Virginia Craft Beer Cup
Entries
Judging
Entry Registration
Judge Registration
Steward Registration
Entry Drop-Off
Entry Shipping
Rules
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.
Entry Registration is Open
The Virginia Craft Beer Cup is open to Virginia Craft Brewers Guild Members ONLY.
In order to participate in the Cup competition all outstanding Guild membership dues must be paid prior to registration. If you have not yet paid your dues, you can do so using our Online Payment Form.
VCBG Craft breweries are defined as Small (annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less), independent (less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member that is not itself a craft brewer) and traditional (a brewer that has a majority of its total beverage alcohol volume in beers whose flavor derives from traditional or innovative brewing ingredients and their fermentation. Flavored malt beverages are not considered beers). If your brewery falls into this desgination but is not a VCBG member, you can join today using our Online Membership Application.
All beers entered in the Virginia Craft Beer Cup must be produced in Virginia and commercially available.
Cup Competition Fee
Registration is $100 per beer entry, up to 4 total entries.
What Does Your Fee Get You?
Registration fees include the submission of up to 4 beers to be judged. Registration fees are non-refundable.
Each VCBG member is limited to a total of 4 beers per brewery membership, not by the number of brewery locations you may have. If you have more than one brewery location, your 4 beer entries may be brewed at any of those locations. A fifth Pro-Am beer can be entered in 2026. You may not enter a fifth beer in lieu of a Pro-Am entry.
Your registration fee also grants your brewery 2 complimentary tickets to attend the VCBG Gala. Only breweries who submit 3 or more beers to this year's Competition will be eligible to receive their free tickets. Tickets may be used by any of your staff, and additional tickets are available for purchase. Check out the VCBG website for information about the annual gala.
Entry Acceptance Rules
Beer Submission Rules
You must submit a sample for EACH beer registered. You may use one of the recommended following 3 options for each entry:
- Four 12/16/22 oz. cans (preferred)
- Four 12/16/22 oz. bottles
- Four Crowlers
Submitting less than the recommended amount may limit beer being available for later rounds of judging. Growlers will be accepted but are not recommended for the competition.
Label Instructions
Every bottle, can, growler, or crowler MUST have a label on it or it can not be entered into the competition. Make sure the information on the label matches the entry registration information exactly and is properly affixed to your entry using rubber bands. The BCOE&M software will provide you labels to print and place on your submission.
Entry Info
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:
- Credit/debit card and e-check, via PayPal
BJCP 2015 / 2021 Styles Accepted
Indicates that the style's entry limit has been reached and no more entries of that style will be accepted.
| 1A American Light Lager | 1B American Lager | 1C Cream Ale |
| 1D American Wheat Beer | 2A International Pale Lager | 2B International Amber Lager |
| 2C International Dark Lager | 3A Czech Pale Lager | 3B Czech Premium Pale Lager |
| 3C Czech Amber Lager | 3D Czech Dark Lager | 4A Munich Helles |
| 4B Festbier | 4C Helles Bock | 5A German Leichtbier |
| 5B Kölsch | 5C German Helles Exportbier | 5D German Pils |
| 6A Märzen | 6B Rauchbier | 6C Dunkels Bock |
| 7A Vienna Lager | 7B Altbier | 8A Munich Dunkel |
| 8B Schwarzbier | 9A Doppelbock | 9B Eisbock |
| 9C Baltic Porter | 10A Weissbier | 10B Dunkels Weissbier |
| 10C Weizenbock | 11A Ordinary Bitter | 11B Best Bitter |
| 11C Strong Bitter | 12A British Golden Ale | 12B Australian Sparkling Ale |
| 12C English IPA | 13A Dark Mild | 13B British Brown Ale |
| 13C English Porter | 14A Scottish Light | 14B Scottish Heavy |
| 14C Scottish Export | 15A Irish Red Ale | 15B Irish Stout |
| 15C Irish Extra Stout | 16A Sweet Stout | 16B Oatmeal Stout |
| 16C Tropical Stout | 16D Foreign Extra Stout | 17A British Strong Ale |
| 17A1 Burton Ale | 17B Old Ale | 17C Wee Heavy |
| 17D English Barley Wine | 18A Blonde Ale | 18B American Pale Ale |
| 19A American Amber Ale | 19B California Common | 19C American Brown Ale |
| 20A American Porter | 20B American Stout | 20C Imperial Stout |
| 21A American IPA | 21B Specialty IPA | 21B1 Belgian IPA |
| 21B2 Black IPA | 21B3 Brown IPA | 21B4 Red IPA |
| 21B5 Rye IPA | 21B6 White IPA | 21B7 Brut IPA |
| 21C Hazy IPA | 22A Double IPA | 22B American Strong Ale |
| 22C American Barleywine | 22D Wheatwine | 23A Berliner Weisse |
| 23B Flanders Red Ale | 23C Oud Bruin | 23D Lambic |
| 23E Gueuze | 23F Fruit Lambic | 23G Gose |
| 24A Witbier | 24B Belgian Pale Ale | 24C Bière de Garde |
| 25A Belgian Blond Ale | 25B Saison | 25C Belgian Golden Strong Ale |
| 26A Belgian Single | 26B Belgian Dubbel | 26C Belgian Tripel |
| 26D Belgian Dark Strong Ale | 27A Historical Beer | 27A1 Kellerbier |
| 27A2 Kentucky Common | 27A3 Lichtenhainer | 27A4 London Brown Ale |
| 27A5 Piwo Grodziskie | 27A6 Pre-Prohibition Lager | 27A7 Pre-Prohibition Porter |
| 27A8 Roggenbier | 27A9 Sahti | 28A Brett Beer |
| 28B Mixed Fermentation Sour Beer | 28C Wild Specialty Beer | 28D Straight Sour Beer |
| 29A Fruit Beer | 29B Fruit and Spice Beer | 29C Specialty Fruit Beer |
| 29D Grape Ale | 30A Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer | 30B Autumn Seasonal Beer |
| 30C Winter Seasonal Beer | 30D Specialty Spice Beer | 31A Alternative Grain Beer |
| 31B Alternative Sugar Beer | 32A Classic Style Smoked Beer | 32B Specialty Smoked Beer |
| 33A Wood-Aged Beer | 33B Specialty Wood-Aged Beer | 34A Commercial Specialty Beer |
| 34B Mixed-Style Beer | 34C Experimental Beer | 50A Pro-Am (Custom Style) |
| LSX1 Dorada Pampeana | LSX2 IPA Argenta | LSX3 Italian Grape Ale |
| LSX4 Catharina Sour | LSX5 New Zealand Pilsner |
Entry Delivery
Entry bottles accepted at our drop-off locations Tuesday, May 26, 2026 9:00 AM, EDT — Thursday, May 28, 2026 5:00 PM, EDT.
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.
1301 Roseneath Rd, Richmond VA 23230
804-528-4482
*Judging will be done at the Operations Facility and not the Taproom location. Do not drop-off at the Taproom
Shipping Info
Entry bottles accepted at our shipping location Tuesday, May 26, 2026 9:00 AM, EDT — Thursday, May 28, 2026 5:00 PM, EDT.
Ship entries to:
The Veil Brewing Operations Facility
1301 Roseneath Rd, Richmond VA 23230
Packing and Shipping
Carefully pack your entries in a sturdy box. Line the inside of your carton with a plastic trash bag. Partition and pack each bottle with adequate packaging material. Please do not over pack!
Write clearly: Fragile. This Side Up. on the package. Please only use bubble wrap as your packing material.
Enclose each of your bottle labels in a small zip-top bag before attaching to their respective bottles. This way it makes it possible for the organizer to identify specifically which entry has broken if there is damage during shipment.
Every reasonable effort will be made to contact entrants whose bottles have broken to make arrangements for sending replacement bottles.
Judging Sessions
Test
Friday, May 29, 2026 10:00 AM, EDT
Friday, May 29 7:00pm
Friday, May 29, 2026 7:00 PM, EDT
Saturday, May 30 9:00am
Saturday, May 30, 2026 9:00 AM, EDT
Saturday, May 30 1:00pm
Saturday, May 30, 2026 1:00 PM, EDT
Pro-Am
Saturday, May 30, 2026 4:00 PM, EDT
Friday, June 5 7:00pm
Friday, June 5, 2026 7:00 PM, EDT
Saturday, June 6 9:00am
Saturday, June 6, 2026 9:00 AM, EDT
Saturday, June 6 1:00pm
Saturday, June 6, 2026 1:00 PM, EDT
Best of Show
Gold Medal Winners from each Table will automatically qualify for consideration in the Virginia Craft Beer Cup "Best of Show" Award. Our Best of Show winner will get their name on the Virginia Craft Beer Cup.
Awards
The winners of the Virginia Craft Beer Cup will be announced at our annual Gala. Check out our VCBG websitefor details.
Judging Guidelines
Entries will be judged according to the 2021 BJCP Style Guidelines. BJCP Certified judges will provide written feedback on each submission. Beers will be judged according to the style in which they were submitted, however, it does not necessarily mean award medals will go to the top three finishers in a category.
Entries may be collapsed by Style Family (forming Tables) in accordance with Appendix A-3 of the BJCP Guidelines. Based on the number of entries in a given category, some styles will be judged independently, while some styles may be collapsed further. All collapsing will be done under guidance from the BJCP Style Guide.
When judges decide a Table contains three excellent examples of the style, they award gold (1st place), silver (2nd place) and bronze (3rd place) medals. If judges think that no beer in the category meets the quality and style-accuracy criteria, they may elect not to award a medal. Judges may also award a silver or a bronze medal but not award a gold medal in a category. In addition, a judge may award an entry with an Honorable Mention.
Regardless, if only one beer is submitted for a specific style of beer, it will be judged against quality and style-accuracy criteria and judges may or may not award a medal.
Regardless of any collapsed categorization, scoring is based on how the judges evaluate a given entry against the style it was entered into.
Awards Ceremony
Farm Bureau Center at the Virginia State Fairgrounds in Doswell Virginia
13191 Dawn Blvd Doswell, VA 23047 United States
Monday, August 10, 2026 6:00 PM, EDT
Volunteers
Judges and Stewards
If you have registered, log in and then choose Edit Account from the My Account menu indicated by the icon on the top menu.
If you have not registered and are willing to be a judge or steward, please register.
Staff
If you would like to volunteer to be a competition staff member, please register or update your account to indicate that you wish to be a part of the competition staff.
Staff can indicate their availability for the following non-judging sessions:
- Sorting – Friday, May 29, 2026 9:00 AM, EDT
Other Volunteer Info
To ensure a successful competition, we will need plenty of volunteer judges and stewards. Please consider signing up for one of these roles. If you are from a brewery, please indicate which styles your brewery entered.
The Virginia Craft Brewers Guild is pleased to offer a special corporate rate of $159 per night for voluteers who wish to stay the night. This exclusive rate is available at the Courtyard Richmond Scott’s Addition, conveniently located just a few minutes from the host location for this years judging.
Contact
Use the form below to contact a competition official. All fields with a star are required.