I agree about the mini BOS "notes"...... I know at that point, the judges are only really concerned with finding the top 3 and it is not about filling out an entire score sheet. But it would be really great if there was a section for Mini BOS where the judges just wrote down one or two phrases that let you know what the key factor was that knocked your beer out (or set it apart enough to medal).
You're talking about comparing apples and oranges. There is little more that could be quickly conveyed other than your beer wasn't presenting itself better than the other beer(s). The beers are often different styles and variants.
Sure, that could be the case, but that does not preclude the possibility of useful information being given with almost no effort/time required by the judges. When it gets down to the finals at NHC and mini BOS, obviously all the beers are very good.
However, it would still be potentially very useful to know if your beer was knocked out because of some technical aspect that was not as good as others or because of just the simple "intangibles."
Something like this could even be a "checkbox" on the score sheet. I mean, there are really only 3 reasons you are not medalling if you made mini BOS......
1.) This individual bottle may have been flawed and not up to par with the bottle that was judged in the preliminary flight: Significant Flaw Observed:_________________
2.) While good, this beer fell a bit short in some technical area(s): _____________________
3.) This beer was one of our final choices, but there were simply some slightly better beers that we chose over yours - Great Job.
As a brewer, at least that lets me know if I should consider tweaking something in particular or stick with what I have been doing. It would take no real time and gives the brewer some idea of what it might take to get the beer to the next level.