Judging Commercial Beers Using BJCP Guidelines??

[Phunhog]

Hi Guys,
I was wondering if anybody judges commercial beers according to BJCP guidelines. I am very curious to see how a National Judge would rate some commercial beers. Is it safe to say that any micro would score in the 40's according to BJCP guidelines? I am starting to enter competitions for feedback and am getting mid-high 30's on my scoresheets. I wonder how that would compare to commercial examples of a particular style. Or am I comparing apples to oranges.....?? Thanks. Al

 

[DKershner]

Hi Guys,
I was wondering if anybody judges commercial beers according to BJCP guidelines. I am very curious to see how a National Judge would rate some commercial beers. Is it safe to say that any micro would score in the 40's according to BJCP guidelines? I am starting to enter competitions for feedback and am getting mid-high 30's on my scoresheets. I wonder how that would compare to commercial examples of a particular style. Or am I comparing apples to oranges.....?? Thanks. Al

It would really depend on how well that particular beer follows the style guidelines. Styles defined by beers, like Budweiser, would score well into the 40's. Beers that don't really fit, like Rogue's Dead Guy, would score poorly.

You can say on a fairly consistent basis that the same beer brewed by a commercial brewer would score higher than a homebrewer for being cleaner and more to style though, but not always.

 

[944play]

I would think that homebrew would generally fare better in categories where freshness is most critical - especially IIPA. Gubna, I2PA, and Hercules are wonderful beers I'm sure, but I've never gotten a fresh example.

 

[olllllo]

Commercial Calibration at the end of every Zymurgy
http://www.wahomebrewers.org/learn/bjcp-classes/81-zymurgy-commercial-calibration-beers
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/zymurgy/commercial-calibration

 

[remilard]

A fresh example of one of the listed examples (and plenty of other beers) should score in the 40s.

In general I would think if you got the right category (sometimes the name of a beer suggests a category but it should go elsewhere) commercial beers are going to score a bit better than homebrew on average. This is talking about the homebrew that is entered in competitions which may be on the better than average side to start with.

The big thing is that most commercial breweries, at least the ones with good distribution, make flaw free beer. Homebrew that is flaw free is generally right up there with commercial beer.