Every time I visit a tasting room, beer or wine, I see a lot of awards on display. It seems like every product is an award winner of sorts. But if every beer is an award winner, how are we, the gullible consumer, supposed to know what is actually the best? Most breweries use “award winning” in their marketing, a message I find misleading.
Central City’s Canadian Brewing Awards, including brewery of the year
I really like the idea of beer awards. They give brewers something to strive for, they provide the chance for brewers to commingle, and they sound like really fun times. That being said, whenever I see a press release by an event or brewery bragging about some new award, I think about these things:
- Brewers pay to enter - An entry usually costs $100 per beer. This means that only brewers willing to pay up (say $500 to a $1000 per product line per event) are actually judged.
- Who actually entered? – Almost no beer awards list all of the entrants in each category, only the winners. The gold medal for best IPA doesn’t mean much if only a handful of beers were actually entered. I feel like full disclosure is warranted, otherwise how can we trust the authenticity of an award?
- There are too many categories - Most events have 30+ categories. I feel like some categories are invented so that macro breweries win (sponsorship money?). Consider that breweries are more likely to enter if they think they can win and that awards events have an economic interest in soliciting as many entries as possible. Making everyone a winner seems like a pretty good deal for all involved.
- Beer is judged on style, not taste - If a beer most closely matches the style guidelines of its designation, it wins gold in that category. Maybe this is the only way to judge beer, but I’d much rather prefer an award based on taste. A bad tasting beer that is very exemplary of a style beats a very good tasting beer, wtf?
- What beer was actually served? - Where did the beer the judge tasted come from? Did it come from a bottle off the shelf? Did it come from a cask, brewed specially for the awards? How did the beer get there? How was it stored? When was it brewed? How do we know the playing field was completely level?
- There are a lot of awards - There are so many awards events and so many categories that everyone wins, rendering the whole idea of awards pretty useless. It’s like primary school sports day all over again, here’s your (Pabst) blue ribbon!
I’m writing this post because the winners of the Canadian Brewing Awards were just announced, an event I’ve written about before. There were 44 BC winners out of 111 possible awards, most of whom I consider deserving. Central City was named Canadian Brewery of the Year, which I think is totally awesome. While I’m very proud of how well BC did, I have seriously misgivings about these awards. First, check out the list of categories and the eventual winners. Now take a look at the entry form and consider the points I made above. Some key questions:
- What the hell is Phillips Blue Buck Pale Ale doing in the North American Amber Lager category? It’s a pale ale and it won a silver medal as an amber lager? Somebody made a serious mistake there.
- What’s the difference between lager and premium lager?
- Why is there a category for light beer? Shoot me in the head.
- How did Moosehead win four times?
- How did three terrible beers win in the fruit category?
- How did Driftwood, Central City, and Dieu du Ciel not win in every category of each beer they make?
These awards just seem incredibly incomplete to me. I won’t be buying beer based on the medals they gave out. I have more hope for the BC Beer awards, which are slated to resurface this October as part of BC Craft Beer Month. Here’s hoping they do our province proud.
Cheers,
Chris
I know of at least one winner this year which was fir a one-off cask that has never been commercially released.
As for Blue Buck winning under Amber Lager, I have heard that it is not a pale ale at all, and is technically a Bock. Perhaps they knew it couldn’t win under a category they use strictly for marketing purposes. I don’t have that verified, I should admit.
Then there is the BJCP certified beer judge program – an online multiple choice test followed by a practical tasting of just six beers, which offers me little confidence. I know one person who is BJCP certified who admitted to me that he only really likes import lagers.
Perhaps when the awards happen here next year, they should get their judges by going to our best beer bars like the Alibi Room, St Augustine’s, Biercraft and Portland Craft and asking the staff, “Which of your customers are your regulars who try everything and know their beer?.” I’m fairly sure you’d get better results that way.
BTW, I think “Premium” lager in beer judging is supposed to mean no adjuncts are included in the recipe – it has to be 100% barley. In marketing it means nothing.
Palle, thanks for the excellent comment. I believe I know the one off beer you mentioned, the R&B coffee porter?
For Blue Buck, I guessed it might not be a pale ale. I’m waiting to find out who goofed up before I heap scorn upon them. Please let me know if you find out anymore on this.
I have the same misgivings you do about the BJCP program. I’d love it if the judges next year were comprised of BC’s five cicerones. That would be epic.
Cheers,
Chris
I think you’re right about “Premium Lager”. Why do they even have a category for adjunct lagers? They should rename that category “rice/corn yellow pisswater”.
Personally I find the whole “Blue Buck/Amber Lager” debacle ridiculously representative of the illegitimacy of these awards, from both the organizer’s perspective, and the brewers (why would Phillips let that happen?)
As to it Blue Buck being a lager, just checked a bottle in the recycling and they have the term “Ale” and “Session Ale” pasted all over the place. So again, what’s the deal Phillips?
The CBA award winner (in the Experimental category) that stands out to me is the Dark Snout Bacon Stout. Definitely an “A for effort”, but gold medal worthy? Come on…
@Gavin Yeah, I can’t see Phillips taking the extra few months it would require to condition a bock. Blue Buck was definitely an ale, but is it still? Their website doesn’t say either way: http://phillipsbeer.com/Beers/blue-buck We need to get to the bottom of this, I’ll contact them today.
@Peter, I know what you mean. I’ve had this beer and it wasn’t incredible, though I was intrigued by it. How do you judge a beer in the experimental category anyway? What other beers was it up against?
This seems to be one of the more controversial CBAs. East Coast breweries winning the American IPA category? Pale Ale in the North American Style Amber Lager category? A stout amongst the porters? Better luck next year.
Running a beer competition is actually quite an undertaking, having personally seen what is involved on two occasions. So, I have respect for those taking one on. That said, you’ve certainly highlighted the challenges, and why we don’t necessarily take awards at face value.
Given that people’s palates can be quite different, and develop as their horizons broaden, I think we discover our own award winners. These competitions can be useful in hinting at some promising directions to explore, especially for those new to craft beer, but we may not end up agreeing with the assessment. C’est la vie. Chalk it up as education.
You said it Rick, some crazy stuff going on this year. I totally get that putting on an awards event is very hard work and I have no doubt that the CBA organizers have the noblest intentions. That being said, Blue Buck is actually noted as a Pale Ale in the list of winners!
I just looked at the silver medal for Phillips Blue Suck pale ale in the amber lager category and almost stopped reading. Sadly I read on to notice Phillips coffee stout in the Porter category. Then I noticed that there was no winner in the German Hefe category. I’m sorry, VIB Beachcomber was great and they even used the imported yeast for that beer. I hope all those awards are recyclable.
Guys,
Just a quick comment on categories. The breweries select the categories in which thier beers are entered and submitted for judging, the judges do not decide what categories beers go into. They simply rate the beers submitted in each category based on their quality in relationship to that category’s descriptions and definitions. Breweries are given an extensive description of each category and how beers entered into that category will be judged and then decide what category to submit beers into. It appears even Phillips themselves are confused about Blue Buck as they are the ones who themselves entered it into the Amber Lager category.
So you are saying that the Canadian Brewing Awards would allow a brewery to enter a barley wine into the light lager category? Also, not only did Phillips enter the Amber Lager category with a pale ale, they were then judged to have won. All of this seems a bit ridiculous.
In other news, I tweeted at and emailed Phillips asking why Blue Buck was judged as an amber lager, no response.
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Howdy, I asked Phillips about this and here’s what they had to say:
Hi Chris,
Thanks for writing. I can certainly understand your confusion as Blue Buck is indeed an ale that won silver in a lager category. The thing about the brewing awards is that the categories are not so much about the titles but more about the judging guidelines that define them.
The ‘North American Style Amber Lager’ category was judged on beer with an original gravity between 1.042-1.056; Apparent Extract/Final Gravity of 1.010-1.018; ABV of 4.8%-5.4%; IBU of 18-30; and Colour SRM of 6-14 EBC—the type of yeast (ale or lager) wasn’t actually a judging point. Based on the criterion Blue Buck was judged silver.
I hope that helps explain the apparent contradiction. I know it can be confusing!
Thanks again for taking the time to write,
Cheers!
Strange that bottom fermentation isn’t a requirement in a lager category.
Way to confuse the issue even further Phillips. So an actual amber lager with an ABV of 5.6% wouldn’t be eligible for contest in the Amber Lager category, when an amber(?) ale is?
Doesn’t seem like Phillips fault so much. Sounds more like the CBA criteria is stupid.
These are all great comments. I think the integrity of the awards are at risk if the award program’s guidelines don’t do a better job of defining each category. If a brewery enters a pale ale into a lager category, somebody within the judging body needs to have the authority to disqualify it from consideration. Clearly, the brewery itself bears some responsibility for miscategorizing their beer and therefore should not be surprised when their pale ale is removed from a lager competition. As an American, I’m not very familiar with the Canadian Brewing Awards but I have attended numerous beer competitions, including the Great American Beer Festival, on behalf of breweries I represented. I’ve also entered many beers into various competitions on behalf of those breweries. Something I’ve often mulled over was a scene I witnessed at GABF in Denver. I saw a few judges smoking cigarettes during a break before they were to judge another flight of beers. I can’t think of any possible way a person can effectively cleanse the palate of powerful smoke flavors, tar and nicotine residue before judging beers. This is especially true of light-bodied beers with delicate nuanced flavors such as pilsner, hefeweizen, kolsch or helles. It’s a known fact that smoking greatly reduces the effectiveness of human taste buds so wouldn’t the subtle qualities of these beer styles be lost on those judges who smoke? I realize my comments could open a can of worms, especially among defensive smokers but, I ask you to consider the question carefully. Am I saying smokers shouldn’t be judging a beer competition. I don’t know. Maybe. All I know is that it seems logical that a beer’s flavors would have to be a lot more pronounced to reach the faint taste buds of a lifelong smoker than someone who has never smoked. Maybe it was a smoker who starting the arms race to brew the most heavily hopped beers. I should confess that I love those imperial IPAs myself but many in the beer community seem to condemn milder session ales and lagers as a waste of time and effort. Maybe their tainted taste buds are the reason. Thoughts? Insults? http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/news/20090821/cigarette-smoke-dulls-taste-buds
Thanks Paul, I totally agree with you and I’ll come out and say it. Smokers shouldn’t be judging taste based competitions. Luckily for us in BC, hardly anyone smokes anymore, which has me hopeful for the upcoming BC beer awards.
I also think you’re right about the standard a beer awards should hold itself to. Somebody should have yanked Blue Buck from the lager category and put it in the pale ale category. I think the CBAs are currently afraid to offend anyone though, since they are relatively young and trying to grow.
Cheers,
Chris
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