2017 National Brewing Championships

[beanstalk]

Aye thats ok! I was certain I had them labelled right but I'll know to make absolutely certain next year.

Was good feedback all the same lads. One of my scores (the brown ale) got a flat 13 (not to style) and I was gutted cus I thought it was nice, but once I seen the sheet I got a bit of relief! the sweet stout got hammered cus it was all roasty in the brown ale category! 

[mick02]

Yeah that Brown Ale was tasty alright. I was actually talking about your beer to someone at the second leg saying that it was a shame that it was mislabeled (as it is for anyone that had mislabeled bottles)

[Crazyhorse]

Well done to organisers for updating score sheets so quickly. Found the feedback to be very fair. What kind of a score would you want to be hitting to medal?

[Leann ull]

Read older posts in this thread, 30-35 points (ish)

[SlugTrap]

Wow; I guess I shouldn't skip a day on the forums.


Try to take things one by one...

Needed a 30 for a medal, over that it was the judges' discretion what was awarded

30 was the threshold to medal; medals were awarded in score order.
If there was only one or two above 30, where those placed was at judges' discretion.
The only 30+ in a category would definitely get something.

Some judges come out of the traps very generous and moderate down scoring as they go along depending on standard.

Those judges generally asked for the first beer back on the day.
There was lots of calibrating to be sure 1st-2nd-3rd was in the right order.

All beers judged to BJCP style in groupings matching the Competition category.
Competition category is just the "awards" container, is not relevant for judging purposes

This.
Lots of questions here - I agree that "categories" has too many meanings.
Best way to think of it is your beer is entered + judged as a *style*, but awarded in a category. 

what happened with the pilsner/pale lager grouping?

Poor quality across the board.
I spot-checked; yes, the beers really were that bad. 

One of my beers scored 27/50 total, with 31/50 and 25/50.
But the 25/50 is completely missing a score for mouthfeel (only a sum of the other 4 sections: 6+3+10+6)
So i missed out on 5 potential points and the possibility of a medal.

Replied in PM to you, LordEoin.

Mead and Ciders in one category!!!
...did you do it that way because of a low entry.

Yes - we grouped mead + cider together for judging because neither had enough entries for meaningful competition on their own.
"Beat 10 [entries]" for gold is a BJCP rule of thumb that we tried to follow this year.
Historically, we've never gotten a lot of ciders or meads, so expect the same in future.

I actually didn't realise there was a separate spiced,herb,vegetable category and had assumed the fruit&spiced was fruit and/or spiced beer so my xmas spiced stout didn't score as much as it would have.

It would not have been penalized for style deviations as 30A, as you say...
But it would've scored even better as Winter Seasonal (30C) - I sampled it; lovely Christmas pudding beer!
I'll follow up in the next few weeks with a "How to choose the BJCP style for your beer" post to (hopefully) clear up this kind of thing for everyone.


Thanks again to everyone for all the brewing + tasting!

[BigDanny84]

I didn't enter this year but fair play to all involved, sounds like it all went very well.

[BrewDorg]

Cheers to the judges, feedback was good and fair. Special s/o to mick02 for best handwriting I've had on a scoresheet to date 😂  Stewarding in the 1st leg opened my eyes to how these comps work and I'm rearing to go next year already.

[mick02]

Cheers to the judges, feedback was good and fair. Special s/o to mick02 for best handwriting I've had on a scoresheet to date   Stewarding in the 1st leg opened my eyes to how these comps work and I'm rearing to go next year already.

Haha, thanks! I had some problems reading my feedback. Just imagine the handwriting of a doctor that was also a bjcp judge

[Jonnycheech]

Wow; I guess I shouldn't skip a day on the forums.


Try to take things one by one...

Needed a 30 for a medal, over that it was the judges' discretion what was awarded

30 was the threshold to medal; medals were awarded in score order.
If there was only one or two above 30, where those placed was at judges' discretion.
The only 30+ in a category would definitely get something.

Some judges come out of the traps very generous and moderate down scoring as they go along depending on standard.

Those judges generally asked for the first beer back on the day.
There was lots of calibrating to be sure 1st-2nd-3rd was in the right order.

All beers judged to BJCP style in groupings matching the Competition category.
Competition category is just the "awards" container, is not relevant for judging purposes

This.
Lots of questions here - I agree that "categories" has too many meanings.
Best way to think of it is your beer is entered + judged as a *style*, but awarded in a category. 

what happened with the pilsner/pale lager grouping?

Poor quality across the board.
I spot-checked; yes, the beers really were that bad. 

One of my beers scored 27/50 total, with 31/50 and 25/50.
But the 25/50 is completely missing a score for mouthfeel (only a sum of the other 4 sections: 6+3+10+6)
So i missed out on 5 potential points and the possibility of a medal.

Replied in PM to you, LordEoin.

Mead and Ciders in one category!!!
...did you do it that way because of a low entry.

Yes - we grouped mead + cider together for judging because neither had enough entries for meaningful competition on their own.
"Beat 10 [entries]" for gold is a BJCP rule of thumb that we tried to follow this year.
Historically, we've never gotten a lot of ciders or meads, so expect the same in future.

I actually didn't realise there was a separate spiced,herb,vegetable category and had assumed the fruit&spiced was fruit and/or spiced beer so my xmas spiced stout didn't score as much as it would have.

It would not have been penalized for style deviations as 30A, as you say...
But it would've scored even better as Winter Seasonal (30C) - I sampled it; lovely Christmas pudding beer!
I'll follow up in the next few weeks with a "How to choose the BJCP style for your beer" post to (hopefully) clear up this kind of thing for everyone.


Thanks again to everyone for all the brewing + tasting!

Fair play, you did a great job!

[Fatcontro11er]

Just reading through the feedback and fair enough,a wee bit difficult to read some of it due to handwriting (probably rushed) but I find the remarks on these sheets the most valuable resource in brewing and ill certainly be putting them into practise in future brews.

[LordEoin]

It might be a good idea to use mechanical pencils in the future. They're cheap as chips and don't get all blurry after a while.

I'm happy with the feedback overall, some solid advice. I won't be bottling off keg next year

[itsclinto]

Just want to say thanks again to everyone who pitched in this year.  Its incredible to get the scoresheets on a Monday afternoon with the all important feedback.  Although i won no medals, i know where to improve my beers as they were my first time trying those categories.  Thanks again

[Simon_]

I'm happy to say with a big monitor, lots of zoom and a few reads I could eventually decipher every word of the 5x2 scoresheets this year. The majority of the sheets were in block capitals and I got it first time. The cursive ones were harder.

The feedback given was excellent

[Blueshed]

For my 3 beer's I had 4 judges.

Very easy to read 3 of them and the 4th not to bad.👍.

[tommy]

Got some great feedback on my first recipe attempt at a wee heavy scoring 35, with over carbonation costing me some valuable points and with some minor tweeks hopefully next year it will medal!