That's like saying you drank coffee at a Starbucks, hated the service and have since sworn off coffee for good. If you don't like the feedback you received, email the judges. If the comp was worth their salt, they would require judges to put contact information on the score sheets. If there is no information, then that comp wasn't run very well and I wouldn't enter that specific comp again.
Try entering well respected comps, like the Drunk Monk, the IN State Fair Brewer's Cup, the Kansas City Bier Meister's Homebrew Comp, the Dixie Cup, the Land of the Muddy Waters... I could go on but I will just name a few.
I do hope that no one takes this advice. Describing a beer well is the only thing that judges can go off of in several categories, Cat 23 being the prime example. You should describe a beer so that a total stranger can have an idea as to what they are putting in their mouth before they actually do.
Saying it is a "very loose american twist on a pale ale/witte hybrid" gives me no idea what you are going for. Is it hoppy? Orange? Coriander? What parts of the wit are in this pale ale? Or is it an over hopped wit? Had you said that it was a pale ale made with wheat or wit yeast or orange peel, they would have a better idea of the intention of the beer.
Multiple things. First, the competition was in early July and I didn't get my scoresheet until just before September started. It's doubtful emailing anyone would matter.
Second, for cat 23 you have one line to name your beer and a few words to describe your beer, maybe other competitions are different but seeing as how it's an 'other' category it's not really sufficient description space. I wrote out 5 or 6 things but none of it was really enough, so went with what I did. I did say that it's brewed with wheat and a ton of varied citrus zest.
I don't mind if they simply thought it wasn't that good. Both judges said they liked it and it was brewed nice and clean, no diacetyl no off-flavors. Other things were that it's not sweet enough to be a wit, too hoppy for a wit, lack of clarity (which I didn't understand being a criticism?) things like that... at first I thought maybe the sweetness was an actual criticism but no, it's just cuz wittes have that little hint of it and this beer is dry. So because it doesn't fit a style at all but giving the judges some sort of frame of reference is required, they took that frame of reference and applied strict guidelines. I should have said something more bizarre apparently, but when drinking it you can certainly see how it does resemble both a witte and a pale ale.
To add some emphasis that I think you probably intended (sorry if not!), try to remember that for a beginner, the purpose of entering a competition is to get feedback and ultimately improve as a brewer. There's more to being a brewer than simply producing good beer. Right here is one example of this: clearly and accurately describing the style of beer.
Not really a beginner. I didn't expect to win but I wanted to see how it did and get some feedback, as always. I've brewed this beer three times. ALL of the judging was based on it being a wit. Four bottles, shipping costs, entry costs, time and effort all gone to waste. I'm not annoyed because I don't think I brewed a mediocre beer but they did, that's not what the scoresheet said.
The idea behind calling it a witte/pale hybrid is it uses a huge pile of fresh zest from multiple different fruits, has lots of citra/sorachi, and 25% wheat, fermented clean and dry. Mainly the witte comparison is due to the wheat and zest, and the pale ale is the bitterness level and tropical hops. So it's neither, but reminiscent of both. Hence the 'loose interpretation'.
I can see how if someone just looks over the entry form while drinking 500 beers in a day they'd see the word 'witte' and attach to it, but still, it makes it feel like a waste to enter anything not brewed strictly to a style, because apparently 'loose interpretation of a hybrid between a APA and a witte' means "should be brewed exactly to specifications of a witte in category 16". The fact that the certified judge 'tasted the coriander' really pissed me off, apparently he didn't read my one line description at all. If there was coriander in it, I was required to write that down... so what do you expect my conclusion to be?
It didn't get a
terrible score, a 27 isn't awful. But again, I got nothing out of it at
all, so I'm not too keen on doing it again. Competitions require you to give up beer, ship beer, and pay for your entries... so, unless it's super convenient, no more for me.
