Bathurst (nsw) 2009 Results

[lagerman]

Well done to all, especially those qualifying for the Nationals. Great to see the Craft Brewing scene is definitely alive and well in Bathurst, and the Bathurst Brewers should commend themselves on a very good weekend.

Just a small note, Brian, I'm pretty confident Danny Hannan's first placed RIS was not a kit beer... not unless he was telling a few of us porkies at the presentation night anyway...

He had it listed on his entry form as a kit so that is why it is listed.
The reason we say it is kit or mash was for feed back to our sponsors but it is quite often not even stated so from now on it will not be distinguished.

Cheers

Brian

 

[gap]

Thanks Brian and Co for a very well run Comp.

I had an email this morning with the results attached.

Great work matho -- you flew the flag for us Blue Mountains Brewers.

Congratulations to all who participated.

Regards

Graeme

 

[AndrewQLD]

Congratulations to all the placegetters, another well run comp by the Bathurst group, has to be one of the premium competitions in Australia.

Andrew

 

[hewy]

Woohoo a second place and 2 x HC's. Pretty good considering I entered 4 beers.

Thanks to the Bathurst brewers for organising and thanks to all the judges - looking forward to the feedback.


Cheers
Hewy

 

[Punter]

Well, after picking myself up off the floor after reading my score for the Dopplebock,
i'm feeling pretty pleased with how it turned out now.
Thanks to all the people involved in the comp for giving your time and effort to make it happen.
Bloody hell Barry, you havn't lost your touch have you. Well done.
Cant wait for the feedback sheets now to see what improvements can be made.
Well done to all entrants, organisers and helpers.
Good stuff.

Cheers,
Duane.

 

[gap]

Well, after picking myself up off the floor after reading my score for the Dopplebock,
i'm feeling pretty pleased with how it turned out now.
Thanks to all the people involved in the comp for giving your time and effort to make it happen.
Bloody hell Barry, you havn't lost your touch have you. Well done.
Cant wait for the feedback sheets now to see what improvements can be made.
Well done to all entrants, organisers and helpers.
Good stuff.

Cheers,
Duane.

Congratulations Duane,

Well done, must have been a great beer.

Regards

Graeme

 

[BOG]

Lagerman,

what where the prizes and trophies that where handed out?

Anyone with a pic of a trophy..


BOG

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

So is it legit to have judges judging a category that they have entered beer into?

The reason I am asking is that I am organising the judging for SABSOSA this year.

C&B
TDA

 

[HarryB]

It seems that it is perfectly legit and also fine to judge your beer the best

 

[Stagger]

Great work everyone, good to see some excellent beers coming down to Canberra. I am heading up to judge in Qld this weekend hope to see (and taste) some good ones also.

 

[Stuster]

So is it legit to have judges judging a category that they have entered beer into?

I certainly don't think it's ideal and it's not what either judges or entrants would wish for in a perfect world. But with a lot of beers to be judged and a limited number of judges, there are sometimes compromises that need to be made to make sure the beers are all judged by the end of the allotted time. I know I judged a couple of my beers (neither of which did that well ) and other judges did too. However, the flights were mostly pretty big (20+) and so knowing which beer was yours was difficult. The beers weren't opened in front of the judges and the stewards didn't know whose beer they were either. And finally there were three judges which helps to avoid any bias.

So, if it's possible, try to avoid it. But when a very good judge (who shall remain nameless :lol: ) has entered beers into every single category, what can you do?

 

[crozdog]

So is it legit to have judges judging a category that they have entered beer into?

The reason I am asking is that I am organising the judging for SABSOSA this year.

C&B
TDA

TDA,
The comp was organised as a blind tasting. This particular comp had the most effort I've seen to ensure no-one knew which entry was which or who it might have been made by.

Judges did not even get to see the bottles! They were simply presented with a jug of beer and scoring sheets which were printed with the details of the Category, style & entry number eg 2.3 8 was the 8th entry in category 2 (Pale Lagers) which had to be judged as a Pale Continental Lager. Completed score sheets went to the ladies who did all of the data entry of the scores. Their data entry screens had only the same details as the judging table scoring tally sheet. The collating and reporting of winners was done after all judging was completed and data entered.

In my experience comp organisers try to put judges onto classes / styles which they don't have entries, but when you have good judges that are passionate brewers who submit a lot of entries because they want the feedback as much as everyone else, it can be difficult to avoid. The HCCP comp organising program even has a report matrix you can run that shows you which classes judges preferrably shouldn't judge.

Harry B, review of the results in isolation could lead to such an impression. As far as the judges themselves go all the ones I know (including those who happened to judge their own winning beer) simply judge the beer put in front of them against the criteria specified for that beers style. If it has faults, they will point them out, likewise, if it is good they will mark it that way. No more, no less. Did they know it was their entry? I very much doubt it, they would more likely have been wondering "which was mine?"

The main issue is the number of judges available. As comps are usually run on a voluntary basis, many people simply enter when they could get involved & volunteer to judge / steward. I encourage you all to get involved in a comp as you not only try some nice (OK sometimes not so nice) free beers, but you get to meet some great people who have a common passion as well as learn more and share your knowledge.

 

[HarryB]

Harry B, review of the results in isolation could lead to such an impression. As far as the judges themselves go all the ones I know (including those who happened to judge their own winning beer) simply judge the beer put in front of them against the criteria specified for that beers style. If it has faults, they will point them out, likewise, if it is good they will mark it that way. No more, no less. Did they know it was their entry? I very much doubt it, they would more likely have been wondering "which was mine?"

I completely understand that it's all a blind tasting and that since judging is voluntary , it would be hard to get people who could judge but don't want to be in the comp! My initial comment was very much tounge-in-cheek as indicated by the " " at the end of it (and it's certainly not sour grapes on my part as I'm very happy with how my beers fared). :icon_cheers:




Having said that, I would dispute your claim that a taster wouldn't know their own beer - particularly in categories outside pilsner/pale ale etc where the beers tend to be quite distinctive.

 

[schooey]

Having said that, I would dispute your claim that a taster wouldn't know their own beer - particularly in categories outside pilsner/pale ale etc where the beers tend to be quite distinctive.

I judged a flight where one of the judges beers made it into the prize winners. If that judge knew which beer was his, I'm buggered if I picked up on it.

Another thing Stuster and Croz didn't mention was there was only a 5 point spread allowed between the three judges. This is another mechanism to ensure any anomolies between judges are smoothed out.

Anyway... Along with the comments made by others above, I can assure you that there was definitely no *wink wink nudge nudge* and the beer in question was placed in that position on it's merits. I can also assure everyone that the Bathurst Brewers ran their competition to the highest integrity.

I realise the comment was made tongue in cheek, and I'm not having a dig back... just some re-assurance

 

[matti]

Fantastic Job everyone and congratulation to all place getters and winners.

matti

 

[campro]

Awesome, thanks Brian and everyone else invoved in the comp. This keeps getting bigger and better every year.

Bathust is now officially the home of both V8 racing and kick arse homebrew comps :super:

Cheers
Rod

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Thanks for the feedback Stuster, Crozdog, Schooey and mikem.

It's something that I would rather avoid in organising judges for the differing categories.
Luckily this year very few judges have entered beers so with meticulous planning :blink: I have been able to avoid such a problem.

C&B
TDA

 

[Darren]

This should never happen. If you guys are telling me that I could n't pick my own beer in a flight of 20 beers you are badly mistaken. I reckon I could easily pick any beer i had tasted the day before in a flight of 20.

I understand the conundrum faced by the organisers here, but there is no way a judge should win a class by judging their own beer. That is just crazy.

cheers

Darren

 

[Stuster]

So what's your solution then, Darren? What should the organiser do? The judge?

 

[lagerman]

This should never happen. If you guys are telling me that I could n't pick my own beer in a flight of 20 beers you are badly mistaken. I reckon I could easily pick any beer i had tasted the day before in a flight of 20.

I understand the conundrum faced by the organisers here, but there is no way a judge should win a class by judging their own beer. That is just crazy.

cheers

Darren

Darren

I have avoided posting in this debate but I can tell you that a judge who can pick his beer in a flight of 20 is new to me. Some specialist beers, yes maybe, but most beers - no way.

Any way who are you cheating - only yourself.

The simple answer is if we don't have entrants judging beers there WILL BE NO MORE BEER COMP here in Bathurst. These guys travelled up here to Bathurst at their own expense and you don't know how much we appreciate that. That was the main reason to go BJCP to get the extra judges and by 99% of the comments here they had a bloody good time and saw that we run a genuine comp.

Thanks to those of you who were here and saw how it was run and have put the positive comments here on this forum.

Sorry to yell but when someone comes up with a better idea I will be the first to use it.

Darren, I don't know if you have been to a homebrew comp. to see what happens. If you have then you should have learnt how it is all done and if not, instead of being critical on this forum, go to a comp. and see how it is run and that the judges are genuine in their judging of the beers.

End of rant and maybe the end of the Bathurst Comp.

The Bigfella