Welcome to Valkyries Horn Mead Competition

The 8th annual, 2026 Edition!

Entries and Registration

Create an account for Home or Commercial mead makers at the competition websites below.

After creating your account you can add your entries and payment. Completing payment will activate the option to print labels and ship your entries.
Or when the competition is completed, you may get your evaluations by logging into the competition websites below and 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

BREAKING NEWS:

Entry cap for the Home Mead Competition has been increased to 400.
This is the final increase for the 2026 competition year.

BJCP Mead Tasting Exam:

The Valkyries Horn Mead Competition has added a BJCP Mead tasting exam to the agenda.

To take the exam, you MUST be prepaid to reserve your seat. Maximum of 12, minimum of 6 examinees.
First 12 PAID examinees get seats.

Cost:
$25 - Existing BJCP Judge
$40 - New Judge

PayPal your fee to: [email protected]

To QUALIFY to take the BJCP Mead Tasting Exam, you must first take and pass the BJCP Mead Entrance Exam.  It is a 60 minute online OPEN BOOK exam of 200 questions, mostly T/F or Multiple Choice.  Please bring a copy of your PASS CERTIFICATE with you to the Tasting Exam.  The URL to sign up for the Entrance Exam is: https://bjcp.coursewebs.com/cart/Default.aspx

Additional details are available by contacting Al Boyce (email above).

The largest mead only competition in the Americas in 2025.

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

Shipping is open - get those meads ready and on their way.
Please pay attention to weather forecasts at origin and destination to avoid frozen bottles.

BANQUET:

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.

Banquet Payment

MENU

Chicken Tuscan Pasta
Mini Chicken & Waffles
Seasonal Salad
Mac & Cheese or Yellow Rice
Seasonal Fruit/Assorted desserts

 

 

 

Competition timing:

12/19/25 - Competition site up and ready
12/19/25 - Registration opens
01/02/26 - Entries Open
01/16/26 - Shipping Opens
02/27/26 - Shipping and Local Dropoff DEADLINE - 3pm
03/01/26 - Bottle Sort (if needed)
03/09-03/13 - In-person provisional Judge training/sensory class, timing TBD
03/14/26 - Pre-Judging Shakedown Cruize
03/19/26 - BJCP Mead Judge tasting exam @6:30pm
03/20/26-03/21/26 JUDGING (Fri/Sat)
03/20/26 - Education
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) AND
  • Friday - 3:00pm - 4:00pm Guest speaker:
    • Tom Repas - In Pursuit of Flavor - Finding Deliciousness in Mead
  • 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: Bottle share in the hotel party room, 9pm (ish) to ???, light snacks.

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.

DISCORD SERVER:

https://discord.gg/8frf7HsemD

Awards shipping

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

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Accommodations

We have secured a block of discounted rooms for the competition at $89 per night. Rates will change on February 20th.

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 for premium queen bed suites on the competition registration websites or at the link below. Lower rates may be available directly from the hotel for smaller rooms away from the courtyard.

LivINN Hotels
5201 Central AVE NE
Fridley, MN 55421

763-571-9440
VALKYRIES HORN ROOM BLOCK
www.livinn.com

Sponsors

Forgotten Star
Northern Brewer

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