Local homebrewer a national semifinalist
Douglassville resident looking for votes to move to next level
DOUGLASSVILLE » Mark Witzel has been homebrewing beer for the past seven years. Two years ago, he started taking his brews to competitions — with some good results.
Now the Douglassville resident wants to take one of his brews to a much bigger stage — but he needs some help from the community to get there.
Witzel has been chosen as one of 10 semifinalists in this year’s Samuel Adams LongShot American Homebrew contest. A video he submitted to the company on his passion for homebrewing is on the contest website, http://bit. ly/2ut75NB, and Witzel is looking for people to vote for his video.
The five videos that receive the most votes from the public will move to the third and final phase of the contest — and the chance to win several prizes.
But there is a time constraint — the voting period is open through Friday, Aug. 18, at 11:59:59 p.m. Votes can be cast once per day, according to the rules.
Witzel is no stranger to the LongShot contest — one of his brews placed eighth in last year’s contest, which did not have the video component.
“I hadn’t planned to enter this year. But I decided I wanted another chance, so I made a last minute decision to go ahead and enter,” he said Tuesday.
Once the top five videos are determined, each finalist will submit a sample of their brew, which will be judged by a panel of Samuel Adams employees.
Witzel has already prepared
for the possibility that he will be moving to the final round.
“I brewed three beers this past weekend just in case,” he said, adding that he prepared a Dopplebock, a coffee pale ale and an English bitter. He plans to have friends and family help determine which is best.
The prize in this year’s LongShot contest is a “Brewership” — an immersive brewing experience at Samuel Adams’ Boston Brewery — working alongside the company’s team of brewers in the nano brewery, 10 barrel brewhouse and barrel room. It will also provide insight on the nuts and bolts of running a brewery, ingredient sourcing, quality assurance testing and packaging. In addition to the Brewership, the winner and the two runners-up will have the opportunity to attend the Great American Beer Festival as well as receive a scholarship for an online course at The Siebel Institute of Technology.
In addition, the winner will work with Samuel Adams to create a collaboration brew that will be sold in the winner’s hometown. According to a spokeswoman for Samuel Adams, it will likely be on draft.
“The craft beer revolution that we’re seeing today exists in part because of homebrewers who quit their desk job, like I did 33 years ago, to pursue their passion for brewing,” Jim Koch, founder and brewer of Samuel Adams said in a press release. “We updated our successful LongShot contest to not only recognize top homebrewing talent, but also to support the growth of the craft beer industry providing nuts and bolts advice and hands-on experience to make their brewing dreams a reality. We know the next generation of great craft brewers is out there and just need the extra support to go from a homebrewing system in a garage to a professional brewhouse.”
Witzel, who is an IT professional, said he started homebrewing because of the creativity it allowed.
“You can create your own recipe. There is also a science element to it. I am not big on the science side, I am a ‘cause and effect brewer,’” he said.
Witzel said he primarily likes to brew German style beers. In fact, his video includes a snippet of him saying — in German — that he brews with a “German beer machine.”
Witzel is president of the Bruclear homebrew club, which originated at Weak Knee Homebrew Supply on Charlotte Street in Pottstown.
“What is nice about homebrewing is that it is very collaborative. Homebrewers tend to share their recipes — that’s one thing I like about it,” he said.
The Samuel Adams LongShot American Homebrew contest was created 21 years ago to recognize homebrewers and has helped to launch professional brewing careers of several homebrewers.
Witzel said he would like to eventually retire from his IT career and open a small scale brewery.
“I want to brew my beer on my terms and I would be honored to have Samuel Adams help me make that happen,” he said in his video.
For more information visit www.samueladams. com. their business of normalizing rates and the balance sheet. But for now, they will have to be content with saying that inflation will reach the target in the medium term, however long that may be.