Today we have a home brew expert panel on Brew Ha Ha with Pete Foppiano sitting in for Steve Jaxon, Mark Carpenter and Herlinda Heras. They have several guests, all are experts in home brewing. They are tasting some home brews which Mark says are delicious. There is a dark and a light, they are very dry, nice and thirst quenching. Scott Cradde is a co-producer of the Mendocino Home Brewers' Festival in Ukaiah in November. (The power is out in the studio today, due to fire danger, so there is no air conditioning and no wi-fi.)

There are other things to do around the event, with a farmers' market before it in the morning and an outdoor fashion show with local boutiques, afterwards. They have a top prize "The Brewer's Pick" gets to spend a day at Anderson Valley Brewing and brew the winning recipe. There is a people's choice award and a judge's award. There is also a prize for the best beer that uses local ingredients, whether hops or fruit used for flavoring. Wild yeast would qualify for the local ingredient too.

Two brewers that have won the event have gone pro and opened a new brewery. The judging is done all there that day. Mark asks if the judges and the people's choice have coincided. Not yet, they say. This year's results are on the Festival website, here. Apparently, the judges and the people did agree this year and both awarded first prize to Sempervirens DIPA by Matt Brown.