Welcome to the 8th annual Valkyries Horn Mead Competition - 2026

Largest mead only competition in the Americas in 2025.

And... 2026 will be even bigger and better!

We welcome your participation and attendance, and look forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.

It's a new year, and there are some small date changes made to accommodate other competitions within the nearby time frame. This is our planned schedule:

12/27/25 - Competition site up and ready
01/02/26 - Registration opens
01/02/26 - Entries Open
01/16/26 - Shipping Opens
02/27/26 - Shipping and Local Dropoff DEADLINE
03/01/26 - Bottle Sort
03/14/26 - Pre-Judging Shakedown Cruize
03/20/26-03/21/26 JUDGING (Fri/Sat)
03/21/26 - Education/Awards
03/23/26 - Shipping of Awards begins

Judges, Stewards & Cellar

  • Judges need to bring a tablet or laptop because all evaluations are electronic. Judging on a phone is ... terrible, so please be prepared.
  • Volunteers should use scent neutral soaps and deodorants, no perfume or colognes.
  • Please arrive 15 minutes before any session for which you volunteered.

Judging Schedule

Forgotten Star Brewery

38 Northern Stacks Dr.
Fridley, MN 55421-2798

Private space at the North End

EDUCATION

  • Friday - all day (details to come)
  • Saturday: 3:30pm

Social Activities

  • Friday: Bottle share in the hotel party room, 8pm (ish) to ???, light snacks.
  • Saturday: BANQUET at 5:30pm (ish).
  • Saturday: Awards at 7pm.
  • Saturday: Hotel party room after awards w/bottle share, light snacks.

If you have not already registered and paid for the banquet and you want to attend, you need to use the link below to complete your registration by End Of Day 3/13/26.

Detailed banquet and schedule information is available at the home and commercial competition websites.

BANQUET SIGNUP

TBD

A few additional items for your consideration:

  • We have commemorative meads, glassware and more as a thank-you for your help - please bring a bag or other container so you don’t lose track of your gifts.
  • Bring boxes with dividers. Why? At the conclusion of awards you may take mead home that did not make it to the Best Of Show table. You will want to be prepared for this perk! All labels are anonymized and basic information is available.

 

Want to arrange a ride or other social activity?

A discord server is available to post messages to help those who don’t know many of the people attending. Use the link below to find the server. It works just fine without the app when you use a browser.

Key Dates

Shipping Opens (contact us for early shipping outside of USA)

Awards shipping

Excepting custom items, our goal is to have awards shipped 2 weeks after awards announcements.

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Volunteers

Whether you're an avid home brewer or a commercial meadery, there's a place for you here. Volunteers are a vital part of our competition and are invited to attend all events. We can't wait to see you!

Accomodations

We have secured a block of discounted rooms for the competition.

We encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to be safe, and enjoy exclusive use of a private party room for our bottle shares on Friday and Saturday nights.

We have a booking link that includes the discounted rate on the competition registration websites.

LivINN Hotels
5201 Central AVE NE
Fridley, MN 55421

763-571-9440
www.livinn.com

Entries and Registration

Get your evaluations by logging into the competition websites below. Navigate to your Account Details and scroll down or select "Entry Details". Scoresheets can be downloaded by selecting the icon that looks like a document on the far right of the entry details.

Commercial Competition

Home/Amateur Competition

Sponsors

Lost Cause Meadery - Best of Shot Sponsor

Gardner Bees -Executive Sponsor

Brimming Horn Meadery

Prairie Rose Meadery - Category Sponsor

Gibbons Honey Farms - Category Sponsor

Whitebear Meadery

Five Star Chemicals

Forgotten Star

Forgotten Star

Please contact us at [email protected] if you would like to be a sponsor.