Win a Case of Kate The Great

Yeah, you read that right. Looks like The Portsmouth Brewery will be giving away an entire care (and then some) of their famous Kate The Great Imperial Stout (the beer which was named the number two beer in the world by BeerAdvocate last year) on the next “Kate Day” which will take place on Monday, February 9, 2009, at precisely 1:14 PM.

What to do to win:

According to brewery owner Peter Egelston, winning won’t be easy; no random drawings or anything here. In fact, to win yourself a case of Kate you need to be a bit of a muse. According to Egelston,

you must impress us and your fellow beer lovers with your literary prowess by authoring a beer-related poem, essay or short story.

Works must be original and can be about beer, inspired by beer, or otherwise somehow related to beer. Essentially, just make sure your piece of writing mentions something about beer. According to the brewery, seven first place prizes — single bottles of “Kate” — will be awarded to winners in the following categories:

• Poems: sonnet, haiku, limerick, ballad or free verse
• Essays: between 500 and 2,000 words
• Short fiction: between 500 and 2,000 words

A Grand Prize of an entire case of Kate The Great will be selected from among the First Prize winners. Entries will be read by a panel of local literary luminaries and barflies and will be judged for originality, adherence to form, and how much the panel likes them.

The Fine Print:

Entries must be submitted — by emailing the brewery, regular mail (to the Portsmouth Brewery) or in person — by midnight on February 2, 2009.

• Winners will be announced on Kate Day (Feb 9th, 2009). Winning entries will be posted on our website and displayed in our front window.
• Winners do not have to be present on Kate Day, but must pick up their prize in person by the end of February.
• Entries must have sufficient merit in order to receive a prize. In other words, if yours is the only sonnet submitted, you may not win simply by default; we reserve the right to withhold prizes if no entries in any given category are deserving.

Good luck everyone; may the best (beer) writer win (and, if you do, let’s talk. I’ll do a great many things for a bottle of Kate)!