Homebrewers face taste test competition

The Ale and Lager Enthusiasts of Saskatchewan is holding its 22nd annual ALES Homebrew Open at the Bushwakker BrewPub in Regina.

This year's competition has 645 entries from across Canada and $10,000 in prizes.

The ALES Openis one of the largest and longest running homebrew competitions in Canada.

Rick August is a certified national beer judge who is helping pick the winners.

"There are about 25 different major styles of beer recognized right now and about 100 substyles so you're expected to have a closed book knowledge of that," August said.

Judges give home brewers feedback on their brews and give advice on how to improve future batches.

"One of our roles in judging beer is to help people identify faults or flaws or ways they can improve the beer," August said. "Part of our training is to understand if there's a certain problem you perceive in the beer that you can actually give the homebrewer some advice on their score sheet on how to fix that."

Organizers say the competition helps support a growing number of craft breweries springing up across the province.

Judging began on Monday and will continue through the week at the Bushwakker BrewPub.

The awards ceremony will take place at the Bushwakker BrewPub on Saturday. 80 prizes will be awarded.