I went for a run today, and as usual I played one of the well-known podcasts, Dr Homebrew (Episode #78). The first beer was a Spruce tips IPA, and at the end of the discussion, the judges indicated that one of the things to correct was the haze of the beer. The brewer responded that the beer was not hazy, and that to mimic shipment shake his bottle every day during shipment time then when the package arrived, put it in the fridge, and that he was drinking along with the judges and the beer was clear. To this, JP admitted that the beer was probably shaken during the drive to the studio for the program. No apology, no "we should do better from now on", nothing. Many, many times in the same show judges noted haziness in the evaluated beers, but because the brewers did not do the same process as the spruce tip guy, Dr Homebrew got away with blaming the shipper.
Honestly, I was appalled that the beer was not at the judging location for at least a few days to avoid this problem and give the beer a proper evaluation.
Haze changes the beer quite a bit, sometimes for the better (weissbier, wit), sometimes for the worse, specially if the haze is not hops (eg New England IPA).
So, my question to the forum is whether there is in your view an implicit obligation that when you send a beer to be judged, to a podcast in this case but it can be a competition, the Brewing Network (or Competition Organizers) should do their best to ensure the beer is stewarded appropriately.
What say you...