Chili, Collaboration and Crafting a Winning Brew

Every January, the Cape Beer Craft Beer Alliance gathers for its cherished tradition: an annual chili cook-off and ingredient selection.

The event is more than just a spicy culinary showdown; it’s the first step towards each brewery’s entry to the Ultimate Beer Championship (UBC), a highlight of the group’s annual Craft Beer Week, held this year March 21-29. The UBC kicks things off March 21, and the week culminates with Craft + Cuisine at Riverfront Park on March 29.

This year, 17 breweries participated in the chili cook-off. While taste-testing bowls of chili, the brewers also selected two key ingredients to inspire the beers they’ll create for the UBC, a blind-tasting event that invites the public to sample and vote for their favorite brews.

“The winner of the cook-off was DrumTrout Brewing, for the second year in a row,” said Beer Week co-chair Callan Trippe. “They did, however, have to battle it out with the runner-up, Salty Turtle, over a high-stakes game of Mario Kart to firmly secure that title.”

As for the ingredient selection, UBC organizers selected a long list of ingredients, ranging from average to exotic and just about everything in between, said Trippe. The ingredients were then projected onto a large screen for the draft. The breweries were all placed in a randomizer for first picks and then went from last to first for the second pick.

“The brewers get a little bit competitive over the ingredient draft,” said Jud Watkins, owner of Wrightsville Beach Brewery and Brunswick Beer & Cider. “But it ensures that it’s a completely random selection of ingredients, some more challenging to work with than others. And the folks that come out to the UBC are guaranteed to see completely different beers from anything they’ve seen at any of our other events.”

This year’s UBC, held on March 21st at the Brooklyn Arts Center, will include grand entrances by the brewers, complete with entrance songs, lights and glow-stick necklaces for attendees to cheer them on. Each brewery will prepare a skit to perform, bringing a fun, theatrical element to the event.

“Breweries are encouraged to pick a theme, and not only dress up, but create their own props and set pieces,” said Trippe. “Over the years we’ve seen a giant walking White Claw can, yachts, dinosaurs, mermaids, luchadors, rodeos and Willy Wonka and his Oompa-Loompas. There are entire worlds packed into the span of a three-minute song, which is pretty spectacular to say the least.”

In addition to a wrestling belt trophy and bragging rights, the brewery crowned UBC champion earns the right to host a special collaboration brewing session and have its beer featured at special events during the following year’s Craft Beer Week. This collaborative brewing session brings Alliance members together to brainstorm and share tricks of the trade.

On a frosty morning earlier this month, brewers gathered at last year’s winning brewery, Brunswick Beer & Cider, to share coffee and breakfast and be a part of the first stages of this year’s collaboration brew, a West Coast pilsner.

By early March, the beer will be ready to drink, and each brewery within the Alliance will have the opportunity to serve it. Brunswick Beer & Cider will also be able to offer it to its wholesale accounts.

“There’s a great camaraderie that goes into brewing the collaboration beer,” said Watkins. “We look forward to pouring it at Craft + Cuisine and are excited for the next opportunity to compete at the UBC.”