I am glad that I am not imagining things. I gave a beer in the middle of the pack a 46 that placed 4th in a mini-BOS. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place beers in the mini-BOS received lower scores within their respective flights. It was a great beer that followed mostly mediocre to darn near undrinkable entries. The difference between the beer that I gave a 46 the other beers in the flight was like the difference between night and day. The flavors were so bright and clean. The beer was also visually beautiful. The other judge on my flight also gave it a high score. I felt really stupid for giving the beer such a high score; however, a very senior judge at the competition told me that it occurs very often, especially on large flights. He called it the "middle of the flight effect."