First competition

[Cajunbrewer87]

Hey everyone. I will be entering 2 of my beers in my first competition in a couple of weeks, a brown porter and american amber ale. Does anyone have some tips on filling out the forms? I rememer hearing that it can determine how your beer is judged. My brown porter's FG is actually 2 points higher than the bjcp range, how much will that hurt? Also for the name should I just put the name of the beer in brewing classic styles or come up with my own? I am really just entering to get some feedback but the competitive side of me wants the best score I can get(though I'm
not expecting much) These forms require a lot of detail and I wanted to fill them out right, thanks

 

[Bensiff]

I'd come up with your own name instead of stealing JZ's as some judges might view that as a sort of plagerism and judge you for it, even though they shouldn't. Don't worry if you are not perfectly in the style guidelines. Many competitions don't even ask that kind of stuff and in my opinion they shouldn't because the judge should be judging the beer against their knowledge of quality commercial examples, not downgrading you because you are slightly outside of the BJCP's numbers (as are many commercial beers). Anyway, soap box aside, make sure you don't mix up your beers...did that once, got really good feedback for an IIPA but really low score because it made its way to the wit table. I bet that messed the judges tasting ability up though .

 

[mwilcox]

where is this competition? Judges shouldn't be seeing your recipe, FG, or entry name. The occasional exception is generally a pro-am, where the pro brewer may want to know if they can reasonably make the recipe before choosing the beer.

The "can influence how your beer is judged" information is Specialty Information, which applies to neither Brown Porter nor American Amber.

 

[Cajunbrewer87]

Thanks bensiff, good info!
mwilcox, the competition is in Lafayette, Louisiana. It does say that best of show can be selected for a GABF pro am, and looking at it again all of the other info isn't required so maybe I should just leave them blank? I guess I would just feel weird handing in a form with 90% left blank, haha.

 

[mwilcox]

I leave them blank unless required. how the beer fits the style is what is important.

 

[kombat]

I leave most of mine blank, too, and only fill in the mandatory info (which is usually just the style and the name). I enter too many beers into too many competitions to fill out all that info for every one.

 

[Bensiff]

Yup. Don't give the judges added info. They are there to taste the beer not judge the recipe.

 

[bob1852]

Again, though, the judges don't see any of that info.

For the basic styles, judges only see the beer and the style (sub)category. In many comps, they don't even see the bottles anymore.


I wish they'd go away from those detailed entry forms. It really serves no purpose.