend, try your own and other entries, and bring along extra. Any extra bottles may be labelled as you wish.

Empty or unopened bottles/cans will not be returned. They can be collected at the end of the event, from 6PM. If not collected or drunk at event, they become organiser/judge rewards.

Labelling Bottles and Cans

Print out an entry label from this site and then attach to each bottle/can WITH CLEAR PACKING TAPE.

No other label or identifiable information should be present. All requisite paperwork must be submitted with each entry and can be printed directly from this website.

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

ALL ENTRIES MUST BE BOXED, EVEN WHEN DELIVERING IN PERSON. This is to enable easy storage and movement and reduces the risk of breakages and loss.

For any queries, in the first instance contact the Competition Organisers

PACKAGING AND SHIPPING RULES

Carefully pack your entries in a sturdy box. Line the inside of your carton with a plastic trash bag. Partition and pack each bottle with adequate packaging material. Please do not over pack!

Write clearly: Fragile. This Side Up. on the package. Please only use bubble wrap as your packing material.

Print out an entry label from this site and then attach to each bottle/can WITH CLEAR PACKING TAPE.

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

For entries shipped from within the UK, please address to:

Hammerton Brewery
Unit 8 & 9 Roman Way Industrial Estate, 149 Roman Way, London, N7 8XH

For entries shipped from outside the UK, please address to:

Hammerton
Unit 8 & 9 Roman Way Industrial Estate, 149 Roman Way, London, United Kingdom, N7 8XH