Scoff if you will, but the 1970s Maltose Falcons guidelines make just as much sense as the BJCP guidelines do.
I know and hear the argument about judging. But 99.9% of the drinking public care nothing about these guidelines. I know a few professional brewers, and none of them care a twit about whether any recipe they are formulating is within some style guidelines. They all tell me that if the public likes it, and they decide to submit it to a festival competition, then they will figure out what category they want to submit it in.
Which is the most important criterion: Does the public want to drink it? If yes, style be damned.
I know I am beating a dead horse, and that most of the forum disagree with me, but having been a non-BJCP judge for 10+ years for both craft beer and home brew competitions, I still believe the best tasting beer is the best tasting beer, regardless of style guidelines. A lot of the craft beer judging was done in accordance with the craft beer judging style guide, posted earlier.
The last homebrew competition I judged, I was paired with the head brewer from a local (and excellent) microbrewery. It was a BJCP (sanctioned?) event. We were judging using the BJCP score sheet, and were agreeing with a point or two for the entire flight, and all was fine. Then, the second to last on the flight, we came across a delicious beer that I scored low but Mr. Professional Craft Brewer scored high. The difference? Although it was delicious, it was out of style.
I explained to the brewer why we had to score it lower, because it was out of style, and he agreed and lowered his score. But he asked me, "Why?"
And I did not have a good answer, so I suggested to him that may be we were not cut out to be BJCP judges.
He agreed.
So there you have it.
Topic: 2014 BJCP Style Guidelines Discussion (Read 9554 times)
