Competition

[Barley Water]

I'm sorry you were ill used, it does sound like the guys running the competition didn't really know what they were doing. Since you are in California, you really should expect some wierd stuff though (and I should know since I grew up there). In Texas, the competitions I have been involved with seem to be run a little better. The organizers should clearly tell the competitors what the guidelines are. If a competition says they are BJCP, then they should use the published quidelines. It's ok to have a category that is not one of the published styles but it needs to be defined and advertised.

Of course even in large, generally well run contests, you can run into lousy judging which is very annoying. Many people in my club double enter just to try and avoid that problem (I don't just because I don't want to give away that much beer that I would rather drink myself). Many contests will combine styles for purposes of awards but the style is listed for each entry and it is judged against the appropriate style guidelines. What that means is that for instance, an English Porter may end up competing against a Robust Porter for a metal but the judges don't expect the beers to taste the same and the score sheets should reflect that. In the largest contest I enter, there are generally two rounds. The first round is for purposes of eliminating the clearly weaker entries. The second round generally has the most experienced judges and the metal winners are seclected in the second round.

At the end of the day, I think that every contestant has a right to expect that the judges will seriously consider their entry and complete a scoresheet that explains their judgement. I think that the judgement should be rendered against the style guidelines as advertised by the contest organizers. As a competitor, I may not always agree with the judgement but if the judging was done in good faith that is all I can expect. If I get a score sheet back that has suggestions for improvement then I feel like I got a really nice bonus.

By the way Whorst, if you want to enter a contest which in my experience is run pretty well and is very competative, send a few entries to the Bluebonnet Brew Off held in DFW. The contest is generally held in March each year. You may well get your butt beat (I know I have) but your beer will get fairly judged and with about 1,200 entries the competition is pretty stiff.