Thank you for your interest in the Valkyries Horn Commercial Mead Competition organized by Valkyries Horn Mead Competition, Minnesota.

You only need to register your information once and can return to this site to enter more brews or edit the brews you've entered. You can even pay your entry fees online if you wish.

If you are willing to judge or steward, please return to register on or after Monday 1 December, 2025 12:00 PM, CST.

Rules

This competition is BJCP sanctioned and open to COMMERCIAL meaderies. The HOME competition is located here:
https://home.valkyrieshorn.com/

Quality judging of all entries is a primary goal for our event. Judges will evaluate and score each entry. The consensus score will rank each entry in its category. ALL flights will have at least one BJCP certified mead judge, very experienced mead maker/judge, or professional mead maker.

We use full sensory written scoresheets (no sliders) for our evaluations.

Key competition dates:

Friday, December 19, 2025 - Registration open
Friday, January 2, 2026 5:00 PM CT - Entries open
Friday, January 16 - Shipping opens
Friday, February 27 3:00 PM CT - Delivery deadline
Friday, February 27 3:00 PM CT - Entries and changes close
Saturday, March 1, 10:00am - BOTTLE SORT (IF NEEDED)If you volunteer at the bottle sort, you may bring your entries with you!
Friday March 20 - Judging Day 1
Saturday, March 21 - Judging Day 2
Saturday, March 21 7:00 PM CT - Awards ceremony, in-person and live-streamed
Awards are open to home and commercial mead makers and their partners.

If you are a commercial meadmaker, you must enter the commercial competition.

Commercial Definition:
Within the USA, commercial is defined as having a TTB license to produce alcoholic beverages on, or before the date entry registration opens.

Outside of the USA, commercial is defined as production and sale of alcoholic beverages.

Current mead production employees must enter the commercial competition (servers and back office employees may enter the home competition).

Home Definition:
Home mead makers must make their mead outside of a commercial setting, including brew-on-premise sites, commercial collaborations, and "wort share" scenarios.

An entrant is one or more people submitting an entry. Entrant(s) of a mead must have actively contributed to mixing, fermenting, and bottling of an entry. If multiple people contributed to the making of a mead only ONE entry may be submitted from that collaboration.

Example: Tom made a mead with co-entrant Bob and entered an Orange Blossom traditional semi sweet. Bob may not enter the same mead as the lead with Tom as a co-entrant. Coordinate your entries so you are not disqualified!

Each entrant must be at least 21 years of age.

THREE bottles are recommended. Please see Entry Acceptance Rules for further details (THIS IS IMPORTANT).

Entrants may submit up to 10 entries.

Entrants may submit multiple entries per category and sub-category as long as they are distinctly different. You MAY NOT enter the same mead twice even if it is placed into a different category/sub-category. Please note co-entrant restrictions above.

To elaborate further: If you have a fireweed traditional that is borderline dry or semi-sweet you may NOT enter it in both categories - pick ONE.
You MAY enter the Fruit and Spice mead category with a Stinging Nettle and Orange mead and a Stinging Nettle and Pear mead.

Sub-Categories will not be combined (i.e. Braggot and Historical will not be smashed together).

Most of the sub-categories have been "pre-split" by sweetness and are shown as "special categories". Please enter your mead where it fits best by sweetness.

NOTE: we may combine dry and semi, or semi and sweet if one of the split sub-categories is small.

All entries become the property of the Valkyries Horn Mead Competition and will not be returned under any circumstances. Any questions or disputes will be settled by the competition organizers, and all decisions are final.

All mailed entries must be received at the mailing location by the shipping deadline. Please make allowances for shipping time and delivery truck difficulties. Package your entries well. Don't be the person that causes a shipper to reject all packages going to the shipping location.

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

The official style guidelines for this competition are the 2021 Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) Style Guidelines for Mead (which are actually 2015 edition).

Every entry must be assigned a particular category and sub-category by the entrant, and according to these guidelines.

Competition staff are not permitted to categorize entries that arrive unlabeled, illegible, or otherwise indiscernible as to the entry category.

Competition staff (including judges) are not permitted to re-classify or re-categorize incorrectly entered mead during the competition.

Please print the label with a laser printer, NOT inkjet - they blur and bleed when wet which could cause mis-identification of your mead. See labeling video linked under packaging and shipping information for details.

Entries in category M1 (Traditional Mead), M2 (Fruit Mead), M3 (Spiced Mead), and M4 (Specialty Mead), must specify carbonation level.

Entries in sub-category M2 (Other Fruit Melomel), must specify the varieties of fruit used.

Entries in sub-category M3 (Spiced Mead), must specify the types of spices used.

Entries in sub-category M4B (Specialty Mead - Historical) and M4C (Specialty Mead - Experimental), must describe the special nature of the mead, whether it is a combination of existing styles, an experimental mead, a historical mead, etc.

READ THE STYLE GUIDELINES CAREFULLY!

If you put your mead in the wrong sub-category it will not be eligible to medal no matter how good it actually is!

Just because it's something you've never done before does not make a mead experimental. It must be something that can't fit in any of the other categories to be experimental. If you have questions about this, please contact the organizer for clarification at info(at)ValkyriesHorn(dot)com.

SPECIAL CATEGORY:
Our special category for 2026 is PIE! The honey, pie character, and pie crust must be discernable. As always, the mead needs to be harmonious and pleasant to drink.

All registration must be completed online and all entries must have the website-generated bottle identification lables, which are only available after the payment is processed. Paper entries will not be accepted and will not be returned. Online entries are not confirmed until the payment is processed. The competition website will automatically close when the number of paid entries is reached. Entries may be modified (name, style, category, etc.) until the entry window closes.

We are holding the line against inflation with the entry fee remaining at $10.00. Payment by PayPal is REQUIRED when entering online.

NO REFUNDS FOR ANY REASON.

Winners will be announced at the award ceremony after judging is complete on Saturday. Entrants and competition staff are encouraged to join in-person. A live stream is expected (barring technical problems). Generous prizes and raffles are typically offered to in-person attendees courtesy of our sponsors.

Competition results and scoresheets will be available after the awards ceremony. Score sheets will be available only through the competition site (they will not be mailed) for six months before planning for the next competition begins. Score sheets are not retained beyond that period.

Entry Acceptance Rules

Number of Bottles Required Per Entry: 3

We prefer entries in 12oz brown glass bottles, however, we accept any packaging format.

Bottles will not be returned to contest entrants.

All requisite paperwork must be submitted with each entry and can be printed from the competition website. Entry paperwork should be attached to bottles by the method specified on the bottle label.

Be meticulous about noting any special ingredients. Failure to note such ingredients may impact the judges' scoring of your entry.

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INFORMATION REGARDING SERVING TEMPERATURES:

THE DEFAULT WILL BE AS FOLLOWS:

SPARKLING = CHILLED
PETILLANT = CELLAR TEMP
STILL = ROOM TEMP

If this does not match your requirements you may send a request to us VIA EMAIL PRIOR TO THE COMPETITION JUDGING DATES and we will do our best to honor your preference.
EMAIL HERE: info(at)ValkyriesHorn(dot)com

Each entry will consist of capped, corked or canned of any style and size. NOTE: We PREFER 12 oz. (355 ml) long neck beer bottles.

THREE BOTTLES ARE RECOMMENDED. Each bottle must be a minimum of 6 ounces (187 ml) but we will accept whatever bottles you send.

There will be 3 rounds of judging including Best Of Show. To help your decision making, you should know that we don't hold partial bottles for subsequent rounds of judging. A fresh bottle IS REQUIRED for each round. If you send fewer than 3 bottles or inadequate volume, your entry may be excluded form subsequent judging rounds and will be ineligible for awards.

We recommend inclusion of one 12oz. (or two 6oz.) bottles for use in the Best Of Show judging. The BOS judging panel will be 5 judges. If a re-pour is needed and you didn't send enough mead, your entry will not be eligible to win. This is YOUR decision. Choose wisely.

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Organizers will review descriptive information:

Ingredient information should not help identify a specific entrant (i.e. call it "Minnesota honey", not "Elk River honey").
Information that is not relevant to the mead WILL BE REMOVED at the discretion of the compoetition organizers.
Information that could reveal the mead maker to a friendly judge for special treatment or that violates the blind judging standard we adhere to WILL BE REMOVED.

If you have questions you may contact us at: info(at)ValkyriesHorn(dot).com

NOTE: Entries must arrive at the shipping location prior to the due date listed on the competition site.

Competition Official

You can send an email to any of the following individuals via Contact.

Kevin Meintsma — Competition Coordinator

Valkyries Horn Commercial Mead Competition

Rules

Entry Acceptance Rules

Competition Official

Sponsors

Account Registration is Open for Judges or Stewards Only

Valkyries Horn Commercial Mead Competition

Rules

Entry Acceptance Rules

Competition Official

Sponsors

Past Winners

Judging Sessions

Account Registration is Open for Judges or Stewards Only

Entry Registration Closed

Entry Drop-Off Closed

Entry Shipping Closed