Bob challenges YOU to beat his brew!

Bob challenges YOU to beat his brew!

By Madie Murray

Okay all you hard cider home brewers living on Orcas Island, it’s time to brew your best to beat Bob Vietzke, first place winner of the Cider Home Brew Competition at last year’s Orcas Island Cider and Mead Festival.  He’s been wallowing in all this glory for a full year, and he thinks it’s going to happen again.

You guessed it, he’ll be in it this year with another batch of his prize-winning cider, and challenges any hard cider or mead home brewer on Orcas who thinks theirs is better to try to take away his bid to win “BEST  BREW OF THE FEST” for the second year in a row!

In order to compete, all you need to do is bring your best Orcas brew to the Festival tent by noon on May 11.  The winners will be announced around 2.

The Orcas Home Brew Competition, open only to Orcas Island home brewers, is part of the Third Annual Orcas Island Cider and Mead Festival that will be held this year on Saturday, May 11 on the Eastsound Village Green from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. alongside the Farmers Market.

It promises to be the best ever with up to 20 hard cider and mead producers including Finnriver, Sky River, Alpenfire, Honey Run, Methow Valley Ciderhouse, Hidden Valley, Tieton Cider Works, Chaucers Mead, Crispin, 2 Towns, and Snowdrift expected to gather under the tasting tent offering 100+ varieties of ciders and meads produced in the Great Northwest and beyond.   Orcas Island musicians will be entertaining the throng and the Home Brew Competition to beat Bob will be held in the afternoon around 2.

It’s time to get brewing or check your rapidly vanishing inventory, and bring the best you can make to beat Bob!