Screwy's California Steamin' Common Ale

[Beer-lord]

In your honest opinion, how do you think it came out? Was it what you wanted and expected?

[ScrewyBrewer]

Even as someone who thinks the style categories for Belgians are just made up nonsense, I find this annoying. Made up nonsense or not, I would try to stay in the style parameters for competition purposes and expect the judges to do the same.

Maybe a whack out of style beer can still win "best of show" and that would be OK if it was awesome, but it shouldn't win the style category.

I agree guys. In essence they've sent a brown ale to represent our club in a California Common style competition. I'm still very confused by the outcome. The club we're competing against May 15th may have a good laugh on our club's entry, while I feel a bit embarrassed.

[Inkleg]

Sorry to hear that Vince.
They may have combined some categories depending on how many entries they had in each. So if you and the other homebrew club were the only Commons entered the might have thrown some other style categories to get 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Not totally fair, but I've seen it happen. You can still comparing score sheets with the other club to see who scored higher.

[Inkleg]

Was this a BJCP sanctioned competition?

^^This^^
Even after reading back through this I'm confused as to if it was an open BJCP event or a strictly internal club event for only Cali Commons.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Sorry if I wasn't clear. It was an internal event not BJCP sanctioned. Our club's 3 semi-final round winner go on to compete head to head with another club's top 3 beers. The winner of the final round gets their recipe brewed on Jughandle Brewings system and sold in their taproom.

[ScrewyBrewer]

In your honest opinion, how do you think it came out? Was it what you wanted and expected?

My entry tasted ok to me. On the night of our semi-final judging the members, not the judges, who tasted it said it was good. So that's good enough for me. The person who brewed the brown ale that placed 3rd said he knew his wouldn't win.

I'm understandably very confused. How does a brown ale beat out even a flawed Common beer? We never received the score sheets so I can't say how my beer scored. In all there were 7 entries, 3 placed in the top and 4 didn't make it through to the final round. So if the competition rules call for a California Common. And someone enters what resembled a brown ale with fewer flaws, should that beer be disqualified?

[bpgreen]

In your honest opinion, how do you think it came out? Was it what you wanted and expected?

My entry tasted ok to me. On the night of our semi-final judging the members, not the judges, who tasted it said it was good. So that's good enough for me. The person who brewed the brown ale that placed 3rd said he knew his wouldn't win.

I'm understandably very confused. How does a brown ale beat out even a flawed Common beer? We never received the score sheets so I can't say how my beer scored. In all there were 7 entries, 3 placed in the top and 4 didn't make it through to the final round. So if the competition rules call for a California Common. And someone enters what resembled a brown ale with fewer flaws, should that beer be disqualified?

When I was in high school, I was on my school's swim team. I remember one meet, after a dive, the judges put their cards up with their scores. The first one was 7.5, the second was 8.5 and the third was 8. The fourth was 0, so the announcer hesitated and asked the judge to check his score. He looked at it, lifted in in the air and set it back down with an audible thunk. The judges started whispering among themselves and pretty soon, the other three changed their scores to 0. The diver shrugged and said something like, "it was worth a shot." It turned out that he couldn't do the required dive, so he did a dive he knew he could do well, hoping that the judges wouldn't notice that the dive he did was different from the one that was announced. He almost got away with it.

I haven't thought of that in years, but your competition reminds me of that.

[Beer-lord]

That's pretty funny though I bet it wasn't at the time.

[bpgreen]

That's pretty funny though I bet it wasn't at the time.

It wasn't my team, so it was petty funny at the time.

[ScrewyBrewer]

That's pretty funny though I bet it wasn't at the time.

It wasn't my team, so it was petty funny at the time.

Great analogy @bpgreen. It's funny how those things stay with you. Tucked away in some remote corner of memory waiting to be triggered by a similar event. I guess some judges are either more observant and/or know the differences between the types of dives. Apparently, in your case, the judges voted in accordance with the competition rules. Thank you for sharing.