2023 Southern California Homebrewers Festival Information!
The 30th Southern California Homebrewers Festival will be May 5 & 6, 2023. It will be at Vail Lake KOA Resort, just outside Temecula, California. A 2022 History write-up can be found here.
The Southern California Homebrewers Festival brings together more than 40 homebrew beer clubs for a weekend of tasting and education. The night of Friday May 5 will feature a Pro Pour tasting from special commercial breweries, and a host of homebrew clubs. Saturday, May 6, the main event, has homebrew clubs pouring 11am – 9pm; an almost limitless selection of homebrew concoctions! Some footage from the 2016 Festival can be found here.
Bragging Rights Only Competition: This year’s style is International Lager, 2A and 2B only (BJCP 2021 Category 2), and citrus additions are allowed. Please specify if citrus is added to your entry. Rules are here.
The Boilover: During the day, we take a small break from guest speakers and bands to conduct our Grand Prize Raffle. The Boilover includes our CHA Club of the Year Trophy Ceremony!
Only California Homebrewers Association members can attend SCHF. 2023 CHA Membership and SCHF Registration is available in the Shop. There will be no Festival Admissions sold after May 3, 2023. Festival admission is a ticketless process; your legal state or federal ID is all you will need to bring. Emailed receipts are always recommended to have just in case of errors at the main gate. Your registration allows for in-and-out festival access to the during licensed event hours.
Camping/RV sites are available at Vail Lake, but fill up quickly. If you have trouble finding a site, reach out to your local homebrew club to see if they have extra space. If you are not camping at Vail Lake, Temecula has multiple hotel options. The CHA offers a free shuttle from Temecula on Saturday May 6. After getting an SCHF registration, please go back to the Shop to reserve a $0 shuttle pass.
Our homebrewers festival is rain or shine! Please see our Terms and Conditions for more info.
| Time | Event |
| May 3, 2024 | |
| 2:00 PM | Club Setup Opens |
| 2:30 PM | Ice service begins |
| 5:00 PM | Campground Shuttle Service Begins |
| 5:30 PM | Early Festival Check In Begins |
| 6:00 PM | Craft and Homebrew Pour Begins |
| 6:00 - 7:00 PM | Bragging Rights Entry Dropoff |
| 7:00 - 9:00 PM | DJ Kermie |
| 9:00 PM | Craft and Homebrew Pour Ends |
| 9:30 PM | Last Shuttle from festival area |
| 10:00 PM | Festival gates close for the evening |
| Saturday May 4 | |
| 7:00 AM | Club Setup Opens |
| 9:30 AM | Ice service begins |
| 10:00 AM | Mandatory Reps Meeting and Alcohol Server Training |
| 10:00 AM | Campground Shuttle Service Begins |
| 10:30 AM | Festival Check-in begins |
| 11:00 AM | Festival Starts |
| 11:00 AM | Announcements |
| 11:30 - 12:30 PM | Talk#1: Kim Prezbinbowski |
| 12:30 - 1:30 PM | Talk #2 : Denny Conn |
| 2:00 - 3:00 PM | Band: Your Mom Band |
| 3:30 - 4:00 PM | The Boilover |
| 4:30 - 6:30PM | Band: Maltose Falcon's Band |
| 7:00 - 9:00 PM | Band: Those Guys |
| 9:00 PM | Festival Ends, all attendees must leave the fest grounds |
| 9:30 PM | Last Shuttle from festival area |
| 10:00 PM | Festival Gates close for the evening |
| Sunday May 5 | |
| 8:00 AM | Clean up / Club booth tear down |
| 11:00 AM | Fest Tent breakdown, clubs must be out |