Tap New York Brew Competition 2025

Dear Brewers, 

To celebrate Tap® New York's return and to reinforce the festival's roots in celebrating craft brews, we are excited to promote two new categories for this year's competition:

  • Non-Alcholic Brews - alcohol content of .5% ABV or less qualifies as entry

  • Specialty Brews - brewed drinks such as Cider, Mead, Sake, Kombucha, or Hard Tea (*alcohol content should be produced by fermentation and not infusion or addition).

We hope by including these new categories and brew inclusions that the festival will truly represent not only the best of craft brewing but also an extended variety for attendees to enjoy. We look forward to tasting your unique brew!

PART 1 – Registration and Delivery for Competition

  1. Brewers are requested to identify and register their competition beers no later than May 30, 2025 through the link shown below.  Brewers can enter up to 3 beers for judging. Beers being entered for competitions must also be available for sampling by attendees at the festival. There is no limit to the amount or styles of additional beers you bring to serve at the event, however you need to ensure any beers entered for judging should be amply available for pouring throughout the weekend (equivalent to 2 kegs per beer). Use the link below to register your entries for the competition:

Tap® NY Competition Registration Form 

  1. All beers for competition must be delivered to Blackthorne Resort so as to arrive by noon on Tuesday, June 24. BlackThorne Resort will be accepting shipments beginning on Monday, June 11.  A copy of the beer registration form must be printed out and included with the shipment, with labels/tags affixed to the bottles. A copy of the form will be sent back to you along with labels for printing. Please ensure your entries will arrive at the Blackthorne Resort between June 18th to the 24th.  If you plan to hand deliver, contact Dale Handel for hours and delivery details, or call (518) 634-2541. 

Blackthorne Resort

ATTN: Dale Handel

348 Sunside Road, East Durham, NY 12423

  1. We accept bottles and cans ranging in size from 12 oz to 32 oz – no growlers.  Beer entries must be clearly labeled with the labels we provide to you. Labels should include your brewery name, beer name and beer category & style.  Three bottles/cans of each beer are requested for a maximum of 9 bottles/cans per brewery. Each competition beer must be entered in one of the sub-categories identified in the Competition Beer List that is provided with this letter. 

Part 2 - Awards and Judging Process

Tap® New York will present awards for the best breweries and the best beers in NEW YORK STATE determined by voting. The F.X. Matt Memorial Cup is presented to the best brewery in NEW STATE, the Matthew Vassar Brewers Cup is presented to the brewery with the most popular votes during the festival, and the Governor's Cup is presented for the best overall beer. All scoring is done by a panel of 3 judges.  All judging is blind.  Each beer is opened and poured in a secure area and delivered for judging by a designated steward.  Beer is judged per the sub-category selected under each main category.  Beers are categorized using the BJCP guidelines. Clear plastic tasting cups are used, similar to the ones used at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF). 

A minimum of 12 entries are required to establish a qualifying category for judging.  Otherwise, the styles are merged into a similar category to be judged.

When 2 or more panels are required to judge a single category with more than 12 entries, the top 2-3 beers from each panel are judged in a follow-up round to determine the top beer for that category.

Awards are also presented for best beers in each of the categories as described below.  Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals are awarded.  Certificates are sent to winners describing the medal awarded.

The Best Brewery (F.X. Matt Memorial Cup) is determined based on the total of the scores for the 3 beers judged, with bonus points awarded on a 3-2-1 basis for Gold-Silver-Bronze medal winners respectively.

For questions regarding the competition, please contact: 

Ken Soliz, Tap® New York Competition Coordinator, at ken@tap-ny.com.

Cheers,

Nat Collins

Founder and Partner