Style of the Quarter

The Style of the Quarter (SOQ) is a friendly, internal homebrew competition run for and by members of BAM, four times a year. The style is announced usually in the quarter before they are scheduled to be judged to give everyone a chance to craft something to enter.

The entries are judged by a mixture of BAM officers, members, and BJCP certified judges. Beers are judged based on the BJCP styleguide and score sheets.

Rules & Entry:

Entries should consist of two clean appropriately labeled 12oz capped bottles. The official label that you can print can be downloaded here: https://www.bjcp.org/docs/BJCP_BottleID.pdf. Use rubber bands to attach the labels to the bottles so they can be removed before judging. Having the bottles (including caps) indistinguishable from other members submissions helps for impartial unbiased blind judging.

The drop-off for entries is usually at Oak Barrel Wine Craft in Berkeley unless otherwise stated. Also, please don’t submit any swing top bottles as most likely you won’t get the bottles back from the judging.

Prizes:

1st place is awarded a $50 gift card to OakBarrel. 2nd place gets a $30 gift card, and 3rd place gets a $20 gift card.

Have a suggestion for an upcoming style? Notify the officers since the chosen styles are based off of the members interests.

2020 4th Quarter – Black is Beautiful

Black Is Beautiful

The style of the quarter Q4 will be as special one as it will go above and beyond our typical SOQ competitions.

The goal is to improve outreach and inclusion for Black people with regard to homebrewing and joining our awesome social club. BAM intends to share our passion for beer and interest in sharing something you can do solo, and especially during COVID-19 lockdown!

As we celebrate Black is Beautiful, we have several ways for our members to engage in the cause:

  1. SOQ competition will be held for beers that are black in color (SRM 40) but otherwise freestyle. 
    • All entrants will have a compulsory $10 entry fee (payment link), which will be retained for the collective BAM donation
    • All prize moneys will be retained for the collective BAM donation
    • For recipe inspiration, review the AHA official recipe here
  2. Members, independently of entries, may donate to the collective BAM donation with or without entering in the competition 
    • The collective BAM donation will be UnCommon Law, a local foundations that support police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged
    • We will create a donate button for BAM to solicit donations
  3. Tech and/or social committees and/or an ad-hoc committee will coordinate further engagement opportunities, aiming for at least one notable event/engagement this quarter
    • Other members are invited to participate in ideation or carrying out various tasks 
    • Ideas could include BAM members as guest speakers to Black social clubs.  Team up with a social group from Oakland
    • We can demonstrate brewing; share tastings (maybe)
    • Please reach out to tech@bayareamashers.org if you would like to get involved!


We will attempt to judge the competition beers safely using at least one designated dropoff location. The drop-off for entries is at (1) OakBarrel, or (2) Ian Carswell’s home in Berkeley using his safe bottle swap system (place bottles in the right-hand bin within the wooden box on his porch).

The entries are due at the end of the quarter on December 31. Note: if you are dropping off 2 bottles for entry plus more for sharing with the bottle swap system, please clearly label the two entries for judging as separate from those up for grabs by the club!

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Upcoming SOQ

  • 2021 SOQ 1: TBD

Past SOQs