Has anyone else had an experience where you submit entries to competition, then the judging coordinator reassigns your entry to a different category? I entered a 20A; basically a fruit beer with very mild wild yeast notes from the fruit that I noted in the description. It’s been moved against my wishes to a 34A Specialty Brett/Sour, and the coordinator has declined my request to return it to 20A.
To me, it’s a fruit beer first and foremost, with just a hint of wild. If it was a Brett/sour with a hint of fruit I would understand, but it’s not. I want it judged as a fruit beer. I do not want it judged against a flight of primarily sour or Brett beers where that character is the defining flavor. The coordinator told me it would be marked down in 20A if they tasted Brett notes, but I do not see anything in the 2008 guidelines that says wild yeast is inappropriate in 20A.
I feel I know my beer better than a comp coordinator who’s read a 50 character description of it. Anyone else experienced this?
I’m with you - seems a bit odd. A Berliner aged on fruit would go in 20A, and certainly it could have a hint of Brett, so what’s the difference? Maybe they’re hung up on base style? But still…
Agreed. Categories can easily be collapsed but your entry should not be placed elsewhere at the organizers discretion. Even if you entered the beer in the wrong category then you should be judged in that category albeit scoring lower than you would want.
If that happened to me, I would not enter that comp the following year.
Yeah I won’t be entering this competition next year. What’s scary is to quote the coordinator “It gets judged the same no matter what category it is in”. Uh, no, how it gets judged is highly dpendant on the style guidelines for that category. We’ve traded emails back and forth, but that this point I’m going to demand the original category, then contact BJCP to file a complaint.
Entrants are responsible for putting the beer into the category they desire. Although somebody may suggest a different category, it should only be a suggestion.
exactly. It’s his entry and he put it where he wanted it. Now, have I had some who put a beer in the wrong spot and didn’t understand it, as it was their first competition? sure. I called them and asked if I could move their coconut porter from 12B to 21A. Once they understood, they were happy I contacted them.
Ross isn’t a noob. IMO an organizer should respect his wishes or refund his money.
I’m in the same boat, had my fruit beer moved to category 34 against my will. Worse still, it is a clean fermented beer with tartness only from the fruit.
There are no style guidelines published for this category, just the name “specialty sour and brett beers”.
I had to dig pretty deep in the competition web site just to find out they even had this special category, sure didn’t know about it up front.
I’ve seen it before where other competitions have a specialty IPA category or similar, in that case it was prominently noted that any specialty IPA’s entered in 16E or 23 would be moved to the “Specialty IPA” category. I have no problem with that, as long as you know what you’re getting into up front.
I’m finding this topic to be disconcerting as I’ve submitted to one comp and have another coming up soon. I hope they may good on your firm request to place your beer where you entered it. Good luck on the comp!
I just want to go on the record and say that while KCBM 32 matches nearly all of the qualities of the comp mentioned here (judging dates, same circuits), it is certainly not KCBM 32. We would not move an entry and will call the entrant directly if we think that there is confusion to ask the entrant what they want to do.
