How do competitions work?

There will be a competition in a couple months that I really want to enter, mostly for feedback on my beers. I've tried to find how they work on the internet but there wasn't much. From what I gather, you drop off your beer and all the required forms/money at one of the locations, they have the competition and mail you back the results?

The deadline for dropping off the beer is two weeks before the competition. I don't know what type of environment it will be in for those two weeks. If I filled the bottles via the BMBF method, would it stay carbonated if the temperature fluctuated hot or cold?

Every competition is different. Most will judge and send results, yes. A lot post online so you can see if you won before you got your score sheets. And all of the comps that are local to my area have drop off points with refrigerators. I would hope that they'd be handling the beer properly.

That said, even if there were temperature fluctuations, I don't think your beer would be any less carbed. The only thing I'd worry about is oxidation from a less than perfect method of filling bottles.

That's pretty much it, in terms of what you do. There are various forms you may or may not have to fill out for each beer entry. Typically there is a minimum amount of information you have to supply like the category you are entering the beer in, but some competitions also require you supply the recipe, fermentation schedule, etc.

In my experience, competition entries can be stored at room temps up until maybe the day or, or at most a day or two before the competition. Usually if you are dropping them off at your LHBS or similar, they will just sit somewhere on a shelf or maybe the floor in the LHBS until the deadline, when someone will pick them up for the competition. Then they will be transported to someplace to be sorted and labeled, and then they will sit around on shelves or on the floor or possibly in a walk-in cooler until they are transported to wherever the competition will be held. Could be someone's garage or basement, although most of the time they try to keep the beers in a fairly stable environment even if it isn't strictly controlled.


Don't worry about the carbonation going away. If it is already carbonated by the deadline, or even a week or so before the competition, you should be fine.


You might also consider volunteering to be a steward for the competition. All you do is bring out beers to the judges, but you learn a lot about how they are organized and judged, and you get to drink lots of great beer. The judges will usually let you know which beers are the winners so you can sample.

Most comps will keep the beer cold. Generally speaking, if you bottle right before submitting and submit close to the deadline, oxidation and sanitation* should not be a huge concern within reason. The BMBF method is more than adequate.

* Within reason here means be reasonable but don't kill yourself sanitizing like you might if you expect the beer to keep for a year. Note that if you are shipping beer during warm weather, you probably want to be pretty tight on the sanitation.

If it is a local competition there is probably an awards banquet you can go to. You can also volunteer to judge or steward.

remilard said:

If it is a local competition there is probably an awards banquet you can go to. You can also volunteer to judge or steward.

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I'm judging for the first time tonight! Pretty excited.

All competitions work differently. Check with the director, or contact for specifics. Usually you can mail in or drop off entries. Ideally they will be kept cool. They will at least be left at room temp (not outside, or in a garage).

Most competitions will judge you beer according to the BJCP style guidelines. They try to get as many BJCP judges as possible.

A few notes about the BJPC. Not wanting to get into a huge battle here, its just important you understand it. To do well in compeitions, you really have to brew to the guidelines. If any aspect of your beer is outside of those guides, you will get dinged. If you use Cascades in a Pale Ale and call it English, you will get points taken off because of improper hop aroma and flavor in an English Pale Ale. There are a bunch of little things like that that people dont expect when entering competitions, then are disappointed when they get the results.

You can mail in the beer or drop it off at the LHBS. I'll be dropping it off at the LHBS. I just hope they don't leave it sitting there on the floor until someone picks it up for the competition. It is an AHA/BJCP sanctioned competition.

A few notes about the BJPC. Not wanting to get into a huge battle here, its just important you understand it. To do well in compeitions, you really have to brew to the guidelines. If any aspect of your beer is outside of those guides, you will get dinged. If you use Cascades in a Pale Ale and call it English, you will get points taken off because of improper hop aroma and flavor in an English Pale Ale. There are a bunch of little things like that that people dont expect when entering competitions, then are disappointed when they get the results.

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You really have to consider how well your entry matches the BJCP description of the style, because you will not get a lot of constructive feedback on beers that, deliberately or otherwise, don't follow the style in some obvious way. Most of your feedback will then consist of "this characteristic is not like the style". Again, in my experience.

I'll be entering the American Amber Ale category and depending on how well my next brews go, maybe two others.

Do the judges talk to each other and share their thoughts with the group or do they all keep to themselves and not share anything as it may influence someone?

The competitions I've judged have always involved discussions of the beer. Less experienced judges might ask questions like, "Is this horse blanket or barnyard that I'm smelling?" Most of the time, we scored the beer, then discussed it.

carnevoodoo said:

...The only thing I'd worry about is oxidation from a less than perfect method of filling bottles.

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Agreed.

Wait...WHAT ?!?!?

If you cap on foam your oxygen should be purged. :cross:

Judges usually do not talk about the beers as they are judging them. They sniff...jot down notes...swirl and look over the beer...jot down notes...taste...swirl and swallow...jot down notes.

Once they are finished then they compare notes and scores and discuss the beer. If the scores are vastly different between judges, then they'll settle in to a more thorough discussion and come to agreement.

At least that's what I remember.

Edcculus said:

If you use Cascades in a Pale Ale and call it English, you will get points taken off because of improper hop aroma and flavor in an English Pale Ale.

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I don't disagree that a bitter with cascades is likely to be called out of style by some judges, but it shouldn't. Cascades and other US hops are popular in England and the style guidelines specifically allow them. But a lot of judges will be too narrow in terms of commercial examples they are familiar with.

Either way, you have to learn to parse the score sheets based on what is important to you. If you just want to make tasty beer and the judges say "hey this is darn good but the cascades are out of place, if you had used kent goldings this is a 40 point beer" then you can take that as great feedback. If the judges say the cascades really clash with the dark crystal malt or that you have a lot of diacetyl or whatever, thats something you should definitely work on.

If you want to win competitions, you have to learn to brew beers that will score well. All beers that score well are good, but not all good beers will score well. Brewing to win competitions can be challenging and fun and will result in a lot of great beer but it is a different objective that will appeal to different people than the objective of simply brewing great beer.

carnevoodoo said:

I'm judging for the first time tonight! Pretty excited.

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Sweet, I'm judging tonight too. We have snow falling here, I am guessing you don't have that problem?

What is the average time length from when the competition ends to when you get the results?

snail said:

What is the average time length from when the competition ends to when you get the results?

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By mail? I have had it take several weeks. This is another advantage of volunteering for the competition if it's local; you can usually get your scoresheets at the end of the competition rather than having to wait some unspecified time.

I was reading about competitions in other states and the organizer said they post the results real-time on their website and Facebook. That's an awesome idea.

Yes but what you really want are the scoresheets, not the competition results. The results that are posted are just who won, placed, and showed in which categories, best of show, etc.

The scoresheets are like a detailed breakdown of everything good and bad about your beer as it pertains to the style you entered.

Great stuff from all of you guys. Forgive my number of questions but it's got to be better than 3 different posts

1) I was wondering how important is joining a homebrew club when it comes to competitions?

2) I am in the Portland, OR are and there are a few clubs close to me. Should I join one/two/more and any ideas which might be better(for anyone who knows of course)?

3) Lastly, is it a lengthy/costly process to become a BJCP judge?

1) Not at all. I don't belong to any club and have ribboned in comps across the country.
2) Sure, why not. I don't see the need to be in several, unless you like running all over town for meetings, etc.
3) Don't know.

remilard said:

Sweet, I'm judging tonight too. We have snow falling here, I am guessing you don't have that problem?

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It might rain tomorrow, but it is 65 right now.

weirdboy said:

Yes but what you really want are the scoresheets, not the competition results. The results that are posted are just who won, placed, and showed in which categories, best of show, etc.

The scoresheets are like a detailed breakdown of everything good and bad about your beer as it pertains to the style you entered.

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True, I didn't think of that part.

KevinW said:

Great stuff from all of you guys. Forgive my number of questions but it's got to be better than 3 different posts

1) I was wondering how important is joining a homebrew club when it comes to competitions?

2) I am in the Portland, OR are and there are a few clubs close to me. Should I join one/two/more and any ideas which might be better(for anyone who knows of course)?

3) Lastly, is it a lengthy/costly process to become a BJCP judge?

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1 - not important at all. Being part of a good club can make you a better brewer though.
2 - no idea
3 - I just took the exam last weekend, so I hope this post helps you. It can be lengthy or short as you want it to be. All you really have to do is take the exam. For all the information, visit the BJCP Exam Center. The Study Guide gives all the questions possibly asked. The exam itself is 3 hours long, 10 essays and 4 beers to judge. The first question is always the same (see study guide), and is pretty much a gimme. I think the actual exam costs ~$40 to take. I took part in a study group with about 20 other guys from my local club. It was great fun. On there somewhere is a Syllabus for study groups to use. We met once a week for about 2 months. Meetings were typically 3-4 hours long and consisted of a technical topic and tasting/judging about 8-10 beers (homebrew and commercial) from that weeks group of styles. We also paid $40 each to cover beer, cups and copies.

Lastly, there is no requirement for taking part in a study group. You will just have to make an effort to contact the person who is in charge of a currently scheduled exam. If there isn't one scheduled close to you, you might have to travel. There were 3 people at our exam who traveled 2-3 hours to be there.

Kilted Brewer(Brian) and Edcculus, I humbly thank you for your responses. Very helpful.

Who knows, maybe one day i'll become a judge and will have the opportunity to judge some of your beers!!

I am afraid that as judges you may one day have the unfortunate circumstance to judge my beers as well! LOL