For four years now Chrissy Benoit has hosted spring and summer brew-offs for local amateurs brewers at her funkilicious Havana Hideout (509 Lake Ave., 561/585-8444 ) in Lake Worth.
This year’s Spring Brew-Off attracted almost twice its 100-person limit and awarded prizes to a trio of West Palm sudsers who hope to turn pro, plus Lake Worth’s Craig McBay.
Keith Spencer, Patrick Urrutia and Doug Gamester, aka High Noon Brewing, took the judges’ vote for best beer of the day with their Marxist-tinged (that would be Groucho, not Karl) Kinder Gentler Imperialist Stout, and earned the trio a free brewing session with the real pros at Boca’s Funky Buddha Lounge & Brewery.
McBay’s Island Hoppin’ Ale got best brew by popular vote, also best decorated booth, earning a five-gallon brewkit from AJ’s Beer City and a $50 gift certificate at the Hideout.
Benoit says she hopes to move the brew-off to a larger space in Lake Worth to allow more brewers and beerhounds to participate. The next brew-off, by the way, will be in October.
