FlyGuy said:
Perhaps it is just a desperate attempt to break free of the constraints of stringent guidelines and award merit for innovation. But if that is the case, then why aren't there more categories where creativity and innovation can be used as the benchmarks to a good beer, rather than judging fit to a style? (That's a rhetorical question!)
Rhetorical or not, I'll give you my answer.
First of all, the guidelines aren't all that stringent. In fact, I often wish they were a bit moreso. It's difficult to judge a beer against guidelines that say something like "[t]he best examples have some malt aroma, often (but not always) with a caramel quality." (8A - Standard/Ordinary bitter) What the heck does that mean? If I have an entry with a caramel quality, should it score higher for that reason, or does it really matter? If it has more caramel in the nose, is that better than less? What the flip is a "quality," anyhow?
Well, to answer my own question, you can't take each line of the guidelines as a checklist. You have to look at the whole description and know what this style of beer is about, and then you judge accordingly. The checklist might help you along, but it's a holistic thing. In the above example, the real sort of question is "does this beer's caramel nose (or lack thereof) work with the rest of the beer?"
There's your creativity. There's your craft. You can make an Ordinary Bitter with caramel in the nose and one without, and they can both score the same, high or low. In the end, you have to make a good beer, and that's a beer where all the parts work together well. "Within the style" might get you into the high 20s or low 30s, but it's that sort of synergy that gets you into the high 30s and 40s.
As for further creativity and innovation, it's something of a matter of entrant demand. Nearly all competing brewers want guidelines so that they can have some idea where they stand. They want something to tell them what a good beer is, and they want to work towards a more defined goal, and they want to remove subjective preferences where possible. Many judges want the same, as many truly are concerned about removing subjectivity where possible. Guidelines attempt to provide a level, defined playing field. As a specific example, the Dixie Cup gets many, many more entries in the defined categories, rather an in the Specialty category. This year, we also had an "It's Just Beer" category, where the guidelines were:
The only guideline is the beers pure drinking pleasure. In other words, well judge it on how much of it we would want to drink and what Fred Eckhardt calls the Come Hither Effect. This is a quality that instinctively makes the drinker want to have more and/or yell across the room, Come here! Youve got to try some of this! Simply put, it stimulates your sensibilities, titillates your taste buds, and draws you to another pint.
We got something like a dozen entries, if that, out of over 900.
TL
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