In 2020, during a global pandemic, we created a new homebrew competition to focus on sour beer. It included a new digital judging platform that allowed for complete remote judging.

As we pulled out of the pandemic, we moved back to in-person judging, but kept using the digital platform. During that transition, nearly every competition now uses a digital platform for scoring and record-keeping. A necessity in the pandemic became a long-lasting improvement for competitions everywhere.

While digital scoring grew, sour beer declined. Interests changed, and in 2025, our competition only saw 50 entries. With that decline, we have decided to end the dedicated sour competition.

It was a good run with a lot of great beer and interesting times. Going forward, look to our main competition: https://brewingcompetitions.com/nordeasthbc/

Cheers!