Thank you for your interest in the Valhalla: The Mead-ing Of Life organized by Willie Wrede, Artifice Ales & Mead, 55 North Main Street Manheim, PA 17545.

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.

Entry Registration is Open

211 entries have been added to the system as of 5:23 AM, EST, Thursday, November 21, 2024. There is a limit of 250 entries for this competition.

184 paid entries are in the system as of 5:23 AM, EST, Thursday, November 21, 2024. There is a limit of 250 paid entries for this competition.

To add your entries into the system, please proceed through the registration process or log in if you already have an account.

Judge and Steward Registration is Open

If you have not registered and are willing to be a volunteer, please register.

If you have registered, log in and then choose Edit Account from the My Account menu indicated by the icon on the top menu.

Rules

This competition is an AHA and BJCP sanctioned event and open to any amateur meadmaker age 21 or older.

All mailed entries must be received at the mailing location by the shipping deadline. Please allow for shipping time.

All entries will be picked up from drop-off locations the day after the drop-off deadline.

All entries must be handcrafted products, containing ingredients available to the general public, and made using private equipment by hobbyist meadmakers (i.e. no use of commercial facilities or Brew-On-Premises operations, supplies, etc.).

The competition organizers are not responsible for miscategorized entries, mailed entries that are not received by the entry deadline, or entries that arrived damaged.

Qualified judging of all entries is the primary goal of our event. Judges will evaluate and score each entry against the 2015 BJCP Mead Style Guidelines. The consensus of the scores will rank each entry in its category. Each flight will have at least one BJCP judge.  That being said, historically speaking, almost all of judges are BJCP-certified and half have their mead certification.  

There is an entry limit of SIX entries per person.  Entrants are NOT limited to one entry in each category (Traditional, Fruit, Spiced or Specialty) or subcategory (for example: Dry Traditional, Semi-sweet Traditional, Sweet Traditional) as long as the meads entered in the same subcategory are clearly unique.

• For example, a meadmaker may enter two Sweet Traditional meads, one with clear Orange Blossom character and one with clear Star Thistle character. Entering the same mead with different carbonation or sweetness levels in the same substyle is not allowed and does not qualify as "clearly unique". 

The competition committee reserves the right to combine overall style or sub-categories based on number of entries for judging organization purposes. Every effort will be made to combine similar styles. All meads in combined categories will be judged according to the style they were originally entered in.

The Best of Show judging will be determined by a Best of Show panel based on a second judging of the top winners.

Bottles will not be returned to entrants.

For 2024: Safety of our judges and stewards continues to be our primary concern with Covid still lurking around. If possible and safe, some and potentially all judging may occur in-person.

If this can't happen in whole or in part, entries will be distributed to judges who will judge them at the same time over their preferred videoconference software of choice. Every effort will be made to ensure our normal high standards of judging quality.

Scoresheets will be available on this website only; no paper copies will be mailed.

Medals will be awarded to first, second, and third-place winners in each category, as well as Best Of Show and two runners-up.

Due to the difficulty of obtaining and distributing prizes during COVID, prizes may not be awarded along with medals. This is still under consideration, and this page will be updated accordingly. That being said, it is the organizer's intent to provide prizes for 1st place winners like in years ago.

Entry Acceptance Rules

Number of Bottles Required Per Entry: 2

Each entry will consist of two (2) bottles that are void of all identifying information, including labels and embossing.

• Printed caps are allowed, but must be blacked out completely.
• Customized corks with identifying information will be disqualified.
• 12oz capped bottles or corked 375 mL bottles are preferred.
• Corked and swing-top bottles will be accepted.
• Sizes from 6 - 22oz / 187 - 750ml will be accepted. 
• Bottles will not be returned to entrants.

All requisite paperwork must be submitted with each entry, and can be printed directly from this website. (Please be sure to print @ 100%, do not reduce-to-fit.) Entry paperwork should be attached to bottles via a rubber band.

Be meticulous about noting any special ingredients that must be specified. Failure to note such ingredients may impact the judges' evaluation and scoring of your entry. Of particular note, please remember to include the honey varietal if you want the judges to consider its character in their evaluations.

SPECIAL NOTE FOR 2024: TWO BOTTLES ARE REQUIRED REGARDLESS OF SIZE.
Due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, some or all of the judging may be conducted remotely. One bottle will be distributed to each judge.

• Submissions with two bottles will be judged, and may win their categories.
• Every effort will be made to judge in person this year, so the third bottle requirement from previous years is unnecessary.

Competition Official

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

• William Wrede — Organizer

Sponsors

Willie Wrede is proud to have the following sponsors for the Valhalla: The Mead-ing Of Life.

Dutch Gold

 

Sandt's Honey

 

AMMA

 

Keystone Homebrew Supply

 

Liquid Alchemy

 

Meduseld Meadery

 

The Colony Meadery

 

Walker Honey Farm

 

Wao Kele Honey