Last Sunday I had the pleasure of stewarding for the Great Arizona Homebrew Competition-- an opportunity afforded to me by our very own HBT member, wild. There were a number of things that I learned form the experience that I want to share with you, especially as I think there are a number of misconceptions about beer judging, the BJCP style guidelines and the BJCP in general.
If you wish to skip to the chase, here it is: If you think you have a beef with the way that beer is judged or thought you got a raw deal, you owe it to yourself and others to steward a comp and get involved. You will quickly learn what is involved and how seriously each beer is considered.
The day started at about 8:30 AM for me, with the actual judging process starting at 9 AM. Coffee and bagels were provided (nice touch). I was warmly introduced to everyone and we went over what the duties of stewardship entailed.
As a steward you assist the judges at your table in any way that you can.
You may be asked to do a number of things at the discretion of the judges, such as.
1) Bring the beer to the judging table at a particular time and ensure that the correct beer is being poured/judged.
2) Pour.
3) Make sure that there are clean rinsed glasses and crackers.
4) Assist in the score recording and tabulation.
5) Obtain more information about base style or ingredients from the entry sheets.
6) Double check the score sheets and make sue that scores are accurate and that the correct beer was judged.
7) In most cases I understand, you will be able to sample and take notes and you may compare your notes with the judges after they have scored. (This was my experience) You may also be asked your opinion on what you have tasted or smelled or see.
About the beers.
1) They are all stored at 44 degrees.
2) The judges may ask you to bring a certain amount of them out earlier to let them warm.
3) Beers can be iced to cool or further warmed with warm water if the judges desire.
4) Each beer was carefully handled and poured.
5) Each beer is identified only by its number. (Therefore there can be no bottle markings whatsoever....ie. do not use a samadams bottle.)
The Process:
1) In my experience, he judges took every measure to ensure that they were tasting the beers to give them the best opportunity to reveal their full flavor.
2) We judged 10 beers over the course of 4 hours with a 1 hour lunch break in between. A substantial amount of time was taken to fully judge each beer.
3) The judges look at the list of beers and styles they are to judge and try to order them in a manner that afford the fairest means of judging them.
4) When ever possible, the judges made it a point to help the brewer identify where they might improve the beer. Obviously it is not always easy or possible to do this.
As an illustrative point, we judged what was an obviously troubled chlorophenolic stout. All three bottles were painfully tasted (6 ounces between the three of us for each bottle). The judges wanted to give each bottle a chance, but more importantly I believe that they were also trying to taste around the flaw to identify the chocolaty overtones and the roast character, etc so that the brewer might get a more informed review of the beer.
I estimate that we spent more time on that beer than most of the others.
This was my experience and I'm sure that others might want to share their experiences here, be they similar or different.
In any case, I encourage anyone that brews to give it a try.
If you wish to skip to the chase, here it is: If you think you have a beef with the way that beer is judged or thought you got a raw deal, you owe it to yourself and others to steward a comp and get involved. You will quickly learn what is involved and how seriously each beer is considered.
The day started at about 8:30 AM for me, with the actual judging process starting at 9 AM. Coffee and bagels were provided (nice touch). I was warmly introduced to everyone and we went over what the duties of stewardship entailed.
As a steward you assist the judges at your table in any way that you can.
You may be asked to do a number of things at the discretion of the judges, such as.
1) Bring the beer to the judging table at a particular time and ensure that the correct beer is being poured/judged.
2) Pour.
3) Make sure that there are clean rinsed glasses and crackers.
4) Assist in the score recording and tabulation.
5) Obtain more information about base style or ingredients from the entry sheets.
6) Double check the score sheets and make sue that scores are accurate and that the correct beer was judged.
7) In most cases I understand, you will be able to sample and take notes and you may compare your notes with the judges after they have scored. (This was my experience) You may also be asked your opinion on what you have tasted or smelled or see.
About the beers.
1) They are all stored at 44 degrees.
2) The judges may ask you to bring a certain amount of them out earlier to let them warm.
3) Beers can be iced to cool or further warmed with warm water if the judges desire.
4) Each beer was carefully handled and poured.
5) Each beer is identified only by its number. (Therefore there can be no bottle markings whatsoever....ie. do not use a samadams bottle.)
The Process:
1) In my experience, he judges took every measure to ensure that they were tasting the beers to give them the best opportunity to reveal their full flavor.
2) We judged 10 beers over the course of 4 hours with a 1 hour lunch break in between. A substantial amount of time was taken to fully judge each beer.
3) The judges look at the list of beers and styles they are to judge and try to order them in a manner that afford the fairest means of judging them.
4) When ever possible, the judges made it a point to help the brewer identify where they might improve the beer. Obviously it is not always easy or possible to do this.
As an illustrative point, we judged what was an obviously troubled chlorophenolic stout. All three bottles were painfully tasted (6 ounces between the three of us for each bottle). The judges wanted to give each bottle a chance, but more importantly I believe that they were also trying to taste around the flaw to identify the chocolaty overtones and the roast character, etc so that the brewer might get a more informed review of the beer.
I estimate that we spent more time on that beer than most of the others.
This was my experience and I'm sure that others might want to share their experiences here, be they similar or different.
In any case, I encourage anyone that brews to give it a try.
