BABO, is the Bay Area Brew Off homebrew competition.

The first BABO originated in 1986, the brain child of Judy Ashworth of the venerable Lyons Pub and Bob Hufford, the president of the Santa Clara Valley Brewer’s Association.  The Santa Clara Valley Brewers Association ran BABO the first 5 years of it’s existence from 1986 to 1990.

The Draught Board homebrew club joined the Santa Clara Valley Brewer’s Association, both jointly coordinating the competition.  Bob Hight, of the Santa Clara Valley Brewers Association and Bob Jones, from the Draught Board were joint coordinators.

The first 6 years of the competition, BABO was open to only 5 San Francisco area homebrew clubs.  The Santa Clara Valley Brewers Association, the Draught Board, the Wild Yeast Culture of Berkeley and the San Andreas Malts of San Francisco were the only 5 clubs to participate in those early years.

The Draught Board took over as the sole club organizing BABO in 1992, with Bob Jones as the Coordinator.  The Draught Board has continued to organize BABO to this day.

 Running a homebrew competition takes considerable effort and team work.  The club decided to take a break in 2001 as there were too few club members to make the competition successful.  The Alameda County Fair lost their experienced head judge at this time.  The fair contacted the Draught Board regarding interest in running the fair’s homebrew competition.  Starting in 2002 the Draught Board partnered with the Alameda County Fair to organize the homebrew competition and homebrew display at the Alameda County Fair.

• The Alameda County Fair has provided all the support we need (administration, venue, refrigeration, manpower and more).
• The Draught Board ensures all BJCP standards apply to running a top notch homebrew competition including soliciting experienced and BJCP ranked judges.

The last Draught Board organized Bay Area Brew Off was in 2023.
Please visit the Alameda County Fair to get details about the current homebrew competition.

Check out the “How we do BABO” website to get a sense of the various aspects of running a homebrew competition.

Many thanks to Draught Board member and BABO Cellar Master Paul Goularte for researching and putting together the above history.