Beer judging sounds like a dream job right? Well I had the opportunity to judge an amateur brewing competition in Sioux Falls this past weekend. It was a blast and I met several amazing people. Out of the 56 beers entered in the competition I judged 9 the first evening and 8 in the second round on Saturday afternoon. This was both a challenge and a great learning experience. Frustrating at times and mouth numbing at others the competition judging environment is quite the experience. At first you think this is going to be a walk in the park, "oh hey yeah I like beer, I brew beer, I am pretty sure I know a lot about beer" but, boy was I wrong. Not only do you need to know a lot about beer you need to know every little intricacy of about 52 different beer styles, several of which I have never had. The task was given to not only drink the beer but to critique it on 5 different categories, 4 of which are out of your control you must discern how accurately that beer in front of you adheres to a strict or sometimes loose set of guidelines. You can see how this could get interesting. Twelve of the fifty points are for the aroma alone, adjectives such as diacetyl, sulfur, and DMS can describe the aroma, if you are baffled you are not alone! Imagine being the guy who has to decide if be does or does not smell something that he has no idea what it is! But we soldier on, next is the appearance for 3 points. The trifecta can be converted easily if it looks like the beer, has the right color and head, may as well be a layup for a well brewed beer. After the appearance comes the flavor. This is the mother load if you will worth 20 points. What you are looking for here is for that beer to taste like the style that it was brewed to, on the bottom of the style guides they have a nice list if commercially brewed versions of the style that you can use as a guide to know what you are shooting for. For example if you are judging pale ales then the beer should taste like a Sierra Nevada pale ale or something similar in order to be considered "to style" and remember here that is what we are trying to do. We are not trying to decide whether we like the beer or not, only if it matches up with what is supposed to be. Common off flavors that you are looking for in the flavor of a beer can be things like hot/burning alcohols, harsh hop bitterness, or the buttery diacetyl flavor. Then comes 5 points for mouthfeel: does it feel like it has the right carbonation, body, and finish that you are looking for in the style? For instance Belgian tripels can be highly carbed, light-medium bodied, with a warming finish. While on the other hand pale ales should be medium carbonation, light bodied, with a clean crisp finish for example. So now we have 40 of the possible 50 points complete, last is the section where you can be more subjective and decide whether you like the beer personally or not and comment on why or why not you think you would drink this beer again if given the opportunity. And we are done! 45-50 point beers are rare, they are one of the few world class examples of the style. 38-44 is an excellent beer, 30-37 is a very good beer, 21-29 is a good beer but struggles to match the given style, 14-20 is a fair beer and may exhibit several minor to major flaws, then finally 0-13 is a problematic beer that is most likely undrinkable and probably shouldn't even be called a beer.
I believe that the bulk of the beers that were entered in the competition I judged were in the 30's which I would assume is a commonality among competitions then if a beer scored in the 40's it most likely is an outstanding beer and made it to the second round of 15 of 56. There were a few duds that I judged but nothing that got below a 20 from what I remember. We were encouraged to converse with the judges around us that were tasting the same beer and help us coach ourselves through the process which was a huge help. We were then also encouraged to ensure that our scores were not wildly different and within about ten points of each other at least.
So all in all judging a beer competition is fun, and most of them in the area are open to the public with all volunteer non-bjcp sanctioned judging so next time you see a competition pop-up don't be afraid to go volunteer and try your hand at judging! It was a fun and exciting learning experience for me and I look forward to the next opportunity I have to try it again.
Beer Judge Certification Program
Cheers! Richard Drawdy
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