It’s T-Shirt Contest Time Again!

Man, oh man! Beer 2Up is coming again! I know I already mentioned that once but I’m just so excited. And it’s THIS SATURDAY, so I’m even more excited.

Like last year, we’re running a t-shirt contest at Beer 2Up! The rules are about the same (I’ll write ’em out below) and the prizes, as you might expect, are wildly different.

What YOU Could Win!

Grand Prize:

A pair of tickets to Midwest Brewers Fest. This is going to be a lot of fun, and I suspect Mr. Blah… Blah… BEER! and Mr. Subbeerbia will be there. You could spend the day drinking beer with whomever you brought along and getting to know brewers and so on. Mostly, beer. Did I say “beer fest” yet?

AND!! Begyle Brewing will give the winner and a guest a tour and tasting of their Ravenswood, Chicago facilities! And let me tell you, you don’t want to miss your chance to get at this. They have a lot of delicious beers and I can only imagine their set-up is amazing. I wish I could win this too. ALSO, BEER! This tour comes with a souvenir glass and three samples each! From a brewery that’s, literally community-supported (they sell or sold shares in their beer output like a community-supported agriculture program) AND has caught the attention of the Chicago-world quite thoroughly, as Zagat just named two of the three co-owners to it’s Chicago “30 under 30” list. The third, Kevin, just missed it by aging. Darn aging.

First Prize:

Big Shoulders Brewing and Ale Syndicate have both agreed to donate SHIRTS. Yes, show up in your styling shirts and you could win further stylish wardrobe additions. Ale Syndicate’s shirt will go to the winner of the “beer” category and Big Shoulders’ shirt will go to the winner of the “video game” category.

Second Prize:

First, let me say how EXCITED I am by this prize. I want this prize, but I’m not allowed to enter the contest. Booooooo. However, YOU could. And that is that in both categories, second prize will win a four-pack of Mash Tun Journal. Yes, that’s the first four of this pretty awesome journal of beer writing all in one place. I actually like them so much I buy one every time it comes out for me AND one to send to MBBB in Baltimore.

How YOU Can Win!

The best pat of t-shirt contests is that, generally speaking, they’re pretty simple. You have to wear clothing to get into Emporium Arcade anyway, so the only major added effort is picking out an awesome beer-themed or video game-themed t-shirt to wear.

However, there are a few niggling details you should probably be aware of:

First, the first and second prizes will be decided by a vote of the brewers in attendance and the bloggers in attendance. We’ll vote amongst ourselves between 2:00 pm CDT and 3:00 pm CDT. We’ll announce the prizes between 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm CDT. YOU MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN ANY AND ALL PRIZES. If we announce your name and you’re not there, we’ll have to give it all to someone else.

Part of why you MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN ANY AND ALL PRIZES is that we will then take a photograph of you and your bad-ass t-shirt to post on each of our blogs the next day (27 April) to throw the grand prize open to voting online. We’ll set up a poll on Facebook and for the period of 12:01 am CDT, 28 April 2014 to 11:59 pm CDT, 5 May 2014 people will be able to vote on which t-shirt of the two first prize winners they like best. That person will take home the grand prize of the tickets to Midwest Brewers Fest. Along with the awesome shirt they will have already collected!

We will contact the grand prize winner via email, which we will ONLY use to report on who won the grand prize. This will need to be a valid email address (and one you check reasonably often) because if the email bounces or if there is no response within three (3) days of that email going out, the two tickets will automatically default to the other winner. If THAT person also does not respond or their email bounces, the tickets will go unawarded. Which would be SO SAD. Truly sad.

A Big Thanks to The Sponsors of this Contest!

All of these prizes are donations, for which we are deeply grateful. So, please, take some time to check out Midwest Brewers Fest, Begyle Brewing, Big Shoulders Brewing, Ale Syndicate, and Mash Tun Journal. By donating these prizes, they have made what was going to be a great day even more fantastic.

THANKS, GUYS.

Tips and Tricks

Man. If you read all the way to here, then not only are you smart for making sure you know everything there is to know about this contest, but you deserve a couple of hints. Not many, but a couple.

First, make sure everyone with a vote sees your awesome shirt. I posit that the best way to make sure all the brewers see your shirt is to come at the beginning and stay to the end? Why? Because the first hour, noon to 1:00 pm CDT the brewers will all be at specific games, and you can challenge them for game dominance. ALSO, if you go to enough of them and chat with them, you and your t-shirt will be more memorable to more people.

Second, video game t-shirts were in short, short supply last year. Very. Beer t-shirts are rarely in short supply at a beer event. I assume you all are hearing what I’m saying.

Third, both brewing and blogging are fairly creative endeavors, which is part of why we get along so damn well with one another. We like creativity and creative people. Thus, I won’t say a homemade t-shirt is guaranteed to win anything, because it’s not. BUT a t-shirt you made, especially if you tell one or all of us the story behind it, is likely to be memorable. We want to see YOUR creativity too.

Finally, and I wish I didn’t have to say this one, but evidence from other events suggests I do1. You know what’s not going to win? And may get you removed from the event? Anything we deem offensive, hateful or just plain mean. Remember the event is supposed to be about fun, games and meeting new people. Don’t wear anything that’s going to make someone else feel unwelcome or, worse, unsafe.

With all that in mind, let’s see some awesome t-shirts at Beer 2Up!



1 Yes, I’m referencing the t-shirt that was for sale at Wonder Con. I saw it via this tweet from my Twitter friend, Aaron Duran, as well as from his retweet of the orignial picture, taken by Landry Q Walker. I don’t expect our event to need this warning, but I wouldn’t have expected a variety of things I’ve seen in the last year.