We are starting the Canadian Brewing Award judging tomorrow. Over 1000 entries, 4 days of judging. I do know from some in the industry that they do make some special brews for competitions, almost as a testing ground for potential future launches. But, for the most part almost all of the commercial competitions I've judged (Ontario twice and Canada once before), have entered regular off-the-shelf entries. It's surprising how some of them do when you aren't biased by knowing the brand. Not that they are all good but judged blind, things do seem to change a bit.