Your worst beer comp score

[Indytruks138]

Well now I'm even more upset with my Bluebonnet scores. I don't know how it happened but apparently the bottle of IPA they opened was a screw-top bottle that we recapped and it didn't cap well, so it got infected. They gave it a combined 10, one person gave it a 9. I don't drink screw-top bottles so I am really at a loss how this happened, but they said it was terrible, tasted like mud and hops, was orange-green, def nothing like the IPA I am still drinking on.

We entered 7 beers, aside from the IPA we got killed on score-sheets, mostly mid 20's, one low 30 on a 2nd place winning beer from Dixie Cup, another large Texas comp. I know scoring is hard at Bluebonnet with 1500 entries but I feel we got some rough breaks on our scoresheets.

 

[weirdboy]

I got a 7 and an 11 on a golden strong! I never thought it was an amazing beer, but these two bottles were infected or something. They opened both and both were gushers. I just laughed at the comments, one judge said it tasted like tomato bisque.

Wow, a 7 is definitely the lowest score I've ever heard of anyone getting. That's impressive!

 

[jeffjm]

I've gotten a 26 a couple of times. One of them, the same beer (dry stout) scored a 41 and took first in its category over 40 other entries in another comp two weeks prior. The other, an APA, is regularly the fastest keg to kick.

 

[acefaser]

Got a 26 with yoopers house pale ale. Judges said it was a fine American ale but no pale ale.

 

[SLI]

I was impressed myself! The golden strong is one of those beers that I love drinking but can't for the life of me brew well.

 

[Elaelap]

I entered a coconut stout into a local comp, which I thought was a fantastic beer. It tasted close to maui coconut, heavy aroma of coconut, smooth taste. I pretty much drank half the keg before I put them into bottles. So I bottled 12 up, submitted them to the competition. When I got the score sheet back, I was pretty surprised, 15's, 20's... the comments said the beer had ZERO coconut smell / taste, harsh, etc etc.

When I got home, I chilled down 2 bottles and gave them both a try, thinking they might have been infected. The beer was FANTASTIC! Strong coconut, smooth, very good. Anyway, I never contacted the judges, but I have the feeling that they mixed my beer up in the process. I assume that mistakes are made, especially in high volume competitions, but I was shocked to say the least.

 

[Brewmech]

I entered a black currant saison as a fruit beer and it got a 14. I knew it was too tart. The only thing good about it was that it was pretty. Purple beer with a bright pink head. I used too much of the fruit puree and it ended up being extremely tart. Would have been better as a sour.

Thing is, I blended this with a belgian dark strong that was too sweet and it was unbelievably delicious.

Lowest score I've ever given at a BJCP comp was 19. Lowest score for my clubs comp was around an 11 or 12. The nice thing at least with the club comp you can find out what they did and help them.

For all you that enter comps, don't be afraid to email the judge and ask them what they meant about the beer or to clarify something. Usually there is an email on the score sheet. just make sure you let them know what comp it was and what beer it was because they won't have a clue what the hell you are talking about otherwise.

Cheers!

 

[HerbieHowells]

I don't remember what the average score for the beer turned out to be, but I got a low score of 20 from one of two judges on a cream ale. Those comments helped me diagnose a chloramine issue with my water. The sting was cut by a better score on a bitter that I also entered into the contest, which I guess had more for the band aid to hide behind, but I was still down for a few days.

Great thread by the way. When you do get one of those low scores, it is good to see that you aren't the only one in a sea of mini best of shows.

 

[weirdboy]

For all you that enter comps, don't be afraid to email the judge and ask them what they meant about the beer or to clarify something. Usually there is an email on the score sheet. just make sure you let them know what comp it was and what beer it was because they won't have a clue what the hell you are talking about otherwise.

Unless you do it fairly soon after a competition, I am probably not going to remember any specific beer that I judged even if I get a few hints, at least, probably not enough to remember the details, especially if it was an average-scoring beer in the middle of the flight. That's not to say I won't try to remember and do my best to provide useful feedback, but I wouldn't necessarily count on it helping.

 

[bmick]

Am I missing the part where a 27 is a bad score? IMO really bad scores start at like 22-23, where you're in technical flaw territory. Most of the beers that I've had score in the 26 - 30 range were good beers that were a little bit off style/had very minor flaws but were overall reviewed as "good beers". I had one beer that had some sort of infection issue that scored an average 19.5...that was a bad score.

 

[ColeR]

worst was 24.5 on a IPA
best was 37.5 on a IIPA, i got beat by someone who got a score of 37.. on a head to head taste though. go figure.

 

[bumstigedy]

Am I missing the part where a 27 is a bad score? IMO really bad scores start at like 22-23, where you're in technical flaw territory. Most of the beers that I've had score in the 26 - 30 range were good beers that were a little bit off style/had very minor flaws but were overall reviewed as "good beers". I had one beer that had some sort of infection issue that scored an average 19.5...that was a bad score.

A lot of my beers also score in the 26-30 range and taste great to me and my family/friends. According to the scoring guide on the BJCP scoresheet, a 27 would only be "Good" and is off style with minor flaws. I consider this a bad score since there is some significant work to be done to improve it.

Scoring Guide from BJCP Scoresheet:
Outstanding (45 - 50): World-class example of style.
Excellent (38 - 44): Exemplifies style well, requires minor fine-tuning.
Very Good (30 - 37): Generally within style parameters, some minor flaws.
Good (21 - 29): Misses the mark on style and/or minor flaws.
Fair (14 - 20): Off flavors/aromas or major style deficiencies. Unpleasant.
Problematic (00 - 13): Major off flavors and aromas dominate. Hard to drink

 

[guldalian]

20 for an English barleywine. Really bummed me out cuz my other 3 beers I entered did really well. 1st comp. they said it had plastic aroma and flavor, banana esters, and not enough malt F and A. Can't understand that as the ferm was on the cool side for the yeast. Whatevs. It was also kinda young.

 

[Krovitz]

I got a new low. 21 on an American pale ale. It was infected but I didn't realize it til after I submitted the beer. Only one judge said to watch my sanitation though.

 

[bumstigedy]

After thinking about this for a while, I think I should just be thankful that I am blind to these off flavors that the BJCP judges point out. My ESB got nailed for an herbal flavor and oxidation which was due to hot side aeration (according to the judge). I don't worry about hot side aeration, but do worry about oxidation on the cold side and am always mindful to purge the secondary or key with co2 before transfer. I don't taste any of this which is great for me!

 

[Mongrel]

Got a 30 yesterday. Worst score in 3 years of comps, but got really good feedback on how to improve it.

 

[mysteryshrimp]

I just got 3 scores of 20 back, my newest low.

One of them is an IPA that my homebrew club loves. Another got a best in show three weeks before. The third was a braggot and was a little green, but they were treating "may have" flavors as "must have", dinging me for (among other things) being not bitter enough when hops are specifically declared in the guidelines as being optional and there were definitely enough there to notice.

Out of curiosity, is it an actual rule that two "Recognized" BJCP judges can't be paired together as the sole members of the judging panel?

 

[lstrowge]

Scored a 25 last year (first Comp) for an Amarillo hopped APA, took second (small comp though). Recently scored 32 for two Whiskey Barrel aged beers that I forgot to declare the base beer for not even close to placing, go figure.. Got some good comments on them though, makes me wonder what I would have gotten had I declared the Base style.

 

[lester77]

got a 21 on an american pale ale, by a probationary judge. 31 by a fully recognized judge , on the same pale ale...it wasnt great , I thought it was maybe a 27-28...ok really a 25

 

[phenry]

28 on a Scottish 60/-. I thought it was a pretty solid beer when I had entered it, but thinking back I hadn't opened a bottle for about 2 months before sending off my bottles. Lo and behold, it had started developing a little bit of a noticeable infection. When I tasted one after getting the score sheets back, I probably wouldn't have been so gracious as the judges had been on their feedback.

 

[jdauria]

19 for a six month old coconut porter. Main comment was that it was basically in the wrong category, that it should have been in fruit beers rather than robust porter. I had felt that after 6 months the coconut was very faint so felt the porter category fit better...guess not! One of the judges also got a floater in his pour, probably a piece of coconut that made it through the bottling process.

 

[mtnagel]

I finally got my scores back from the first competition I ever entered. So I can say my lowest score is a 29 and my highest is a 36

I entered 2 beers. One was an almost year and half old doppelbock. It was my eighth batch, extract and 1 and only lager I ever did. I thought it was pretty bad, but at our local bockfest, I had a doppelbock and it tasted pretty similar to ours! So that's the only reason I entered it. Guess I don't like doppelbocks that much The national judge gave it a 36, which I'm very happy with. He said he will drink a serving. He said it was flawless, close to style and almost wonderful. The non judge gave it a 31 and actually picked up that it was old (I didn't put how old it was). No off flavors, so for a lager, where my "lagering" temperature happened in my garage in the winter, I'm pretty happy with that.

The lower score was a 5 gal DIPA kit that I got on sale for $20 that I turned into 10 gals of a hoppy pale ale/session IPA It was an extract kit that I experimented with late extract addition and a hop stand. I wasn't expecting much from an extract beer I made for 20 cents a bottle, so I'm pleased with the 29 and 30 scores. One judge did pick up a phenolic note - he said, "not necessarily band aid, but just something different." Not sure what I can do with that.

I've started doing BIAB and having better fermentation temperature control, so I think my beers can only get better so I'm happy with the results.

 

[Brewsncrabs]

First comp got a 19. Now I have fermentation temp control and went to RO water with salts. Can't wait to enter another! I can tell the difference so scores should go up.

 

[Wynne-R]

You can ask for a second bottle, it’s rare to get one. It’s up to the head judge and/or director.

I had it happen once. There was an otherwise excellent IPA that was 100% dead-ass flat. The second bottle was just as dead. The reasoning was that he had no chance of going to the second round with the first bottle, why not use the BOS bottle for a second chance?

The minimum score is the policy of the competition. No point being mean if they’re not going anywhere. As far as the BJCP is concerned there could be a ‘0'.

I had a zero once, it was astringent, vegetal, phenolic, fusel and metallic. Actually it wasn’t scored because it was a geyser. There wasn’t enough left in the bottle to taste. That’s how we wrote it up.

 

[crjpilot]

I pulled down a 19/50 for a Belgian Pale Ale this weekend. I didn't have high hopes, but I had higher than 19 hopes! I knew I was going a little out of style with specialty grains and I made an error in the debittered black addition, so the color was too dark. Also, I had some challenges with fermentation control as my fermentation chamber was full. The basement had worked well in the winter and spring, but too hot in the summer.

The judges were kind in their comments, though. They basically said too dark, too much specialty grain, and better fermentation control. The score sheets were clean, so it didn't look like anyone had spit it out...

 

[Jon73]

Pair of 13's for my first (and only) entry of a pale ale. We figured it was infected corn sugar. I reserved out a gallon from a batch I was kegging and neglected to boil a corn sugar solution and just added it dry to the gallon o beer. Whoops.

 

[andylsun]

First (and currently only) comp entry scored 15 average.

I brewed a really great IPA that tasted amazing in the keg, and semi-pro brewers I gave it to thought it was great. I bottled a six pack and sent 3 in. 2 months later I get the score sheets. All commented about massive diacetyl taste and that the beer had a problem. All 3 sheets were consistent.

I thought I must have submitted the wrong beer, so I opened one of the sixer I had left. It was disgusting and undrinkible, with a terrible diacetyl mouthfeel (oily, butterscotch). The keg still tasted great and as it always had.

It looks like the bottles were infected during the bottling process. Everything was sanitized, but my bottling wand was old (a hand me down), and I wonder if that caused it. I've thrown it away and bought a new one.

I feel really bad about submitting such an awful beer, and wasting the judges time, but it was a great beer out of the keg. I've bottled beers before and since and not had this problem, but that was with a different wand.

Going to rebrew for next year

 

[jbaysurfer]

In a competition yesterday I got a 45 from one judge and a 25 from another.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

In a competition yesterday I got a 45 from one judge and a 25 from another.

Same beer judged at the same time? Then that's a big issue as the judges are expected to be within a few points of each other.

MC

 

[Indytruks138]

Yeah judges should adjust to be w/in 5 points, that competition needs more supervision!