I was recently entering a competition with online entry. This particular competition is one that requires you to submit your recipe. Since entering the recipe online is a major PITA, I emailed the competition organizer and asked if it was really mandatory, and if so, what did they plan to do with the information? The answer I got back was that it was his/her understanding that if the judges call into question your ingredients or processes, they could request this information. This doesn't sound right to me. I always thought the only information the judges could get (while judging) is the special information required for some of the special categories, like a declared base style for 21A, etc. But I'm not a BJCP judge. So what gives here?
Vike - not a BJCP judge, but just stewarded an event. I don't believe the judges are supposed to know ANYTHING about the beers, other than the fact that they are entered into the right category and the number they are assigned. They should be trained on how to provide objective feedback, and comments should really not even point towards specific ingredients used (ie good feedback would be "tropical hops not to style"; bad feedback would be"inappropriate use of Cascades".) So, yes, in my (admittedly fairly limited) experience, this doesn't sound right to me either. Is this a new event?
no way should the judges have access to your recipe, with the obvious exception of specialty/etc ingredients in 16E and 20-23. The judges calling into question the actual beer in front of them, but apparently believing some words you put on a recipe form is laughable to me... I've had a contest demand recipes because winners were going to be eligible for a Pro-am, and the breweries needed to be able to see if the recipe was reasonable for them to make. But that was at a BOS sort-of table, and not in actual judging. I echo that entering recipes is a major PITA. I'd probably give them a quick sentence somewhere on the form. "90% this, 10% that, OG, FG, IBU, xx yeast, xx ferm temp, bottle/keg" if that did not suffice, I'd find another competition. cheers-- --Michael BJCP National
I think they need the recipe to guide their tastes, as a wide river that holds their aptness to feel some ´experienced ´ flavors.Not sure they know very well what they are trying to determine.
Only a BJCP recognized judge, but that's the weirdest reasoning I've ever heard. The entire point of blind judging is that no prejudices (dislike of extract users, etc.) get in the way of judging purely on what you can see, taste, and smell. As mentioned above, the only reason I have ever submitted a recipe was where the winner got to brew on a commercial system.
Which is the reason they should not have the recipe for the beer in front of them. They then run the risk of forming self fulfilling prophecies and begin to look for certain characteristics rather than judging the random beer in front of them against the category it has been submitted as.
Have always had the option/request to enter recipe details but never required outside of the BJCP specifics by category/subcategory listed in their descriptions.
Hands22 said it well. A judge should determine a score based on their perception of the beer in front of them and the guidelines for the style the beer was entered as. Special ingredients are the only recipe details that should be needed for the appropriate styles. There may be other reasons for a competition to request recipes, but it should not be needed for judging purposes. Cheers! Mike BJCP Grand Master Exam Director
One of my brewing buddies reached the finals of that competition in 2011 with a "Colonial Ale" recipe -- which was a bit of a surprise seeing as the judges could see from his recipe that he added, among other things, a generous portion of Raisin Bran.
It's been a few years since I entered a beer into the LongShot, or even judged it, for that matter, but I seem to recall that recipes were only required for the finalists. I never provided a recipe, and even at the Category 23 comp a couple years ago as a judge, we were not given recipes. The brewers were asked to list any special ingredients or processes (as they should in any specialty category), but not recipes.
Exactly. A judge could read in your recipe that, say, you used a relatively high amount of crystal for a given style, and then make up his/her mind that the beer has too much crystal whether they taste it or not. The whole point of blind tasting is that you have to rely *only* on the taste.
I've been asked to list ingredients on some competition forms. I think it was optional. I asked about it and was told that judges would not see the recipe before judging the beer. IIRC, they wanted it to make winning recipes available to homebrewers in some venue or other (e.g., possible BYO/Zymurgy story, club newsletter or website, etc.).
Yeah, no. No way in hell a judge should see the recipe. The only thing they need is the call outs for a speciality. (e.g. foreign style stout aged on american oak soaked in bourbon) Old school competitions used to require a recipe (the Falcons did, but we eliminated that). I think in part it was to ferret out those who might be doing something untoward. It was also used to help spread knowledge in the early days. We used the recipes submitted to make guides and teach lessons. The AHA uses it to have the information on hand for Zymurgy and the AHA Wiki
I have just run into the same thing...it is a pre-printed BJCP form...I hope they only reference it as a last resort.
