I'm looking to enter an upcoming homebrew competition and I was on the web site looking for the entry forms and I was a bit perplexed at the amount of detail that was required for each entry. In particular, they wanted the entire ingredient list, mash schedule etc. I have to ask, is this normal and if so, why?
First of all, isn't the beer being judged blind so there is no reference to the ingredients? Assuming so, do the ingredients matter if the beer is to style or seems to be to style? For example, I brewed a version of Tom's stout the other week but I didn't have any flaked barley so I just subbed in more Maris Otter. To me it tastes just fine but I don't really want to enter it and then have someone tell me that it wasn't to style because dry stouts are supposed to have flaked barley or something. Maybe the mouthfeel is off and I can understand that but I don't want someone looking for flaws that may not really be there or be noticed without the recipe. Shouldn't the beer be judged on what you put in your mouth? Of course, I have no idea if this happens or not which is why I'm asking.
Secondly, if I come up with a great beer recipe, why should I just hand it over? Personally, I'd share a recipe with anyone at all but it just feels odd that I have to give out just to get my beer entered into the competition.
Anyway, I just wanted to know if this is the norm, if the recipe impacts the judging in anyway and what you thought about providing recipes.