[Jimmy K]

Maybe the brewer was going for a weizen made with pickles, curry powder, tofu, and chocolate - and they nailed it in all of its disgusting glory.  Is that a 50 point beer?  No.

I guess I'll scrap my plan for a durian fruit kolsh.

[morticaixavier]

Hear hear. I don't think it will stop me from entering because honestly I am super competitive when I let meself be, but I will always remember the notes on a single hop Rye IPA that said, it's a really clean beer, no faults but I didn't like that hop. specialty category must be harder to judge without letting your opinions effect your results and at least they were right up front about it but still.

I think this is completely different.  If someone gave me an IPA with all Summit hops they wouldn't get a very good score.  It's not that the hop is "not my preference" but to me it is downright offensive.  If your IPA smells like onions you're not going to do well, whether you wanted it to taste like that or not.  It's a known issue and you have to be aware of that if you choose to use those hops in your beer.  There is a reason some hops are for bittering.  I can judge a pilsner or an American wheat, neither of which I am especially fond, and ignore the underlying nastiness to tell the good ones from the bad.  But hop variety selection in IPAs is a different animal, and if you choose offensive hops or ones that clash with each other or the other ingredients you can expect to lose points.  If the hops you chose clashed with the rye then it is valid criticism (assuming it was spelled out like that).  If it was something more standard and the judge is just a snob, then no, not ok.

The same goes for specialty beers and SHV beers, I often volunteer to judge those since many people don't like to.  Personal preference certainly plays a role in those beers, otherwise there is often nothing else to judge it on - the brewer may have nailed what they were going for, but you have to ask yourself if what they were going for is a good idea.  Again, the difference is between "not my cup of tea" and "this was a bad idea".  Maybe the brewer was going for a weizen made with pickles, curry powder, tofu, and chocolate - and they nailed it in all of its disgusting glory.  Is that a 50 point beer?  No.

I can see that. And perhaps it had somethign to do with it. It wasn't onion beer. tropical fruit punch perhaps. ivanhoe which is a cluster hop variety by the way. I liked it anyway. The judges comments were much more in the "Not my cup of tea" arena than the "bad idea" arena.

[punatic]

Maybe the brewer was going for a weizen made with pickles, curry powder, tofu, and chocolate - and they nailed it in all of its disgusting glory.  Is that a 50 point beer?  No.

I guess I'll scrap my plan for a durian fruit kolsh.

No guts, no glory!     (good call! )

[gordonstrong]

You could use Summit hops with your Durian fruit.  Wait.  How would you tell the difference?