Competiton rant.....

[Phunhog]

I know...I know. Found out I won 3rd place in my category in a medium sized BJCP that is very well run. I should be happy but instead am more than a little pissed. Apparently I had the second highest score (34.5) in a flight of 16 beers...yet I get 3rd?!! They intentionally didn't award a second place!! WTF? Seems pretty simple too me. The top three beers receive 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I feel really bad for the brewer who had the 3rd highest score and got NOTHING. I have been thinking about why they did this and can't come up with anything other than they didn't think the beers were "worthy" of placing and had a snobby judge. It happened in a few other categories as well...not just mine. Pheww.....that felt good!!

 

[BrewerE]

orrrrrrr, they do it like our state fair and have minimum point thresholds for award levels to avoid the inevitable "this was a really crappy beer, but is the only entry in the category so he gets a blue ribbon" effect....

 

[ncbrewer]

Gotta say, it doesn't make any sense to me either. Did you ask for an explanation?

 

[TheHopfather]

I got a 39 with my milk stout in a local BJCP competition last weekend and I didn't medal. Wha?!...

 

[Qhrumphf]

My guess is that judging categories were combined in such a way that the 2nd place was in a different style grouping, but judged in the same category.

I've seen many comps where, say, Pilsner and Light Lager would be combined as one judging category, and then on the competition results they would show the Pilsner category getting only 1st and 3rd with no second, but Light Lager getting only 2nd with no 1st or 3rd. It threw me for a loop many times until I sussed it out, and then I saw it all time after that.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I got a 39 with my milk stout in a local BJCP competition last weekend and I didn't medal. Wha?!...

Some comps have very stiff competition. I've gotten a handful in the low 40s in the first round of NHC that didn't advance (while clubmates had beers in the mid 30s that advanced). Needless to say I was rather glum about it.

 

[TheHopfather]

Some comps have very stiff competition. I've gotten a handful in the low 40s in the first round of NHC that didn't advance (while clubmates had beers in the mid 30s that advanced). Needless to say I was rather glum about it.

Me too, just pouting a little bit.

 

[dmtaylor]

Honestly, occasionally (rarely) there's just too much crap beer being entered. Count yourself lucky that they actually kind of liked your beer, and hated as many as 14 others.

Likely a judge problem as well. For example, many of us can think of "that one judge" who detects diacetyl in every single beer, and he hates diacetyl, and he's going to be a prick about it. That guy needs to have his title stripped and thrown in the dumpster. But unfortunately, he exists, and a lot of us know "that guy". So that might be what happened in this case as well. Who knows.

 

[OkanaganMike]

Well......Congratulations on the pseudo-second!!!

 

[Phunhog]

Gotta say, it doesn't make any sense to me either. Did you ask for an explanation?

I did and the explanation was "that's how judging works" Any BJCP judges explain this to me? It's like coming in second in a marathon but given a third place medal because your time was too slow!! I am not competing against a style....I am competing against the other brewers for a medal.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I did and the explanation was "that's how judging works" Any BJCP judges explain this to me? It's like coming in second in a marathon but given a third place medal because your time was too slow!! I am not competing against a style....I am competing against the other brewers for a medal.

What was the competition? My guess is still my explanation, but some comps do have required score brackets for medals and your score may not have been high enough for a 2nd place.

As a judge I typically don't see skipping a place like that. However, if there are two decent entries and the rest undrinkable, I could see refusing to award a 3rd place.

 

[poptarts]

I did and the explanation was "that's how judging works" Any BJCP judges explain this to me? It's like coming in second in a marathon but given a third place medal because your time was too slow!! I am not competing against a style....I am competing against the other brewers for a medal.

you actually aren't really competing against other brews you are competing against style. But yea no second seems stupid. If there were only 2 good ones and the rest horrid I can see not giving a third but idk why they skipped over a place.

 

[Sailingeric]

I entered a saison in the state fair brew comp last year, I don't remember what my score was but one review was very good and another review made it sound like I submitted toilet water. From my comp experience I don't think I will ever enter another competition- no that it was bad, just that I am brewing what is good and not trying to fit in a style or win medals. From what I have read on other posts it seems like some judges have the ideal beer in mind and if you did not exactly clone it you are not going to score well.

 

[NervousDad]

I know...I know. Found out I won 3rd place in my category in a medium sized BJCP that is very well run. I should be happy but instead am more than a little pissed. Apparently I had the second highest score (34.5) in a flight of 16 beers...yet I get 3rd?!! They intentionally didn't award a second place!! WTF? Seems pretty simple too me. The top three beers receive 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. I feel really bad for the brewer who had the 3rd highest score and got NOTHING. I have been thinking about why they did this and can't come up with anything other than they didn't think the beers were "worthy" of placing and had a snobby judge. It happened in a few other categories as well...not just mine. Pheww.....that felt good!!

Scores have nothing to do with the place awarded. For the most part they rate the beer determine if it will be in a mini-BOS and place them accordingly. I've score mid 40's and didn't win anything and I've won with beers as low as a 30.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I entered a saison in the state fair brew comp last year, I don't remember what my score was but one review was very good and another review made it sound like I submitted toilet water. From my comp experience I don't think I will ever enter another competition- no that it was bad, just that I am brewing what is good and not trying to fit in a style or win medals. From what I have read on other posts it seems like some judges have the ideal beer in mind and if you did not exactly clone it you are not going to score well.

That's kind of the idea. The "ideal beer" is a beer that perfectly fits the style guidelines in every resepect (most world class commercial examples don't even achieve this). But if the judge is going based off of anything beyond what the (admittedly arbitrary) style guidelines say, they're doing a bad job. And there are many certified BJCP judges who don't go by the guidelines, or who have never tasted proper commercial examples of a given style and aren't correctly understanding the guidelines. You run into that a lot with English ales, as so few judges have actually had a good, authentic one.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Scores have nothing to do with the place awarded. For the most part they rate the beer determine if it will be in a mini-BOS and place them accordingly. I've score mid 40's and didn't win anything and I've won with beers as low as a 30.

Assuming they're doing a mini-BOS, yes. But typically if there are enough beers to do mini-BOS, they're not going to skip over a place like that.

Only reasonable explanation is merging of judging categories that wasn't clear on the competition results the OP is seeing. I'm guessing there was another category merged with his category that has his missing 2nd place medalist.

 

[Phunhog]

Assuming they're doing a mini-BOS, yes. But typically if there are enough beers to do mini-BOS, they're not going to skip over a place like that.

Only reasonable explanation is merging of judging categories that wasn't clear on the competition results the OP is seeing. I'm guessing there was another category merged with his category that has his missing 2nd place medalist.

Talking to the comp organizer apparently they had a few extremely picky judges. Like I said there were several categories where there was no second place. The organizer, who does a really good job, said that they had to lobby the judges to even get a third place winner in one category.....hope it wasn't mine

 

[Qhrumphf]

Talking to the comp organizer apparently they had a few extremely picky judges. Like I said there were several categories where there was no second place. The organizer, who does a really good job, said that they had to lobby the judges to even get a third place winner in one category.....hope it wasn't mine

If i were that comp organizer I'd be telling those judges not to come back. A 34.5 is deserving of a silver in my book. And if they did mini-BOS and can't pick 1st 2nd and 3rd, they're inflating scores (no offense) and/or and they shouldn't have sent so many to mini-BOS.

 

[dmtaylor]

Talking to the comp organizer apparently they had a few extremely picky judges. Like I said there were several categories where there was no second place. The organizer, who does a really good job, said that they had to lobby the judges to even get a third place winner in one category.....hope it wasn't mine

I figured maybe it was like that...

 

[FarmerTed]

I got a 39 with my milk stout in a local BJCP competition last weekend and I didn't medal. Wha?!...

I scored a 38 with a bock a couple weeks ago in a flight of 13 and didn't place. I looked up the results, and third in my category was a beer from Mark Schoppe. What are you going to do about that? Damn, it would have been so sweet to have finished second, one ahead of him.

 

[Natdavis777]

I got a 39 with my milk stout in a local BJCP competition last weekend and I didn't medal. Wha?!...

Scored a 40 on an IPA last year and didnt place as well. I feel the pain. It was the largest competition in the state though so I can understand not placing.