Thank you for your interest in the Lager Than Life organized by London Amateur Brewers, and Pillars Brewery, Walthamstow, London.

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 Lager Than Life!

There are 110 registered entries and 146 registered participants, judges, and stewards.

As of 14:18, GMT, there are 0 received and processed entries (this number will update as entries are picked up from drop-off locations and organized for judging).

Rules

Lager Than Life Homebrewing Competition is a BCJP-sanctioned competition where your lager beers are assessed by qualified judges against current BJCP 2021 style guidelines. Score sheets and written feedback will be provided for each entry. Prizes are awarded for Best of Show places.

The competition is open to all lager beers which were fermented using only lager (bottom-fermenting) yeast - those intended to be in the 2021 BJCP Guidelines - lagers, pilsners, bocks etc. Any other beer made with a lager yeast should be entered in one of the special or "other beer" categories, and be fully described by the entrant. Pressure fermentation is allowed as long as you use bottom-fermenting yeast.

If you need some advice on how to brew great lagers, this presentation by Graeme Coates, who is an excellent brewer and a prolific homebrew award winner, should help you understand how to brew a winning lager Graeme's presentation

After judging, the remaining portions of the entries will be available for sampling on Saturday 22nd March 2025 in the afternoon at the Pillars Brewery Taproom. Pillars will also have exciting craft lagers available for purchase on the day. Entrants may bring further examples of their entries to share.

It's always a great day where you can sample homebrew and commercial beers, as well as learn from experts and fellow homebrewers.

Style Guidelines & Eligibility

Entries will be assessed against the BJCP Style Guidelines 2021 available via this link (PDF).

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. 

Where

Pillars Brewery, London

When

Saturday 22nd March 2025

• Open to entrants/friends from 3 PM. Entrants' homebrew samples available as soon as judging is complete.
• Best of Show judging session - around 12 PM. 
• Awards Ceremony - sometime after 5 PM

Important Deadlines

• Register online and pay for all entries - no later than 2nd March 2025
  
• Delivery of entries to Pillars Brewery in person or by delivery service - to arrive no earlier than 14th March 2025 and no later than 21st March 2025 at 6 PM. Due to organisational reasons, we won't be accepting entries on the day of the competition.

Pillars Brewery drop-off times during the shipping window:

Monday - Thursday 10 AM - 5 PM

Friday 10 AM - 10 PM

Saturday 2 PM - 11 PM

Sunday 2 PM - 8 PM

Entry Cost & Essentials

The entry fee is £10.00 (plus any PayPal handling fees) per entry.

PayPal handling fees are beyond our control.

Competitors are encouraged to come along to the event, sample the entries and share their beers with their friends and fellow competitors.

Important information for overseas entrants: Due to potential limitations, we may be unable to ship certain prizes internationally if the associated costs exceed our budget. In such cases, we will work with the entrant to find a suitable alternative, or the entrant may choose to cover the additional expenses.

How to Enter

1. Register yourself on this site via the Home page, Enter your beer(s) into the correct category and pay the fee via PayPal using the My Info and Entries Info page of this site. For help selecting a category see the BJCP Style Guidelines 2021.  The Judges and organisers will not reclassify entries so please choose styles carefully. E-mail the Competition Organiser if you need guidance.
2. The last date for payment is 2nd March 2025
3. The last date for entry editing is 9th March 2025.
4. The last date for judge/steward registration and entry editing is 21st March 2025.
5. Label each of your beers as per the Bottle Acceptance Rules on the Entry Info page of this site.
6. Package your entries and then drop off or ship your entry to the drop-off location at Pillars Brewery.
7. Drop at, or ship to, the designated site to arrive NO EARLIER than 14th March 2024 and NO LATER than 21st March 2025 at 6 PM. Due to organisational reasons, we won't be accepting entries on the day of the competition.
8. Come along in person on Saturday 22nd March 2025 from 3 pm to sample beers with your fellow homebrewers and friends. 

Style and Award Categories

Styles will be grouped to form judging flights of similar styles or strengths of beers and to form roughly equal numbers on each table where possible. Beers will be judged against the style guideline under which they were entered. The best beers withing each flight will be judged against eachother to establish top 3 on the table (Judges can decide to reduce number of placing beers or add honourable mentions).

The 1st place entry in each group will advance to the Best of Show (BOS) round.

The overall winner prize will be announced shortly.

The competitions are non-profit. Funds from the competition are used to run the competition itself, including food provision for volunteers at the event. A small amount may be used to support the training of judges (for example to purchase off-flavour kits). Everything else is fed back as prizes or used to pay for up-front costs for the next competition. All the organisers and judges volunteer their time freely to support the homebrewing community.

Massive thanks to Alex Allen who prepared our fantastic competition poster!

Contact

In the first instance contact the Competition Organisers:

Lucas Stolarczyk, at beerheadman@gmail.com

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We will only use your personal data for the purpose of running the competition and will delete all personal data 12 months after the competition ends. A list of winners will be available on social media in perpetuity.

Judging Sessions

Lager Than Life 2025
Saturday 22 March, 2025 09:00, GMT

Competition Official

You can send an email to any of the following individuals via Contact.

• Lucas Stolarczyk — Competition Organiser

Sponsors

London Amateur Brewers is proud to have the following sponsors for the Lager Than Life.

London Amateur Brewers

London, UK

We are an enthusiastic and informal group of home-brewers from London and the Home Counties who meet to share their skills, knowledge (and beer), to widen their appreciation of the world's finest drink, and improve the beer they make themselves. If you're a beginner interested in getting into homebrewing or an experienced brewer looking to improve your beers, come along! We meet at 7pm on the first Monday of every month, at The Mash Paddle Brewery - 92 Enid St, London SE16 3RA. We also meet online once a month and everyone's welcome. Our meetings cater for a wide range of ages, and all levels of experience, from beginners looking to learn through to experts honing their technique. We are affiliated to the Craft Brewing Association, the only UK home-brewing organisation recognised by CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale.

Pillars Brewery

Walthamstow, London, UK

Our hosts, Pillars Brewery began like all craft breweries ought to: in a garden shed. They wanted to prove that a craft lager could be as tasty as its ale counterparts, and so re-inventing lager became their first mission. After years of experiments, they succeeded in developing a radical new lager recipe and swiftly set up shop in Walthamstow. Innovation and quality is at the heart of what they do. Pillars Brewery will keep on creating untraditional, groundbreaking craft lagers whilst maintaining the integrity of traditional beer making principles. Theye’re four blokes who developed a cracking lager, Gavin, Omar, Eamonn and Samie.

The Malt Miller

Swindon, UK

The Malt Miller was started in 2010 by Rob and Joanna Neale, they are an independent family business that prides its self in supplying home brewers and breweries with premium ingredients and equipment. As home brewers themselves they know how important it is to get the freshest ingredients possible, all of their malt is milled fresh to order, hops are nitrogen flushed and cold stored, there are over 250 yeast strains to choose from and you can even make your own bespoke Recipe Kits through their website.