How much is your homebrew worth to you?

Recently, I entered my dopplebock into the homebrew competition at Granite City Brewery. It was the first time running a homebrew comp, and apparently it was a huge hit.

A few weeks after the competition, I still hadn't recieved any judging score sheets. I was a little concerned about it because I spent a lot of time on the beer and felt like it was definately in the running for a ribbon. Now, obviously everyone thinks that about their beer, but I'm usually highly critical of my beer.

Anyways... I just found out that somehow, my beer wasn't entered into the competition. The guy who emailed me said they had twice the amount of entries they expected and because of it, they had a few mishaps. My beer was turned in a day before the deadline, but I guess it never made it to the contest. He's offered me a few free beers at granite city, which is good of them, but I don't know if it's enough.

First off, I don't like Granite Cities brews. Second, with all the effort I put into this batch (specifically for the contest), I feel that my beer is worth more than theirs. What if I HAD won? That's a chance to brew your beer at the brewery and $50 a month for a year towards granite city food/beer.

I feel like I was robbed of one of my children.

Anyone else feel that their beer is worth more than this?

Well, seeing as how the comps are usually run on an all volunteer basis, mishaps happen. Try again next year.

My beer is priceless in my mind. Free to whom ever wants to try it. Sounds like you were hosed but I'm shocked they even offered you anything. **** happens everyone is only human and there are always home brew comps.

I would be interested in knowing what the hell they did with my beer.

"Did you dump it?" Yeah, mistakes happen but someone had to do something with your bottles. Did you get your entry fee back? I think they owe you a dinner to go with those beers.

I recently decided I was finished with competitions. I have entered 3 so far. My complaint isn't with the operation of any of them, it's with the judging.

One competition left me with no complaints, but the other two produced judging sheets so contradictory to each other that they really turned me off. My most recent beer was not even judged against the correct BJCP standards by one judge.

I also decided that my beer is too important to me to bother with competitions which can basically give you nothing other than bragging rights. I've received much better input, positive and negative, from my homebrew club members than from 3 BJCP judges and a supposed "pro brewer".

Exactly my thoughts. I know my beer is good...and if I like it, who cares what a judge thinks..

I understand that people make mistakes...and I'm a pretty easy going guy. But, I paid money to enter a contest. All I wanted was some feedback on my beer from a certified judge. I'm thinking smoeone at the Rockford location drank my beer instead of sending it in. Wouldn't suprise me knowing this city.

I do think they owe you your entry fee back. maybe thats the gift certificate. Pretty lousy refund though.

So you are out $3 and two bottles of beer. They've offered a modest gift card or credit to make you whole. What exactly do you want them to do?

You claim in one breath that Granite City gift cards are worthless to you but then in the next breath that you feel wronged because you are out the prize, which was Granite City gift cards. Do you want to go drink beer there or not?

I think it was pretty nice of Granite City to put on a competition with an extremely low entry fee and then give out $600 * 28 in prizes. Who else is doing that? At the end of the day, I can forgive a mistake or two.

If the beer is so great that you are pretty sure you would have won a 450 entry competition, start entering it in other large competitions and collect BOS prizes. Win-win.

remilard said:

So you are out $3 and two bottles of beer. They've offered a modest gift card or credit to make you whole. What exactly do you want them to do?

You claim in one breath that Granite City gift cards are worthless to you but then in the next breath that you feel wronged because you are out the prize, which was Granite City gift cards. Do you want to go drink beer there or not?

I think it was pretty nice of Granite City to put on a competition with an extremely low entry fee and then give out $600 * 28 in prizes. Who else is doing that? At the end of the day, I can forgive a mistake or two.

If the beer is so great that you are pretty sure you would have won a 450 entry competition, start entering it in other large competitions and collect BOS prizes. Win-win.

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The guy has offered me a few beers, not gift cards. I actually like their food, but I can't stand their beer.

I don't really care about the money or prizes, although it would have been nice. What I really wanted was my beer to be brewed there. Now, even though I doubt I could have won best of show, I feel as though I was robbed of my chance.

I don't expect anything I guess, I'm just upset that I got screwed.

If you don't like their beer (which makes me wonder why you want to brew with them), then just ask for a monetary refund. No reason to pay for a competition that you weren't entered into. That's it. Get over it. Stuff happens.

I'd go back and ask about a refund for the entry, and your beers back. If they mention the free beer, tell them you don't care for their beer and would prefer a gift card for some food.

And tell them next time they run a competition, they should set a maximum number of entries and make sure it's clearly easy to see. They should have expanded the competition if they got more than they expected.

As far as competitions go, judges' evaluations can vary by a bunch. If so, you should bring it up to whoever is putting on the competition. They will want to know why that happens. Judges are human, and some are better than others, but all have different tastes and experience.

If you get screwed once in a while, it's just the nature of the beast. Overall, though, you should be able to get a good idea of how others perceive your beer after a few tries. I personally don't feel that I am a good taster, nor able to judge against any particular style. I appreciate receiving someone else's point of view. I'm not in it to win it, but just want to be able to improve my methods and recipes so that others can enjoy my beer more.

I'm less concerned about being out of style than finding flaws in my process.

I totally understand your disappointment. They really can't make up for the hypothetical value of your entry potentially winning. At the same time, this contest wasn't really something they regularly do (it's a business) and making it a hassle for them is likely going to contribute to them never doing it again. I'd try to take it easy and tell them a $10 gift cert would make you happy.

Homercidal said:

And tell them next time they run a competition, they should set a maximum number of entries and make sure it's clearly easy to see. They should have expanded the competition if they got more than they expected.

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I think what happened is that the OPs beer was mishandled at his local GC and did not make it to the competition.

Every beer at the judging site was judged, I was there. A lot of people did ~6 rounds of judging Saturday and 2-4 on Friday. It all got done and the OPs beer would have been judged if it was there. Granite City was surprised at the number of entries and I know they are planning for even more next year and will be ready for it.

I'd ask for everyone who has organized a 500 entry competition that ran with zero errors to raise their hand, but I don't think that has ever happened.

I think people are taking my post a little out of context. I'm not really pissed off I guess...just upset. I'm not really mad at granite city either. I realize that **** happens and there's nothing that can be done about it. I also don't want them to pay me tons of money just because it didn't make it to the comp. That was the point of my post...I don't think that anything they do for me will change my mind.

I originally entered to get feedback about my beer. If I won, I won....if not, no biggy. I did expect a good score, but I wouldn't be upset if I had just recieved feedback. And the reason I think it would have been nice to brew for them is because they'd finally have a beer on tap worth drinking, haha.

I guess I do come off like I'm bitching, but I'm really not. Just wanted to vent my dissappointment and see how many others like me think their beer is priceless.

Personally, I would drink the rest of that batch as quickly as possible, thus robbing them of ever having the chance to sample the heavenly goodness you prepared for them in the first place.

Lol. I would if I could. It's a dopplebock that puts my on my butt.

I have entered three comps thus far and what I have learned is that while I make very good tasting drinkable beer, I have a lot to learn about falling within style parameters when entering comps. I am generally not in the mindset of brewing to a specific style, I want beer that tastes good. As you are all aware, you can make some outstanding beer that everyone loves but will score very poorly if not within the guidelines of the style you choose to enter it as. In light of this, I say eff the comps and I will continue to make excellent beer that myself and my friends and club members can enjoy regardless of the style guidelines and the sometimes subjective opinions of those who judge. I participated as a steward in a couple of the local comps this spring and learned a lot - mostly that a lot of brewers make beer that tastes great but when compared to the guidelines of the BJCP may not score well at all.

Tip, never enter a brewing comp. hosted by someone who's brew you don't like. If their judges are BJCP then you'll be getting their brewers and friends who most likely have a taste for their beer evaluate yours.

and as someone who has hosted a large event for the general public. Something always goes wrong. Always. You do your best to make it right and it sounds like they have.

RDWHAHB

cclloyd said:

...and the sometimes subjective opinions of those who judge.

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Agreed wholeheartedly, I would just like to add "always" and remove "sometimes".

Qualitatively judging beer is inherently subjective. Anybody who says otherwise doesn't understand what "subjective" and "objective" mean. Objectively judging beer is done in a lab.

That being said, some brewers will win awards with almost all of their beers, some only with their best beers and some only if there were only 4 beers in the category.

A large collection of subjective judgement of your beer can inform you about the quality (at least in as much as you define quality as being judged as good by third parties not particularly interested in your feelings). As with all information, you may chose not to seek this information or to dismiss it as faulty when you receive it.

The BJCP guidelines leave little room for personal opinions. My experiences as a non-BJPC judge have demonstrated that. I've judged styles I dislike and have almost always been within a point or two of the other judges.

Is my beer priceless? No, it's a hobby. I make good beer. I drink it. I take it to club meetings and other people drink it. I take it to beerfests and it's history. But, competitions? No, never.