Judging beer
Is not as easy as you might think. It’s not like you sit down and drink some beer and pick the ones you like. Beer is judged according to rigorously defined style guides. Beer that meets those style guidelines perfectly receives high marks whether or not it is your favorite beer. Take, for instance, the light American lager category. We judged blind, only knowing the style the beer was in. The guidelines called for a straw-colored pale beer that is dry and has a taste of some corn and grain. The beer we tried fit the style guidelines perfectly, so it received high points. It was Bud Light.
Yes, it hurts me to admit that.
The most difficult situation is when you really like a beer, but it doesn’t fit the category well. You can score it high in one of the preference boxes, but color, mouthfeel, taste and other markers play high in the beer’s overall score. The system, as it were, works well enough with many traditional beers from around the world, but it does not work well within the craft-brew industry. Brewers who experiment and change existing styles might be brewing the best stuff on earth, but there is no way any governing body can adapt categories for all the new styles. So they try and fit them into existing categories where they often receive good preference marks and low marks on technical aspects.
Anybody have any good ideas about how the current judging system could better reflect the diversity in world beers today?
Prost,
GG
What were the results of the Garden City brewfest beer judging? Thanks.
What was the results from the Garden City Brewfest?
Thanks
Travis,
I’m hoping to get an E-mail with that information as soon as possible. I’ll post it when I know. I only judged half the beers, and I wasn’t able to stick around for the awards. I’ll let you know soon.
Tim
Hey Tim,
Nice site. I just heard about it. The style guidelines are constantly evolving, which is great b/c beer styles are as well. As for better reflecting diversity, the guidelines do allow for it with the categories: other low alcohol ale or lager, other strong ale or lager, specialty stout, other Belgian ales, specialty beer, and experimental beer. From a brewing perspective, I usually look at guidelines as a starting point. Sometimes I try to nail a classic style and other times I try to make a beer that suits my tastes, which usually means more full bodied and bitter than the usual.
Bill
It is dismaying to see beer judged in the sun. Photolytic degradation of hops (isohumulones to 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol (MBT)) is a well known effect and easily distinguished by simply drinking and smelling beer inside and out of the sun and then walking outside and tasting again. The aroma absolutely changes. And, it is a dramatic difference. Beer should always be judged either inside (preferable) or if outside, in the shade.
http://www.franklinbrew.org/brewinfo/lightstruck.html
I was also disappointing to observe someone smoking while judging beer. Sorry, smoking and beer judging do not mix under any conditions. If you needed to smoke, might I recommend that you walk away from the judging table and come back. At least then we would not see it?
Just my opinion.