17th Annual ESB Home Brew Competition 2026

Thank you for your interest in the 17th Annual ESB Home Brew Competition 2026 organized by Extra Special Brewers.

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.

If you are willing to judge or steward, please return to register on or after Monday 1 June, 2026 10:00, AEST.

Rules

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.)

All mailed entries must be received at the shipping location by the deadline - please allow for shipping time. All entries will be picked up from drop-off locations the day of the drop-off deadline.

The competition organisers are not responsible for entries entered into the wrong style, mailed entries that are not received by the entry deadline, or entries that arrive damaged.

Qualified judging of all entries is an important goal of our event. Judges will evaluate and score each entry. The consensus of the scores will be used to rank each entry in its category.

In the event of tied scores in determining the first places, this will be resolved either by the judging panel during judging or using a progressive countback until the tie is resolved based on:

• highest score for Overall Impression;
• highest score for Flavour;
• smallest spread of individual judge scores
• the judging panel and/or head judge will resolve the tie.

Containers will not be returned to entrants.

Entry Acceptance Rules

Number of Bottles Required Per Entry: 1

Each entry will consist of capped/corked bottles or cans that are devoid of all identifying information, including labels and embossing. Printed caps are allowed but must be blacked out completely.

Each entry must consist of a single container of at least 500ml in volume (or 2 x 330ml) Cans and bottles, glass or plastic are acceptable. Swing top bottles, corked bottles and carbonation caps are also acceptable. Containers should not have any unique identifying features other than possibly a batch code.

Bottles and cans will not be returned to contest entrants.

Printed labels must be submitted with each entry and can be printed directly from this website (see printer symbol next to the entry in your entries table.) Entry labels should be attached to bottles/cans.

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

Payment for entry is via PayPal, with credit/debit card or PayPal balance, entrant pays transaction surcharge.

Brewers may enter multiple styles and categories, but may only enter each style once.

In registering for the competition and providing your name, email address and mobile number, you consent to receiving future communications from Extra Special Brewers, NSW Amateur Homebrew Association and our sponsors in connection with your entries into their category. Your information will be used solely for the purpose of sending relevant information, relating to this and future competitions. Your personal information will not be shared with third parties, except as required by law. You can opt out at any time by contacting us directly using the contact form

Competition Officials

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

• Simon Haynes — Website Coordinator
• Matt Reed — Competition Organiser