How does everybody deal with competition letdown? I mean, you think you have the best beer you’ve evermade, and the judges rip it to shreds! I just got the results from a local comp., two beers in the mid 20’s and one a 35. Just when I think I’m getting to be a good brewer, doing all the right things, starters, aeration, temp/ferm control, reading all the how to books, I just dont seem to be getting anywhere. I’ve had it with competitions. I like my beer and my friends like it too, that’s all that matters.
Wear the shoe when it fits. Take all judges comments with a grain of salt. Live and learn. Be happy and keep brewing (keep entering too).
It’s just the opinion of those people at that time on that day. If that’s your first comp, keep entering. You’ll be able to average out the opinions. And sit down with the beers that were judged and drink one while you read through the scoresheets. As often as not, I find a judge will pick up something I totally overlooked and find myself grateful for pointing it out.
You’ve already solved your problem.
Unless by entering comps you can learn something that will make your beer even better. I certainly have.
I think the key is to enter the competitions with the intent of getting feedback from trained judges, not necessarily winning. If they happen to like your beer, maybe you’ll medal. If not, oh well, you’ve gained lots of knowledge on how to make your beer even better. It seems like every time I enter 3-4 beers in a comp, the one I think is the best doesn’t do well, but one of my so-so beers ends up placing. It’s just the way it goes. I know that my palate is not as well-trained as a lot of the judges, so I really appreciate it when they pick up on things that I never even noticed.
That’s an easy one; I don’t participate in competitions.
You have a choice:
You could chock it up to “different judge, different day” and keep entering the same beer in hopes that the next set of judges agrees with you;
You could extrapolate from the comments and make your beer better the next time;
You could save all the beer for yourself and your friends and avoid competitions altogether.
I like to enter competitions and have won a stack of medals, but I’m looking seriously at comments lately because my percentage of winning is way down these days. I doubt that everybody else suddenly got better than me, so I’m looking at the comments to see what I may do to make improvements.
This is what I’ve been doing lately. I don’t enter the same beer into multiple competitions and I don’t take the score at face value.
I look at the comments the judges are making, and especially when there’s consistency in the comments between the judges, or if I get the same type of comments for multiple beers, I use that to try to diagnose what my process problems might be.
How can you say they teach you something when thread after thread people complain about questionable judging conditions, lack of feedback and beers that place in one comp and score bad in another? That’s why I got out of them. I felt I was chasing around trying to solve problems that never existed. My friends told me it was good and when I drank commercial craft beer, in many cases I preferred mine to theirs.
It’s kind of like when you are constantly hitting yourself in the head with a hammer. It sure feels good when you stop.
I brew with people who are serious comp brewers and they give me all the advice and knowledge I need. The important thing is what do you think of your beer. Competitions don’t really interest me, so don’t be to hard on yourself. Have fun and keep brewing.
I am my own (no mercy) judge. My “clientel” confirms what I already know. I don’t have to prove it by sparring with others. But, to each his own.
+1
Don’t really care. I feel I have a good palate and I know if something is wrong. If I don’t know how to fix it, I come here.
Keep in mind that BJCP comps don’t judge “what’s the best beer” they judge what is the best example to style. You may make a great beer but it may not fit into the judge’s mind into the category you’ve entered in. As an example, I believe if Dogfish Head 60minute IPA was entered into a BJCP comp, it’d score in the low to mid 30s.
Exactly, a competition is about style…if one didn’t brew the beer to style, one probably will not score well. FWIW a “good” beer should score at competition in the 30’s. The OP had two just below, so they probably missed stylistic attributes and one at a 35. I don’t see why there is dissapointment…
Any flaw free beer entered in the correct category (there is always a correct category) should score in the high 30s or better.
If you brew great beer and you can’t win medals consistently then you are either very bad at choosing where to enter or there is something wrong with your assumptions about the quality of your beer.
If you ever saw how I dressed, you’d know that style is not important to me. I’m guessing that around here, I’m not alone. 
[quote]How does everybody deal with competition letdown?
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I get inspired to try harder and make better beer. There are plenty of examples of judges giving conflicting comments (even in Zymurgy magazines commercial calibration tastings) but ime the majority of the time there is useful information in those scoresheets. I can’t in good conscience say I’m entering for the unbiased feedback and then get bent out of shape when I get just that. I have plenty of friends/family that will tell me my beer is good…I want real, unbiased feedback and I typically get that from competitions.
I entered a RIS in the NHC and it scored poorly (28). After I read the scoresheets and drank another one of those RIS I was almost embarrassed I entered it (and brewed it) as a RIS. It’s just a really strong brown ale, not a bad beer but not a RIS by any stretch. But prior to the comp I had been drinking it with full ‘knowledge’ that "this is a RIS’. So I kept tasting RIS when it really wasn’t. As much as we like to think we can be unbiased about such things, we’re all human.
But my dog is definitely smarter than everyone else’s…and as long as I never enter him in a competition he’ll stay that way. 
This will either lock the topic or my post will be deleted… probably. ;D
While I’ve yet to enter a beer competition, from what others have told me its like going to church, you want to belong to something greater than yourself and you need/want salvation. ;D
With that said… you might get a laugh out of this.
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