My favorite NHC round 1 scoresheet

[mcstellar]

When I read this, I knew I had to post it.

I certainly am not claiming to have made the best beer in the world. Hell, for all I know, I forgot to sanitize the bottle before packaging the beer for the competition. I guess my beef is, there are really no comments on the stupid sheet!

I got a 17 (it was a 14 but was erased and raised) for my American Pale and they only wrote 28 words on the entire sheet (not counting the category name and their name). Not only that, they provided no contact information so I'm unable to follow up.

1.6 words for every point or $0.32 a word.

Sorry if I come across as a whiny little bitch, but I just had to share this so hopefully everyone here can get a good chuckle as well.

http://unresponsive.org/bad.png

"This beer is so bad I cannot fairly judge it"

As bad as this beer apparently was, I was able to get one entry into the second round under the BN. There were quite a few other BNers who medaled in the Old West regional. Congrats to all you Texans who pretty much swept this region again this year.

[BDawg]

Email the competition administrator.
Hopefully they'll never let that person judge again.
Also, if there's a second score sheet for that beer (there should be), then email THAT person too.
THAT person should not have allowed this score sheet to go out.
This is not acceptable.

BDawg
BJCP National Judge

[slobrewer]

To be fair to the judge, he did apologize for not filling the sheet out more fully because the beer tasted so bad. I can say that in my judging experience I have come across a small handful of beers that were godawful and that I was unwilling to take a second sip of. The resulting sheet was short but I was clear on my feedback about what I was tasting that was off.

EDIT: Actually, I take it back. Other than the word "bad" the only descriptor was sweaty on the aroma, which is totally unhelpful. Also, there's no reason he couldn't have at least filled out more on the appearance.

mcstellar,
Do you have additional bottles? Definitely try one and see if the whole batch was infected or if it was possibly just a single bottle.

Dave.

[linuxelf]

Wow, just wow. She should not be allowed to judge another comp.

[mcstellar]

Email the competition administrator.
Hopefully they'll never let that person judge again.
Also, if there's a second score sheet for that beer (there should be), then email THAT person too.
THAT person should not have allowed this score sheet to go out.
This is not acceptable.

BDawg
BJCP National Judge

That's a good idea about emailing the other judge! Incidentally, the other judge's rank is National.

I love competitions. In my experience, sheets like this are definitely the exception and not the norm.

[mcstellar]

To be fair to the judge, he did apologize for not filling the sheet out more fully because the beer tasted so bad. I can say that in my judging experience I have come across a small handful of beers that were godawful and that I was unwilling to take a second sip of. The resulting sheet was short but I was clear on my feedback about what I was tasting that was off.

EDIT: Actually, I take it back. Other than the word "bad" the only descriptor was sweaty on the aroma, which is totally unhelpful. Also, there's no reason he couldn't have at least filled out more on the appearance.

mcstellar,
Do you have additional bottles? Definitely try one and see if the whole batch was infected or if it was possibly just a single bottle.

Dave.

Yes - I have several left. In fact I'm drinking one now.

This beer (yes, the same batch) has won 2 gold medals and is being brewed as a pro-am for 2010 GABF. That and a nickel will get you a cup of coffee. I think I need to try and talk the brewery into naming it "Sweaty Balls" or something.

It was a bit on the older side, but it was one of those things where I already paid the fee and didn't have anything else to send in its place. Plus I tasted it out of the keg and it wasn't horrible. Personally I liked it. Anyway, you gotta love that extra 1 month lag between the due date and the actual judging.

The first thing I thought of was Tasty saying how it's a bad idea for this to be a 1 bottle competition. I can only assume it was a contamination issue in the bottle, or maybe it's just crappy. Who cares - it's just beer!

[johnfoster]

sometimes I get bad reviews. and sometimes I get glowing ones. but a while ago I decided to stop reading ALL the reviews because the bad ones pissed me off so much that I wanted to stop making my show. to be fair to the reviewers they might have a point. I've heard everything that they have said: the show is too long, we don't get wrecked enough, some of the facts are wrong, we really should give better descriptions of what we are drinking and I don't like Rockstar Bartender. fair? maybe. but you know what? it's my show and I like doing it and damned if I'm going to change just because some blowhard thinks I should be more world centric and less focused on local beers around me. hey, I am so sorry that my local is Pliney the Ender and Hell or High Watermelon Wheat. sucks to be you or better yet GET HERE! and if you really hate my show so much make your own show.

opps. that sounds like a rant. but um, hey. we get some bad reviews sometimes.

so here's some things from that that you can take away. first thing is to check the beer you sent in. it's a Pale so you shouldn't have too many of those left anyway. but let's say you have a few and even better if you can open six. so you open six with somebody else who has a palette and you taste them one by one by one in the same but different glasses until you find what you are looking for. inspect the cap, the bottom of the bottles, and all that. you really need to take notes while you do it. or not. if you find a bad beer in that sample then there's your answer. if you don't then okay, it's not your beer. it's the moron judging it.

but wait. let's look at that moron. what's her name Duhnoice Funkhouser. gre-at. the real beer judge got his GF to fill this out and use the fake name Funkhouser. Funk. get it? the bottom of the sheet which has all bad grades tells you more then you want to know. that this beer really was all moldy bread bad. if the beer was so off that the person didn't want to judge it you'd think they would just not put any scores in at all. and mark the beer as "this is possibly a bad bottle" and move on.

the last thing is that it's just one judging sheet. one bad sheet is not the reason to quit brewing or quit entering judgings. so what. the bottle was bad. it happens. next.

I've had to try beers that fit in this category. you know, so bad that you can't say anything nice about. like the beer that I had the other day that was supposed to be an IPA. it smelled like hops but tasted like water. or another beer so under attenuated that it smelled cut grass and tasted like Fritoes. so I have to be nice because they are sharing and they are proud that they even made beer. but when they ask what I really think it's time for me to say "dude, keep making beer."

[mcstellar]

the last thing is that it's just one judging sheet. one bad sheet is not the reason to quit brewing or quit entering judgings. so what. the bottle was bad. it happens. next.

Couldn't have said it better myself! If you stop brewing because of one sheet from one person in one competition, then you just don't like brewing.

It's just beer!