Asheville man takes runner-up in National Homebrew Competition

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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An Asheville home-brewer has won national recognition for one of his homemade brews, yet another feather in the cap of Asheville’s growing beer accolades.

Norm Penn’s strong Scotch ale took second place in the Scottish and Irish Ale category of the American Homebrewers Association’s National Homebrew Competition. That’s huge, y’all.

The competition is the biggest beer competition in the world, with thousands of entries. The international competition recognizes the most outstanding homebrewed beer, mead and cider made by amateur brewers.

The American Homebrewers Association is a division of the Brewers Association, established 1978 in Boulder, Colorado. In 1979, 34 entries competed in the first National Homebrew Competition held in Boulder, Colorado. This year, a total of 1,310 brewers entered the competition in the first round. Following that, 455 brewers qualified to enter 840 brews in the final round, and 422 brewers sent in 760 entries.

There were 84 category awards possible in the Final Round, and 71 brewers won those awards.

List of all winners is here.

Congratulations, Norm! When can I taste your award-winning beer?