olllllo

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Last Sunday I had the pleasure of stewarding for the Great Arizona Homebrew Competition-- an opportunity afforded to me by our very own HBT member, wild. There were a number of things that I learned form the experience that I want to share with you, especially as I think there are a number of misconceptions about beer judging, the BJCP style guidelines and the BJCP in general.

If you wish to skip to the chase, here it is: If you think you have a beef with the way that beer is judged or thought you got a raw deal, you owe it to yourself and others to steward a comp and get involved. You will quickly learn what is involved and how seriously each beer is considered.

The day started at about 8:30 AM for me, with the actual judging process starting at 9 AM. Coffee and bagels were provided (nice touch). I was warmly introduced to everyone and we went over what the duties of stewardship entailed.

As a steward you assist the judges at your table in any way that you can.
You may be asked to do a number of things at the discretion of the judges, such as.
1) Bring the beer to the judging table at a particular time and ensure that the correct beer is being poured/judged.
2) Pour.
3) Make sure that there are clean rinsed glasses and crackers.
4) Assist in the score recording and tabulation.
5) Obtain more information about base style or ingredients from the entry sheets.
6) Double check the score sheets and make sue that scores are accurate and that the correct beer was judged.
7) In most cases I understand, you will be able to sample and take notes and you may compare your notes with the judges after they have scored. (This was my experience) You may also be asked your opinion on what you have tasted or smelled or see.

About the beers.
1) They are all stored at 44 degrees.
2) The judges may ask you to bring a certain amount of them out earlier to let them warm.
3) Beers can be iced to cool or further warmed with warm water if the judges desire.
4) Each beer was carefully handled and poured.
5) Each beer is identified only by its number. (Therefore there can be no bottle markings whatsoever....ie. do not use a samadams bottle.)

The Process:
1) In my experience, he judges took every measure to ensure that they were tasting the beers to give them the best opportunity to reveal their full flavor.
2) We judged 10 beers over the course of 4 hours with a 1 hour lunch break in between. A substantial amount of time was taken to fully judge each beer.
3) The judges look at the list of beers and styles they are to judge and try to order them in a manner that afford the fairest means of judging them.
4) When ever possible, the judges made it a point to help the brewer identify where they might improve the beer. Obviously it is not always easy or possible to do this.

As an illustrative point, we judged what was an obviously troubled chlorophenolic stout. All three bottles were painfully tasted (6 ounces between the three of us for each bottle). The judges wanted to give each bottle a chance, but more importantly I believe that they were also trying to taste around the flaw to identify the chocolaty overtones and the roast character, etc so that the brewer might get a more informed review of the beer.

I estimate that we spent more time on that beer than most of the others.

This was my experience and I'm sure that others might want to share their experiences here, be they similar or different.

In any case, I encourage anyone that brews to give it a try.

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Dr_Deathweed

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Great write up, thank you for informing us what goes into judging!

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olllllo

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Another upside is that you have access to some free empties.

I could have left with 200 bottles.

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Rob - Phoenix Ambassador to Milwaukee
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wild

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I'm glad you enjoyed your tour as a Steward, olllllo. I like to see the Stewards get as much out of the process as possible.

Thanks for your help.
Wild

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On Tap -

1. 3 year old Oak Aged Bourbon Porter
2. Irish Red Rye
3. Robust Porter
4. Russian Imperial Stout
5. Mirror Pond Clone dry hopped with Citra
6. Mirror Pond Clone dry hopped with Centennial

Primary - Nada
Secondary -

From man's sweat and God's love, beer came into the world. -- Saint Arnoldus

bigjohnmilford

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+1 thanks for sharing olllllo. Nice insight.

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Think with your dipstick Jimmy.

Rhoobarb

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+1, really enjoyed the read. I've entered 3-4 compettions and plan to again later this month. But I've never attended any of them to see how the judging gets done. This gave me some insight and a sense of 'being there'.

I'd be interested in being a steward. For those of us that might consider being one, what is involved - i.e.; do you have to have a 'sponsor', just express a desire to volunteer, be a club member, etc.?

cubbies

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Am I misunderstanding this? Are you saying they can add ice or warm water to the beer to change the temp?? I bet a beer would taste significantly different after having a shot of warm water added to it.

Beerthoven

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I suspect they submerge the the bottle/glass in either an ice bath or warm water bath, depending on which is needed. After all the care toward the beer olllllo describes, I'd be extremely surprised if they add ice or water directly to the beer.

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Primary/Secondary:

Kegged: #77 Newcastle Brown, #79 California Common, #80 Old Bushy Tail Special Bitter

Planned: American IPA, Dusseldorf Alt, American Amber

I use secondaries!

cubbies

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I hope so. That would make more sense. That would be a shame if they added water/ice to a brew.

olllllo

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Beerthoven has it correct. We're talking ice or warming baths for the bottles to get the desired temperature.

I thought of another point last night.
As with any competition, the luck of the draw has some effect on the overall outcome. The order that the beers are tasted has some effect on the results. All I can tell you about that is that it is handled as objectively as possible.

Imagine judging 3 IPAs with varying hop character. The order presented may change the rating of the third beer, but that's just the nature of the draw.

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