Gauging interest for a free beer judging website

[poptarts]

So I had an idea and wanted to know if this is something the homebrewing community would be interested in.
Lots of people say they only enter competitions for feedback, however doing this provides a decent amount of downfalls. Since you have to find a competition in your area, pay fees, and wait a decent amount of time for feedback that can be a bit shaky depending on position in flight, serving temperature etc.
I was thinking there could be a website where people who are willing to judge beers, preferably BJCP judges or other qualified people could sign up to have beers shipped to them. They could manage a queue so they only got as many beers as they wanted at a time etc. Once they received a beer they could grade it in their own time and provide a score sheet back to the the brewer. The site would be totally free and anyone could use it. So the cost would only be getting beer to the nearest person to judge your beer, via shipping or other methods. Obviously the site could have a lot more features etc but for a base does this sound like something people would both be willing to judge and or send beers to be judged in?

 

[porterpounder]

Sounds pretty cool. Maybe provide a feature to scan a sheet onto the site to save on having to mail them back. Or even an online BJCP format sheet that can be filled out and logged.

 

[dmtaylor]

I think this is a wonderful idea, and I've often wondered why the world hasn't started doing something like this already. The primary problem with it might be finding enough volunteers to do the judging -- judges might ask "what's in it for me?" and expect to be paid some low nominal fee. Nevermind that people are sending them free beer -- they're still providing a specialty service and might expect $$$ for it.

All that being said..... if anyone sends me free beer, I'll judge it for them. They have and I have. I'm BJCP Certified and I'm not afraid to use it. Once in a while is fine. If it became a job, though, it might get annoying, and then that's where the $$$ would come in nicely.

Just thinking out loud. I do think it's a great idea. Just don't know how many judges would be interested. Maybe a lot. I just don't know.

 

[Yooper]

You don't have to have a competition nearby- competitions take shipped entries.

In some competitions I've judged, the winners and medal winners were thousands of miles away.

http://www.bjcp.org/apps/comp_schedule/competition_schedule.php

People do send me beer to judge when they want feedback, after asking me. I don't do it all the time, though.

I think many people believe that judges get "free beer" but most of the time we are judging beers that the brewers think may be problematic and are looking for feedback on how to fix. Few send me a message and say, "Hey, I just have to send you some of the best beer I've ever made!" Although, that has happened on occasion. Most beers are not all that great in competition or when people ask for feedback and input.

 

[ba-brewer]

Good idea. I like free but would be willing to pay a small fee if it means a more timely turnaround. I have not entered many contests but the waiting for feedback is the worst part. Not sure I would pay if they were not BJCP judges though.

 

[poptarts]

Sounds pretty cool. Maybe provide a feature to scan a sheet onto the site to save on having to mail them back. Or even an online BJCP format sheet that can be filled out and logged.

Yea it would definitely have online type score sheet or a way to scan in, but I feel typing benefits everyone especially people trying to read the not so legible hand writing of so many people.

 

[poptarts]

You don't have to have a competition nearby- competitions take shipped entries.

In some competitions I've judged, the winners and medal winners were thousands of miles away.

http://www.bjcp.org/apps/comp_schedule/competition_schedule.php

People do send me beer to judge when they want feedback, after asking me. I don't do it all the time, though.

I think many people believe that judges get "free beer" but most of the time we are judging beers that the brewers think may be problematic and are looking for feedback on how to fix. Few send me a message and say, "Hey, I just have to send you some of the best beer I've ever made!" Although, that has happened on occasion. Most beers are not all that great in competition or when people ask for feedback and input.

Right but you do have to pay a 7$ or w/e comp fee and ship in and wait for the comp and then several weeks to get score sheets back, that as i mentioned before might no be the best quality due to the nature of competitions.

 

[poptarts]

I think this is a wonderful idea, and I've often wondered why the world hasn't started doing something like this already. The primary problem with it might be finding enough volunteers to do the judging -- judges might ask "what's in it for me?" and expect to be paid some low nominal fee. Nevermind that people are sending them free beer -- they're still providing a specialty service and might expect $$$ for it.

All that being said..... if anyone sends me free beer, I'll judge it for them. They have and I have. I'm BJCP Certified and I'm not afraid to use it. Once in a while is fine. If it became a job, though, it might get annoying, and then that's where the $$$ would come in nicely.

Just thinking out loud. I do think it's a great idea. Just don't know how many judges would be interested. Maybe a lot. I just don't know.

I agree with this completely, and as i mentioned before as someone willing to judge you could manage your queue. so you could turn on and off and only allow X beers to be shipped to you so if you only wanted to do one beer a year you could, if you wanted to do 7 a week you could. But it would be free and it would have to be the judge giving time to help others, not so different from judging a comp, but I feel like that is the spirit of this forum for the most part, so I feel it could work.