[justenpelton]

I recently received back scoresheets from a rather large brewing competition, and was surpised to see that I received a nice score (39.5) on a beer in a category that had no gold medal awarded.  I guess I assumed that usually happens when the beers in the category are on the lower scoring side?  What genereally are the circumstances that a placement is withheld?  This was the first time I have seen this, so I was just curious.  Thanks

[dbeechum]

It's usually decided by the judges on the panel (or mini-BOS panel if the flight was split amongst judging teams).

They'll talk about the entries and decide that they don't feel there's an entry they feel deserving of a 1st. (Some competitions also restrict this by rules stating that a 1st place must have a minimum score of 35).

Having said that a beer with a score of 39.5 not receiving a gold medal is puzzling. The scenario I see is this: Big competition = big flights. This is turn means that your beer was probably judged by one panel of judges and raised up to a secondary taste off (mini-BOS). There for whatever reasons, the judges on re-evaluation of the beer decided to eliminate it from contention (thus no medal) or give it a lower placing. Typically judges do not see the scores assigned to a beer during the mini-BOS tasting

[bluesman]

I've seen this happen on a few occasions. As Drew indicated, it's likely that the beer moved on to a mini BOS round where it was edged out by other beers with comparable scores. I've judged some mini BOS rounds with 4-6 beers that had resulted in the higher scoring entry finishing less than 1st place.

Judging during a mini BOS round doesn't take into account the original scoring as a basis for awarding 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in a category. The judges may or may not be aware of the original scoring. The only information they are given is the style, subcategory and special ingredients if applicable.

[Hokerer]

The 'mini-BOS' thing might explain the OP not receiving a medal but didn't he state that that category ended up with no Gold Medal awarded at all?  That seems strange

[tschmidlin]

Like Drew said, it happens sometimes when the judges decide there is no beer worthy of a 1st place.  I've done it in comps, but never in a mini-BOS.  I do think that's likely to be what happened here though.

You never know what the sample they tasted for the min-BOS tasted like, it may have been a bad bottle.

[richardt]

You may contact the comp organizer and politely request an explanation--I'm sure there is one.
Nonetheless, a beer scoring 39.5 is excellent and deserving of a medal unless edged out by 3 "better" beers as judged by those individuals on that particular day.