Brewing Competition Ethics

[Gameface]

I have a specific question but would love to hear ethical concerns other people have in regard to brewing competitions.

Now, if that ethical question is in regard to entering clone brews or other people's recipes there are threads for that.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/poll-beer-competition-ethics-123057/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/competition-ethics-question-117004/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/competition-submissions-recipe-ethics-160729/

My question is a bit different.

Last year I entered an ESB into a local comp that my ESB had taken 1st place in the year before. I took the judges comments from the previous year to heart and did my best to implement their suggestions. In fact, while the name of the beer stayed the same the recipe changed pretty considerably.

But my question is this: According to the style guidelines I was high on ABV, high on IBU and low on SRM. I knew that I was essentially out of style, technically, but that I had made the beer the judges the previous year had asked for.

Long story short, I took 1st in the category again.

I don't feel bad about that, however...

This year I'm going to be making an ESB, a Best Bitter and an Ordinary Bitter for this beer comp (they allow one entry per subcategory).

My current Ordinary Bitter recipe is completely within style guidelines. But I started considering pushing it outside those guidelines intentionally because I feel that it will be hard for an ordinary bitter to stand out against the other beers in the general category.

I know there could be some concern that the judges would ding me for being out of the style guidelines, but I honestly don't think that will be the case. The beer will conform to the written description and have the proper balance for the category, and as good as the judges may be I don't think they'll notice.

So, is it unethical to intentionally brew a beer slightly outside of style guidelines to stand out from the crowd?

 

[passedpawn]

So, is it unethical to intentionally brew a beer slightly outside of style guidelines to stand out from the crowd?

No. It's pretty common I think. However, good judges will not let it go if it's noticeably outside the category, so be careful.

 

[Pilgarlic]

It's a winning strategy, usually.

 

[Braufessor]

So, is it unethical to intentionally brew a beer slightly outside of style guidelines to stand out from the crowd?

Not only is it not "unethical" it is generally the strategy of many, many winning entries. You can brew whatever you want and enter it where ever you want - nothing unethical about that. You (generally) could even enter the same beer in different categories if you are trying to figure out where it does best.

In my experience, the vast majority of the beers I have had that have done well are pushing or exceeding, the higher limits of the "guidelines." Try to brew an American Pale Ale, within the "guidelines" and still win a medal in a big competition. Basically, if you don't enter an IPA in the pale ale category, you can kiss your chances goodbye.

I will say, I feel like at the higher levels, (NHC Finals) I think you are more likely to get dinged for being "beyond style."

 

[ASantiago]

Ditto all that. The advise I've always heard is to push the beer to the upper end of its style, if not a little beyond.

 

[Gameface]

Thanks folks. I will proceed with a clear conscience.

So are there any actually difficult questions in the world of brewing competitions?

Like, I get that scraping the label off a commercial beer and entering it as your own would be unethical, but have any of you come across anything either really bizarre or hard to make a call on?

 

[TopherM]

It is EXTREMELY difficult to make beer judging objective. The BJCP represents a very imperfect system, but is about as good as we're going to get. As such, any realistic person has to expect a healthy amount of subjectivity in the process. It's the reason a beer will win a competition, then the same beer will get a 32 in the next competition.

The BJCP guidelines also make no secret that the "Overall Impressions" part of the scoring sheet is meant to give points for subjective reasons, so it's basically designed so those beers that have a little something special about them get a few more points, even though it may have nothing to do with the style guidelines.

Overall, there definitely is not an ethics issue here. The beers are meant to be judged BOTH on their objective style merits AND their intangible subjective merits.

 

[TopherM]

Have any of you come across anything either really bizarre or hard to make a call on?

In the last major competition I judged, we had a Baltic Porter that ended up in a cider flight. We stopped and did the due diligence to figure out if the brewer made the error in his submission, or if the error was somehow made in sorting/labeling by the competition organizers. We determined it was, in fact, the brewer's error in submission. We then checked out his other entries, and found out he had also entered a cider, which, you guessed it, he labeled as a Baltic Porter. Just a simple error of putting the labels on backwards.

By the letter of the BJCP law, we couldn't ethically just switch the entries. The brewer made the mistake. BUT, to make it fair, we basically judged both as labeled for the sake of the competition (both received the minimum 19 score), THEN we let the brewer know about his mistake on the "official" scoresheets, and that his beer and cider were not eligible for any prizes, then judged them in their correct categories as a courtesy.

The cider was nothing special, like a 30ish, but the Baltic Porter did get a healthy 36 in this "courtesy" judging, and was borderline second round if the brewer had placed it in the proper category, but likely did not have a chance of placing. We let him know that as well, gave both proper feedback, and encouraged him to enter the Baltic Porter again.

Weird situation, but I think it was handled correctly. Everyone in the room wanted to taste that Baltic Porter after the flight was over, so it was definitely the star of the day!

 

[Hello]

I would never consider submitting a beer that is slightly outside the guidelines to be unethical but it can certainly be dangerous. I submitted a beer in a category that I thought was close enough. I was dinged hard for that. They claimed off-flavors and well I don't get that and even had a brewer drink it who also disagreed. That alone is odd but what killed me right away was the fact that it did not fit style guidelines. I don't think the beer had any place in competition as I reflect back on it now. It was a silly decision on my part and that was supported by the very very low score.

So just be careful and I agree, submitting an ESB among a ton of other ESBs can be hard so do something to make it stand out.