Beer competition score sheet results!

[Whorst]

Well, I got the results back on a score sheet. The high score on my Bitter was 33 out of 50 which is very good. The Lowest was 29 which is good. Here are the remarks for the Bitter with the points offered:

Aroma: Malty aroma with hints of carmel and toasty malt notes. Soft hop/estery profile also noted. 8/12

Appearence: Brilliant clarity w/amber-gold color and a soft head that clings to the edge of the glass. 2/3

Flavor: Begins with caramel malt sweetness and fades into slight bitterness in the middle and finishes quickly and smoothly w/soft biterness. Slight fruity esters also detected up front. 14/20

Mouthfeel: Med-light body with med carbonation. No astrigency, warmth or creaminess. 3/5

Overall impression: Easy drinking bitter w/nice balance of malt and hops. An ordinary ought to go down like water and this has that quality.

Total: 33/50


Now it begins to get weird. I think the first review was by an actual judge. These last two don't know what the hell they're talking about.

Aroma: Caramel/fruity, no hops. 9/12

Appearence: Med copper, very little head, good clarity. 3/3

Flavor: Sweet, high malt-not very much hops, balance too malty. 7/20

Mouthfeel: Low carb, smooth. 4/5

Overall impression: Very drinkable beer, would like to drink 3 or 4, but not have the overall bitterness that the category requires. This guy is full of shit. He obviously knows nothing about the style. This rated at 31/50 which is very good.


Now this is the one that really pisses me off:

Aroma: Some alt, light hops. 7/12


Appearence: Light copper, good clarity, off white head, low retention. 3/3


Flavor: Low carbonation, low bitterness, hint of cardboard? 10/20

Mouthfeel: Light, very low carbonation. 4/5

Overall impression: I did not particularly like this beer. Seemed lifeless, unpleasant flavor. 5/10. 29/50 total.


This last probably has never judged before. This beer was not close to being sweet, or unpleasant. It was the real deal. Probably my last and final go at beer competitions.

Thoughts???

[pantsmachine]

Opinions are like A**eholes, everyone has one. If you and your mates like your beer that's good enough.

[Buzz]

Whorst, don't focus on the negatives, take a look at some of the positives - even that last guy gave good scores for aroma, appearance and mouthfeel so you are clearly brewing a decent pint.

One man's passion is another man's poison and we all have different tastes, so, just beacuse he doesn't like the flavour means jack. It obvioulsy wasn't his cup of tea as we say over here.

Don't let it put you off competitions. When you fell off your push bike as a nipper, did you give up, or dust yourself down and get back on? Get pedalling my friend...

[Duncndisorderly]

dont let it get you down buddy, if it does play on your mind though, find out where he lives, track him down, and stomp on his groin

[deadlydes]

if you cant take criticism dont enter competitions

[johnh]

I have been skeptical of these competitions for a long time and the comments you got just deepen it for me.

Flavor: Begins with caramel malt sweetness and fades into slight bitterness in the middle and finishes quickly and smoothly w/soft biterness. Slight fruity esters also detected up front. 14/20

Great description but why 14? Why not 13 or 15? Actually that fits category perfectly so why not 20? I'll tell you why - personal preference. He may as well have written down a random number.

Overall impression: I did not particularly like this beer.

This ones spelling it out for you. He just didn't like it. He probably doesn't like any bitter. What do HIS preferences have to do with it? The only helpful thing I see in that whole thing is the mention of cardboard but he doesn't say that's why he found it unpleasant.

Of course it's all just opinion and there's mine.

[maxashton]

I've thought about entering competitions but always shied away for several reasons.

1) I don't have a car.
2) I brew to suit my taste, not CAMRA's idea of beer style.
3) I don't care what they think of my beer
4) I balls up a lot

[Matt]

Which Bitter category was it Whorst?

I've done a bit of thinking 'bout comps. I did alright in the one I entered - I unexpectedly got a runner up prize (which means second, I often remind SWMBO ). I'm reluctant to enter any more in a hurry though, I want to play about with recipes and methods without the self-induced stress of chasing prizes.

Matt

[mysterio]

Well done Whorst. The first sheet is the most frustrating one though. I can't get my head around why they dont tell you where you dropped points though. The first one was a glowing review but they didnt tell you what would have been better.

Appearence: Brilliant clarity w/amber-gold color and a soft head that clings to the edge of the glass. 2/3

I mean, why exactly did you drop that third point

Mouthfeel: Med-light body with med carbonation. No astrigency, warmth or creaminess. 3/5

Again... sounds spot on for a bottled bitter, so where did those two points go? Did he want more/less body?

[scarer]

dont let it get you down buddy, if it does play on your mind though, find out where he lives, track him down, and stomp on his groin

Or sh*t in his slippers


Out of interest, were they tasting from the same bottle?

[Whorst]

It was the Ordinary Bitter category. My biggest gripe is the stuff about bitterness. Obviously the last two people know nothing about the style.

[Barley Water]

Sorry that you had a bad experience. Even when entering very big contests, you sometimes get scoresheets that are not useful.

The last scoresheet was very interesting. On the one hand, he/she scored you very well in every category except flavor which is where the majority of the points are. Did all three scoresheets come from the same flight (or maybe I should ask, are all the comments comming from tasting the same bottle of beer)? Is it possible that the last sheet tasted from a bottle that had an issue while the other two came from a bottle that was fine?

It's wierd that the same judge made a useless comment like "I didn't like this beer" without giving any specifics then proceeds to tell you that he/she picked up some mild cardboard taste (which indicates oxidation and is something you can fix). I would take some of the beer and taste it again to see if there are any valid observations. It's very hard not to let your ego influence your perception of taste but I have found that sometimes people pick up on things that I don't initially notice. Happily, it sometimes goes the other way also. Last year I did really well with an Octoberfest that I honestly thought had a little too much hop.

One thing you might think about is carbonation level. Even though a bitter is not supposed to be that carbonated, for a competition I would try to get the beer at least in the high end of acceptable for the style (or maybe even slightly overcarbonated). The reason for this is that it helps with the aroma and head retention and there are a fair amount of points in the aroma section of the scoresheet. Also remember, the judges are a bunch of yanks who are used to fizzy beer so a little overcarbonation will probably not be noticed (you know, give the customer what he expects and all that).

Remember, judging beer is like any other subjective endevor. Just because one person doesn't care for the beer does not necessarily mean that the beer is bad. I still think you can learn a lot subjecting your efforts to unbiased judging even though some of the feedback may not be worth the paper it is written on. The trick is to be able to tell when the comments are not worth considering. I would say however that if somebody does not care for a style, they really have no business judging it since they probably don't drink it enough to tell the good from the bad.

[Whorst]

My thoughts are this: The first one was conducted by a certified beer judge. The other two are not beer judges. I agree pretty much with what the actual beer judge said. The other two don't know what they're talking about, this is obvious if you've tasted the beer. I emailed the actual judge and he said they have people that are judging that shouldn't be. I'm not even going to talk about the Dubbel, because again, the people who judged it are not beer judges. Apparently there's not enough certified beer judges for this event.
Getting a 33 in my first competition is not bad. At least one guy knew what he was talking about.