[klickitat jim]

I judged in a pair a few months ago where the other judge (National Rank) was obsessed with the bottle fill. Every bottle he judged a low fill (which was about 1/4 of them) he would make some snide comment and go open the bottle over a sink expecting it to gush. He was immediately overly negative from that point on with each entry he treated as such. It was a shame as some of those beers were very good and it made for an uncomfortable spectacle and long judging session.

This is just ridiculous. It makes a mockery of what the rest of us well meaning judges are trying to do. To someone who is new to the comp circuit, they could start inferring that National rank = pompous a$$. Hooray! 

Personally, the best thing to hear as a judge is this:

"I know you, you've judged one of my beers."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, your comments really helped improve my beer."

Boom. That's why I keep judging. 

And the other way is very similar
"I know you. You've judged one of my beers."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yyyyyyyyyyeah..."

[denny]

I've never heard a judge comment that a high fill was negative or indicated a possible problem. I'm sure it happens, but hopefully it is rare. But I would write it down, because we're trained to describe the beer including positive, negative, and neutral characteristics.

+1.060.  That's exactly the way I look at it.

[bluesman]

Generally speaking, a high fill doesn't influence the aroma, flavor or mouthfeel of the beer. There's some potential for impact on the bottle conditioning of the beer, but otherwise it shouldn't affect the aroma/flavor of the beer. If anything there's less potential (headspace) for oxygen to get into the bottle during fill/capping.

[stihler]

The first thing a judge does prior to opening the bottle is look at the fill level (low or high) and look for any obvious signs of infection. This section is not scored.

Noting a high or low fill level may point to potential problems which may or may not be realized. If there was a problem then it would be noted in elsewhere on the scoresheet.

A high fill level can result in under carbonated beer. If there was no comment regarding low carbonation or mouthfeel problems then the high fill likely did not affect the beer in question.

My guess is that judge wrote down that comment prior to actually tasting the beer.

Admittedly further explanation should have been given or that comment simply removed.


- Scott