We frequently get messages from people who have won a Steinholding competition at a local brewery, festival, bar, etc., and want to know how they can move on to compete in as part of a larger competition. Unfortunately, not all Steinholding competitions are created equal and not all competitions qualify you to move on to something bigger and the different types of competitions may be run differently. We've seen how confusing this can be for aspiring competitors who are trying to get themselves into the sport, and for venues who want to host a competition that feeds into a bigger program.
For competitors, in many cases, it can be difficult to know in advance how any given competition location will run its event, but for the structured competitions, there are some guidelines that you can count on. Your best bet is always to contact a venue directly to verify the details before you make your plans to compete, but since that doesn't always work, we put this guide together to give you an idea of what to expect with the major competition types. As always, our advice is that you should plan and train for the most difficult conditions because there's no telling how any given venue will run their competition.
NOTE: We want to clarify right up front that winning a competition at a U.S. Steinholding Association (USSA) Member Venue or at a USSA State Championship Qualifying Venue DOES NOT enroll you into the Hofbräu Masskrugstemmen Championship Series. We work with Hofbräu extensively to build the sport and to cross-promote Steinholding events, but our competition programs are completely separate. We created the USSA State Championship Tournament Program to start laying the groundwork for an eventual USSA National Championship Series in the coming years and to improve the quality of competitions at venues that are committed to Steinholding. Becoming a member of U.S. Steinholding Association is a great place to start for venues that are just beginning to build their in-house competitions and for veteran competition locations alike. We provide member venues with extensive informational resources, expert support, merch discounts, extra cross-promotion, and more to help make their competition events the best they can be.
Format Overview: We require U.S. Steinholding Association Member Venue competitions and USSA State Championship competitions to meet certain requirements to ensure consistency and quality. As we mentioned above, Member Venue Competitions and USSA State Championship Qualifying venues don't all automatically send competitors to the next level of competition, BUT some of them do. Check our Competition Map to be sure. Member Venues have a green beer stein icon and Member Venues that are qualifying locations for a USSA State Championship tournament will say so when you click on the green beer stein icon.
Whether they send competitors to a higher level of competition or host independent competitions, membership requires a commitment from the competition venue to meet several requirements and involves coordination and communication with the U.S. Steinholding Association. Participation in the U.S. Steinholding Association Venue Membership Program also requires an annual registration; more information is available here.
Locations: Check out our Competition Map where Member Venue locations are marked with green beer stein icons as discussed above. The USSA Venue Membership program was launched in 2020 and the USSA State Championship program was launched in 2021, and we're currently building out the network of locations across the country, so check out the Venue Membership page and State Championship program page for details if you'd like your venue to be a part of the U.S. Steinholding Association family.
The Stein/The Rules: A competition sanctioned by the U.S. Steinholding Association is required to use the traditional dimpled 1L glass stein and must to use the current version of U.S. Steinholding Association official rules.
Format Overview: Hofbräu (correctly pronounced something like "HOAF-broy" in German, although most Americans call it "HOFF-brow") recognizes a number of locations across the country as official qualifying locations. Some locations may change from year to year, but many of the venues have been involved consistently for over a decade. These locations are marked with a red dot on our competition map. Participation in the Hofbräu Masskrugstemmen Championship tournament requires a couple of things from the venue:
Participating locations can choose for themselves how to structure their in-house qualifying round competitions. The venue can choose to charge an entry fee for each round of their competition to help cover the program and travel fees mentioned above. There are two common competition formats:
Depending on the venue and account type, there are three possible paths after the local competition. Venues work with their Hofbräu sales rep to work out the details and find the best option for their location:
Locations: Hofbräu locations are marked with red dots on the Competition Map. In a normal year, there are usually 30 - 40 Hofbräu qualifying competition locations nationwide. Anyone with a Hofbräu account and a love for Steinholding can register to sponsor a competition. Competition locations are wide-spread and range from the licensed Hofbräu-affiliated restaurants such as a number of Hofbräuhaus locations like Hofbräuhaus Las Vegas and Hofbräu Bierhaus NYC, to independent German restaurants, early-season Oktoberfest-style festivals, German-American Summer festivals, as well as beer bars, sports bars and everything in between.
The Stein: The Hofbräu competitions use the traditional 1L dimpled glass stein. The stein itself weighs about 3 pounds and will be filled with a liter of beer or water up to the 1L mark at the lip of the stein.
Rules: Most of the Hofbräu locations, especially those that have been involved for a while, take the competitions very seriously, so they are likely to be strict in their enforcement of the rules during competitions. The rules listed on our Official Steinholding Rules page are used by the judges at the Regional semi-finals and at the Hofbräu Masskrugstemmen Championship. These rules are also the gold standard that must be followed for a new national record to be considered valid by the U.S. Steinholding Association. All of the Hofbräu locations have these rules available, but not every location has a veteran group of judges on hand for their competitions, so there can always be variations in how strictly the rules are enforced on any given day.
Format Overview: While we strongly support the use of the official rules and the traditional dimpled 1L glass stein, U.S. Steinholding Association encourages anyone and everyone to host a competition that works for their particular event or venue. With that being said, from a competitor's perspective, this category can be kind of a crap-shoot. Individual bars, breweries, restaurants, festivals, etc., across the country host their own independent competitions. There are hundreds of them, with more popping up each year, and they all play by their own rules to some degree, which is fine and can add some fun variety as long as competitors know what to expect. They may have a group of local preliminary competitions at different venues around their town which lead into a local championship at a festival, for example. Or there might just be a single event. There's a ton of local variation.
Locations: There are hundreds of locations across the country that host independent competitions. We try to keep our Competition Map updated with as many of them as we can, and we're constantly adding more as we come across them. If you know of a competition that we've missed, or if you are going to be hosting your own competition, let us know and we'll get it added! Independent competitions are green dots on the map.
The Stein: There are a variety of options you might encounter. Some locations use the traditional dimpled glass 1L stein or the modern style smooth sided 1L stein. Some locations will use a plastic 1L stein or half liter glass stein or a plastic beer pitcher or something else altogether. It's usually just a matter of what kind of steins the venue had available. Scout ahead if you can and be ready for anything.
Rules: Most independent competitions follow the most basic of rules (straight arm, no spilling, arm parallel to the ground), but outside of that there can be a lot of variations. Some competitions will use a stein in each hand or allow you to hold the stein out at your side. Some competitions will be unisex rather than having a separate mens' and womens' division. Again, be ready for anything if you're going to be trying your hand at an independent competition, but most importantly HAVE FUN! If a competition near you is struggling to put on a solid competition and use consistent rules, let them know about the resources we have available here, and hopefully we can help!
Jim Banko is the founder of the U.S. Steinholding Association. He is the 2015 Hofbrau Masskrugstemmen National Champion and previous United States record holder for Steinholding with an official time of 17 minutes and 11 seconds.
