I’ve volunteered to judge a small homebrew contest tomorrow. As it turns out the format is kind of unusual. The entrants are supposed to supply 3gal, and after the judging takes place they are going to open up to the public for tasting. I didn’t know this until today. As it so happens I’m the only BJCP judge at the event. I told the guy not to worry, to get me a few volunteer judges and together we’d knock out the 25 or so entries in the morning.
The coordinator was stressing because he was under the impression that a BJCP contest had to follow some specific protocol, and he was relieved when I told him we’d just wing it. I’m not going to worry too much about it. I’m not entering the contest, but am bringing a couple bottles of ten different beers for the tasting, including my latest helles that turned out quite well.
Are there a lot of contests that march to their own drummer when it comes to format?
I don’t know about a lot, but there are some. I recall hearing about one (Bluebonnet?) that had a malt liquor category once. All entries had to come in 40 oz. containers and the judges drank them from the bottle, which was in a brown paper bag, as they sat around a dumpster.
Back from the contest, it was interesting to say the least. As feared, I was the only BJCP judge and the only one who knew anything about judging beer. Fortunately I thought to bring a couple copies of the Style Guidelines and a bunch of scoresheets. They had only 28 entries thank goodness. I grouped them as best I could into three flights of six, a flight of seven and a flight of three. We judged IPA (6), brown/porter/stout (6), English/Scottish/Irish Ale (7), Belgian/French/German (6), and Specialty (3). The Belgian/French/German was mostly wit and weizen, although there was a saison and it happened to win the category. A honey lager won Specialty, barely edging the cherry pale ale. Overall the quality of brews was good, very few examples of obvious flaws.
At first the event coordinator started to help me judge but he passed off to another volunteer after the first flight because he kept getting interrupted. I worked with three other people and a couple more hung around long enough to get an idea of what to do. It took us from 10AM-2:30PM to get through the beers, I know I’m slow but I thought we did a thorough job. My helpers did an excellent job. One ws an English major, I told him to whip out his adjectives. Another was a stat professor, he corrected the math on my sheets and averaged two numbers at a rapid rate.
People’s Choice went to a Bitter that didn’t win its category, but some people entered just two bottles like a normal contest so not all were represented in that contest. We had a few entries from the KC Biermeisters, and one from AZ. I think they did well but I really don’t recall for sure. Hopefully the contest coordinator will scan those and email the sheets soon.
So all in all it was a mild success, they didn’t have the crowd they wanted but nothing new about that. The people who came and those who entered got to see what a beer judging contest is all about, we’ll see if they do it again next year.
This actually sounds like it could be a lot of fun, because it’s an excellent opportunity to educate others about beer styles and flaws, as well as to show people the semi-seriousness with which we BJCP folks take it all.
I have been asked to judge a contest before that is similar to what you have described, except that each homebrewer was expected to supply 5 gallons and serve it themselves to the public after the competition. Perks were that you got free access to the festival for the day, which would otherwise cost like $60 or $75 or something crazy like that, and if you won the competition, the prizes were all in the $100+ range. I was turned off by the oddness of the whole thing, so I did not judge or enter, but a BJCP friend of mine judged and he enjoyed it very much. It was hardly BJCP sanctioned, but I think such an event can still be a good time, if well organized and everyone is on the same page.
I’ve also been asked to judge a small competition where the other judges would have been “celebrities”, even though I had no idea who the hell they were. This one turned me off very much because the touted judges most likely would have known virtually zero about beer, which is probably why they wanted to throw one BJCP into the mix – too odd for me, sorry. I must confess, I prefer hanging out with “my own kind” under the typical format. I could probably handle a little change, but small steps, small steps…
They misspelled my name but otherwise it was a decent little article. I should’ve been able to recite the three objectives of the BJCP but its been long enough since the exam that I apparently drowned that brain cell.