Marketing idea of the week: LUKI Brewery’s Big Brew Day contest

LUKI Brewery is launching a homebrew contest next month called Big Brew Day. The timing and specifics of the contest are cool: The Big Brew Day kicks off coincides with the 24th Annual American Homebrewers Association (AHA) Big Brew on Saturday, May 1, 2021. The homebrewing contest involves picking up samples of wort on May 1 and providing the finished beer for judging by May 29. One lucky winner will have their batch of beer brewed at scale and released during LUKI’s one-year anniversary in July.

For LUKI Brewery Co-Founders Cammy and Jeff Smith this competition pays homage to their early days of homebrewing before they opened their Arvada-based brewery last July.

“When Cammy and I were homebrewing, we loved dreaming up inventive ingredients and unique processes to try. To me, that’s the real DIY spirit of homebrewing,” says Jeff Smith.

How it works / How to win: On May 1, LUKI will brew with a malt bill that will be released to the public. From there, homebrewers will have the opportunity to receive a sample (five gallons) of the wort prior to boil to bring home and create a finished beer. Whether they want to sour it, age it in oak, or add some lactose, this will be an instance where homebrewers can let their imaginations run wild.

Entries cost $15 and homebrewers can register here to enter. Finished beers will need to be dropped off at LUKI Brewery by May 23 – 29 so that they can be submitted for judging in June. The commercial release of the winning beer will be available in early July just in time for LUKI’s one-year anniversary. Plus: $1 of every pint sold will also be donated to the winner’s charity of choice.

“With the competition, we really want to see what homebrewers can do outside of the typical ‘popular’ hops,” says Jeff Smith. “We want them to challenge the whole LUKI team, and the winning homebrew team, to take the artisanal qualities of a 5-gallon batch and work to develop a 217-gallon version.”