World Beer Cup 2010 - no gold awarded?

I was reading over the list of winners and noticed that two categories had "no gold awarded." They still gave out silver and bronze though. Its categories 15 and 78; http://worldbeercup.org/winners.html.

I couldn't figure out why no gold was awarded for these two. They had plenty of entries in each category. Its inconceivable that none scored high enough to qualify for a gold (I don't know if this is even a qualification, but I do know some comps require a score of at least 40 to be eligible for Best of Show). These are the best beers in the world. I just don't get why a gold wouldn't be awarded. Curiosity is killing me. Can anybody shed some light on the situation for me? Thanks.

Gold A world class beer that accurately exemplifies the specified style, displaying the proper balance of taste, aroma and appearance.
Silver An excellent beer that may vary slightly from style parameters while maintaining close adherence to the style and displaying excellent taste, aroma, and appearance.
Bronze A fine example of the style that may vary slightly from style parameters and/or have minor defects in taste, aroma, or appearance.

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They have the option of not awarding any.

Ya, that's standard practice. None of the beers in that category where good enough to win first.

Most of the smaller homebrew competitions will give the first place to a non-existent person just to avoid offending people...

david_42 said:

They have the option of not awarding any.

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While that's true, it's not terribly helpful. I noticed this too and found it odd. Anyone have any idea what reasons might be behind the actual decision not to award a gold?

Edit:
Now *this* I didn't know!

lamarguy said:

Most of the smaller homebrew competitions will give the first place to a non-existent person just to avoid offending people...

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Most commercial beer competitions do not base awards on points, judges just sit down with the beers and chose 1-2-3 (in the final round at least, like the BOS in a homebrew competition). And those places have written designations, for example, GABF says 1st place has to be a "world class example of the style." If the judges come to the consensus that none of the beers meet this criteria, they will not award it.

I like it. Prevents "cheapening" of the awards.

Ok, I can see why they wouldn't want to award a gold if none of the entrants are "world class beers." But on the other hand, they might have several "world class beers" entered into a category and it appears they still give out a silver and a bronze. I'd hate to have my world class beer given this description - "Bronze A fine example of the style that may vary slightly from style parameters and/or have minor defects in taste, aroma, or appearance."

Good point....to hold to that same standard you would expect to see a few categories with 2-3 beers taking 1st.

"Bronze A fine example of the style that may vary slightly from style parameters and/or have minor defects in taste, aroma, or appearance."

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Would they really write that about a high-40 point brew that just happened to be in a category with two other even better brews?

The medals are relative to other brews in the category but scores are absolute, aren't they?

I spoke to some of the judges at the CBC and they said, in the case of the Belgian Category, that the beers were too phenolic.

Yvan De Baets and Steven Pawels are Belgian and they weren't happy about the level of phenols!

olllllo said:

I spoke to some of the judges at the CBC and they said, in the case of the Belgian Category, that the beers were too phenolic.

Yvan De Baets and Steven Pawels are Belgian and they weren't happy about the level of phenols!

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It is good to hear this. I liken the trend with non-BMC beers to an Arms Race. It seems lots of craft brewers are out push the limits. Extreme hops, wheat beers that are yeast bombs, etc. This is fine, but the problem is then there are lots of people who think this is the way it is SUPPOSED to be. I enjoy an over-the-top beer once in a while, but I'd rather, day-in, day-out, drink a beer within the style norms where I can appreciate the nuances from ALL of the components (well balanced)

They should let those Belgians sit until next year and the phenolics might be juuuuust right.