Contest scores all over the place

I enetered 8 contests with the same beer. Bottled all at the same time.
I soak in Iodophor for 5 minutes, then purge with CO2, then cap with aluminum foil.
I then fill with the Beer Gun (and purge again with CO2 before filling). My SWMBO caps on foam. Caps are also soaked in Iodophor for at least 10 minutes.
I use 18 ppm Iodophor (I split the difference between 12 and 24)

Results:
2 - 1sts
1 - 2nd
2 - 3rds

My scores have ranged from 42 to 13.

WTF ???

I still had 3 from the batch I bottled. They were all fine.

Are contests run this shabbily, or is there something else I should be looking at.

Any correlation between time & score or shipping distance & score?

Did you get any comments on the way out of whack scores? Seems to me if they give you a 13 there needs to be an explanation.

I'm in the New Orleans area. I got 1st in Washington State and got the 13 in Nashville.
I've had this happen before. Got a 43.50 and a 16.00 for the same beer.
The comments didn't sound right.
I've also left beer out doors (in heat inside of a box) for 3 days, then checked it.
Comments were really not in line with reality.
I've heard contests were sometimes a crap shoot.
Kind of pisses me off that I'm getting bad feedback I guess.

The 13 came from a guy that didn't like the style period. I know they like to get judges assigned to styles they like but it can't always happen.

That's just lame on the part of the judge. There are guidelines to follow, and they should be followed even if the judge doesn't like the style at all. Say for example, if a judge is a huge lager fan but hates hefeweizens they should still never dock points for a hefe being cloudy and estery/phenolic. It's what the style is supposed to be.

You definitely should have received plenty of feedback on your sheets for the '13' score!! If not, write an e-mail to the contest coordinator or President of the hosting club/organization expressing your concerns. Coordinators should strive to get quality/certified judges to work...these judges know that is is very important to leave feedback, particularly if you're docking someone's score! Maybe they got it backwards and meant to dock you 13 points out of 50, and you should have received a 37??

It's worth a call or e-mail if you didn't receive feedback and comments. Does their critique sound right? Does it sound like it was judged in the proper class (sometimes, because of human error in check-in and sorting, you could have say a bock judged as a pale ale, resulting in a bad score no matter how good the beer was). This has happened to me, and my beer was VERY good...but it got a horrible score in the category for which it was judged.

Good advice from all. I'll send off an email.

Thanks

Competitions are a numbers game.

It’s like those dog shows on TV. WTF are those judges really looking for when they grab the “fellas” on a Great Dane? And by the time you’ve had your hands wrapped around 18 nut-sacks, don’t they all start to feel the same? The same must be true with judging beer. Is the judge really as astute by the time they’re on their 9th entry as on their first?

I’m entering a local comp here and I’ll have 9 entries. I don’t expect to win, but do expect to get some meaningful feedback on the beers.

Maybe I’ll get lucky.

BierMuncher said:

by the time you’ve had your hands wrapped around 18 nut-sacks, don’t they all start to feel the same?

Click to expand...

Do you mind if I use this as my sig?

BM^^^BJCP has setup rules/regs for judging to help this out. You should be limited to how many beers per flight...there are ways to keep BIG beers from ruining the judging of smaller beers. They even go as far as teaching judges how to keep their pallet clean/fresh so they can make good calls.

Now if they hired random college drunks off the street or young kids to judge...sure, things would be VERY off as far as scoring goes.

BierMuncher said:

And by the time you’ve had your hands wrapped around 18 nut-sacks, don’t they all start to feel the same? .

Click to expand...

Yeah, I will pretty much know you by this quote from now on.

INeedANewHobby said:

BM^^^BJCP has setup rules/regs for judging to help this out. You should be limited to how many beers per flight...there are ways to keep BIG beers from ruining the judging of smaller beers. They even go as far as teaching judges how to keep their pallet clean/fresh so they can make good calls.
...

Click to expand...

A lot prolly depends on the organization hosting the event. This St. Louis event is the last qualifier of the year for Tenth Annual Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing. I'm guessing this will be run pretty efficiently/fairly.

the_bird said:

Do you mind if I use this as my sig?

Click to expand...

Fire away...

Going by your other scores, that 13 just looks downright unacceptable. 13 is a score reserved for beers that are infected or wildly out of style (like, say, entering a lambic in the schwarzbier category).

Buford said:

Going by your other scores, that 13 just looks downright unacceptable. 13 is a score reserved for beers that are infected or wildly out of style (like, say, entering a lambic in the schwarzbier category).

Click to expand...

I entered as a blonde ale, and that's what the score sheet showed. I had 2 contests with bad scores, the 13 and a 26.
All others were at least 34 (got a 36 and didn't place - must have had come killer beers or they combined me with some other style)

I suppose it is possible to have one infection in a batch of bottles, which potentially may have been the case. I had a commercial beer from a 6-pack the other day that was fine excepting one bottle that was way too fizzy and tasted like sweet tarts.

Brewer3401 said:

I entered as a blonde ale, and that's what the score sheet showed. I had 2 contests with bad scores, the 13 and a 26.
All others were at least 34 (got a 36 and didn't place - must have had come killer beers or they combined me with some other style)

Click to expand...

So what comments/notes did they leave on your score sheets on these "bad" brews?? Surely you got back the score sheets right?

BierMuncher said:

And by the time you’ve had your hands wrapped around 18 nut-sacks, don’t they all start to feel the same?
Maybe I’ll get lucky.

Click to expand...

the_bird said:

Do you mind if I use this as my sig?

Click to expand...

DAMM!, beat me to it.

Sucks that you didn't get a reason for the low scores, but at least you should be happy with 5 in the top three! That's impressive.

Maybe you should send those scores to the judges who gave you the 13!



BTW, I think they just grab those canine cajones to make sure that they are really there (not neutered/prosthetic), but THOSE judges are deffinately Puttin' from the rough.

Was the 13 from the Music City Brew-off? If so, I can try to get in touch with one of the guys to get a better understanding.

PseudoChef said:

Was the 13 from the Music City Brew-off? If so, I can try to get in touch with one of the guys to get a better understanding.

Click to expand...

Yes.
Thanks.