Buddy in my club said the same thing..."what beers are these judges drinking". He entered a Dopplebock and a Czech Amber and Helles to Philly...all fantastic beers that everyone in club had has 40 point plus beers. Both a million times better than my two beers that advanced. His Dopplebock got a 29, the Czech Amber a 34 and the Helles got a 29 with "too much hop plant matter" comment in a beer with maybe 2 ounces of hops in it. But his concern really is that they were both marked as "low fill"...and he was adamant that he purposely made sure the fill was spot on...that plus how low the beers scored has him thinking that they were not his beers that were judged.
Meanwhile, my Helles took second with a 39 (his was much better than mine) and in other comps my Helles scored 29, 23, 30...with comments of "corn, DMS"...yet no mention of that at NHC...so while it worked in my favor..."what beer were these judges drinking?"