LAB Open 2019 Competition

[dan125]

Is anyone judging or stewarding this event? I've put myself down to judge.

Sadly I'm not even gonna get along to drink a few beers at the festival but I have finally got my beers packed up ready to send tomorrow.

 

[Leon103]

Mine arrived today. Now hope for a miracle

 

[IainM]

Anyone else heading down for this? I'm more than happy to swap bottles on the day and score sheets once they're posted, like I did last year with @jceg316.

 

[JonBrew]

Well parcel force tracking tells me that my entries have arrived at fourpure :)

Quite looking forward to finding out how my beers are judged but more from a score/feedback perspective. Not overly happy with any of my entries so not holding out hope of a medal.

Wish I was able to attend the event on Saturday. Would be great to be able to sample the highly rated/winning beers. Will have to see about making the trip next year.

 

[jceg316]

Anyone else heading down for this? I'm more than happy to swap bottles on the day and score sheets once they're posted, like I did last year with @jceg316.

I'll be heading along again, I'll pm you about a bottle swap.

 

[Pinter]

@JonBrew I hope the event is on Sunday - that's when I'm planning to go...

 

[JonBrew]

@JonBrew I hope the event is on Sunday - that's when I'm planning to go...

You're right. My bad

 

[dan125]

My entries are confirmed delivered by my friendly local courier. Wish I could make it on sunday.

 

[dan125]

Feedback sheets are now available I notice. How did everyone do?
I'm chuffed to make up for the shocker I had in the national comp, but surprised that my 'experimental' hazy soft APA (42 pts) did better than my 'brewed to style' AIPA (39 pts).

 

[JockyBrewer]

Yes, all score sheets are now available.

Please remember that however hard we try (all entries were judged by at least one, and usually two judges that have passed two separate exams to qualify as a judge), judging is subjective and there's some variation in scores. We eliminate that variation by doing a head to head between high scoring beers to decide the finishing places.

39 points was equal top scoring American IPA, but 39 was also the average score to be in the top 5 of a table.

 

[dan125]

39 points was equal top scoring American IPA, but 39 was also the average score to be in the top 5 of a table.

That's interesting, sounds like there were lots of good beers.

 

[jceg316]

I got my scores back. The beer I thought would do badly did better than I thought it would and the beer I thought would do well did really bad. I submitted a chocolate orange imp stout which got 34. It was very young and needed more time conditioning in the bottle. I submitted a best bitter which I've been enjoying and it got 16! Apparently not to style.

 

[JonBrew]

@dan125 that's some performance! Well in! 3rd place Champion brewer as well?

@jceg316 similar boat for me. What I thought was my best beer, a Belgian pale ale, scored 29 - apparently oxidised. My Scottish Heavy which I thought was a bit meh scored 38 and got an honourable mention. I also had a SHV beer which scored 33.

 

[JockyBrewer]

If it's any comfort, I had a 40 point beer that didn't place.

 

[JockyBrewer]

That's interesting, sounds like there were lots of good beers.

It's getting crowded at the top end. A couple of years ago the cut off for a 'contender' for a rosette used to be about 35 points. It's 38/39 in most cases now.

 

[dan125]

@dan125 that's some performance! Well in! 3rd place Champion brewer as well?

Thanks - didn't even know there was a champion brewer comp until I saw the results. Surprised to get 3rd without a gold medal

 

[dan125]

If it's any comfort, I had a 40 point beer that didn't place.

Ouch

 

[Hoddy]

If only i could sort my **** out and actually brew beers for these comps in time.

Nice work @dan125

 

[dan125]

If it's any comfort, I had a 40 point beer that didn't place.

What table/style was that?

 

[JonBrew]

It's getting crowded at the top end. A couple of years ago the cut off for a 'contender' for a rosette used to be about 35 points. It's 38/39 in most cases now.

Yeah I've noticed this happening too; particularly the London based and bigger comps. I appreciate the challenges the organisers face - I imagine the desire will be that all the grouped categories are roughly equally sized and having bigger categories in the region of 20-25 entries keeps competition healthy. However, I can understand the frustration of scoring 40+ and not getting some recognition for it. I'm sure i read on FB the other day that someone had scored 45 and not got a rosette. I appreciate that's probably an outlier though.