Judge and Steward Registration is Open

If you have not registered and are willing to be a volunteer, please register.

If you have registered, log in and then choose Edit Account from the My Account menu indicated by the icon on the top menu.

The Bataille des Abeilles (Bah-tie day z'Abyay — Battle of the Bees) is a Mead-ONLY AHA sanctioned competition and open to any amateur homebrewer age 21 or older. (Bataille des Bières is our Beer-ONLY contest—enter your Beers there.)

All entries must be handcrafted products, containing ingredients available to the general public, and made using private equipment by hobbyist makers. (i.e., no use of commercial facilities or Brew on Premises operations, supplies, etc.)

The competition organizers are not responsible for mis-categorized entries, mailed entries that are not received by the entry deadline, or entries that arrived damaged.

The competition organizers reserve the right to combine styles for judging as needed depending upon the quantity of entries. All possible effort will be made to combine similar styles. All brews in combined categories will be judged according to the style they were originally entered in.

Qualified judging of all entries is the primary goal of our event. Judges will evaluate and score each entry. The judges will determine by consensus, the rank of each entry in its award-category.

Each flight will have at least one BJCP judge.

Your entries will be judged in 'beverage clean' glassware - not plastic cups!!

Entry Acceptance Rules

This competition will use the new 2026 BJCP Mead Guidelines.

Each entry will consist of THREE (3) capped, corked or swing-top bottles or cans that are void of all identifying information, including labels and embossing. Printed caps are allowed, but must be blacked out completely.

There are three (3) possible judging rounds. DO NOT submit only 1 or 2 bottles unless you are sending at least 750ml total of still Mead per entry. All carbonated Meads should be submitted in three (3) individual small bottles per entry.

12oz. amber/brown glass bottles are preferred, however, green and clear glass will be accepted. Bottles will not be returned to contest entrants.

Makers are not limited to one entry in each category but may only enter each subcategory once, unless where otherwise excepted.

Be meticulous about noting any special ingredients that must be specified when creating your entry. Failure to note such ingredients may impact the judges' scoring of your entry.

All shipped entries must be received at the receiving location by the indicated deadlines—please allow for shipping time.

All other entries will be picked up from drop-off locations the day of the drop-off deadline.

We reserve the right to refuse any late entry.

**NOTE** If paying online via PayPal, it is very important to click the link to return to this competition site on the payment confirmation page! Otherwise, your payment may not be reflected properly, and someone else may steal your spot. If you do not see your payment reflected on this site, you did not follow instructions. Contact us to confirm we received your payment. Duplicated payments will be treated as donations.

Entry Fees

$12.00 (USD) per entry.

Entry Limits

Entry Limit:

40

Entry Limit – Paid:

32

Entry Limits by Medal Category

Entry Limits Per Participant

Per Style Entry Limit:

1

Pay Entry Fees

After creating your account and adding your entries to the system, you must pay your entry fee(s). Accepted payment methods are:

• Cash
• Check, made out to Dead Yeast Society
• Credit/debit card and e-check, via PayPal

BJCP 2021 / 2025 / 2026 Styles Accepted

Indicates that the style's entry limit has been reached and no more entries of that style will be accepted.

Drop-Off Locations

Entry bottles accepted at our drop-off locations Saturday, January 2, 2027 8:00 AM, CST — Friday, February 12, 2027 6:00 PM, CST.

Please pay attention to the notes provided for each drop-off location. There could be earlier deadlines for some drop-off locations listed, particular hours when entries are accepted, certain individuals to leave your entries with, etc. All entrants are responsible for reading the information provided by the organizers for each drop-off location.

Brewstock Homebrew Supplies
1300 S Broad Ave New Orleans, LA 70125
504-380-9040
*Not a shipping location! Verify open hours with Brewstock directly. Entries will be picked up Saturday, January 17th.

Jim Boudreaux - Hand Off
335 Rue Carnot, Carencro LA, 70520-5324
337-288-5450
*If you cannot ship to or drop off to our designated locations, it *might* be possible to personally hand your entries to Jim at an agreed upon time and location in the Lafayette/Carencro area. CALL him for arrangements

Sitta Brew Hub
618 FM 1959 Houston, TX 77034
281-500-8804
*Not a shipping location! Verify open hours with Sitta Brew Hub directly. Entries will be picked up Saturday, January 17th.

Judging Sessions

Adopted Dog Brewing, Lafayette, LA - Morning
Saturday, February 27, 2027 9:00 AM, CST

Adopted Dog Brewing, Lafayette, LA - Afternoon
Saturday, February 27, 2027 1:00 PM, CST

Non-Judging Sessions

Sorting Party-DYS members only
Friday, February 19, 2027 6:00 PM, CST

Best of Show

The 1st-place entry in each award-table will advance to the Best of Show (BOS) round.

Best of Show will be determined by a Best of Show panel of Certified BJCP judges. (who are not contenders for the award with their own entry or entries)

1st, 2nd, & 3rd place Best of Show will be recognized and receive awards. Honorable Mention will also be announced.

Awards

Results will be announced once judging is completed.

Places will be awarded up to 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place in each award-category, for those entries achieving a minimum score, and depending on total number of entries in the category.

Additional prizes may be awarded to those winners present at the awards ceremony at the discretion of the competition organizers.

Awards will be hand-delivered or mailed to recipients at a later date as they will be engraved with the relevant info about the category, entry, and maker.

Results will be posted to the competition web site after the ceremony concludes. We will attempt to live-stream the results announcement if at all possible.

Awards Ceremony

Adopted Dog Brewing
329 Dulles Dr, Lafayette, LA 70506
Saturday, February 27, 2027 5:00 PM, CST

Circuit Qualification

Our regional awards qualifying group is the Bayou State Circuit (usually called "Bayou Circuit").

The Bayou State Circuit is a homebrew competition circuit open to all Louisiana homebrewers.

Annual winners are determined by the number of points accrued through winning entries in participating local homebrew competitions.

Only Louisiana homebrewers are eligible for the Hombrewer of the Year award, and only Louisiana-based homebrew clubs are eligible for the Homebrew Club of the Year award.

However, Mead results do not currently count towards circuit standings.

For more information visit: The Bayou State Circuit