By Madie Murray
A record number of 16 entries challenged the judges for this year’s Orcas Home Brew Competition at the Cider and Mead Festival last Saturday on the Village Green.
Jim and Rachel proudly display their #1 plate along with their lucky number 13 winning home brew entry.
The coveted and beautiful custom Crow Valley first place plate went to Jim Litch and Rachel Bishop of Crozier Farm who had come in second for two years in a row and passionately wanted to beat Bob this year for the top spot. They did it with their 2012 blend of apples and Asian pears. It was “a bit sweet, a little sparkly and smooooooth,” according to the judges, Vince Carlson with Adytum Cellars in Zillah, Washington and Grace Larsen with Snowdrift Cider Company in Wenatche.
Second place went to Grace and Aaron of Anderson Cider with a “2012 cider made with cote de rhone yeast and scrumpy San Juan and Orcas apples.” Third place went to Ken Wood with his 2012 organic cider from 100+ year old King trees from the old Thompson homestead with a touch of honey.
In case you’re wondering about Bob, his first place brew from last year made with apples and raisins placed fourth this year, which is an amazing showing taking into account that he was up against twice as many brews this year. He graciously relinquished his crown for this year, but promised to be back next year to keep the pressure on.
Our very sincere thanks to all those who entered the competition, to Bob for allowing us to exploit his last year’s number one achievement, and to our Competition emcee, Ron Gilliland, for artfully handling the intense and awesome blow-by-blow activities. A huge thanks also to all the volunteers, producers and everyone who contributed countless hours to making it all happen. Nice job everyone!
The competition was part of the very successful Third Annual Cider and Mead Festival benefiting the Orcas Island Farm to Cafeteria Program that drew more than 380 visitors from as far away as Washington DC to taste amazing ciders and meads from 18 producers up and down the West Coast and Canada. A slide show of all the Cider and Mead Festival activities may be viewed on the Festival web site: www.orcasislandciderfest.org.
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