Beer COMPETITIONS

1.1 The competition’s organisers must be in good standing in the beer world.

1.2 The competition must have been organised at least three times in the recent 
past.

1.3 The beer style descriptions must be published and must comply with generally 
accepted beer style descriptions (e.g. World Beer Cup, BJCP).

1.4 The judging procedures must be open and the awarding criteria should be available in the public domain.

1.5 The criteria for judging should be objective. Beers with off 
flavours and obvious defects should be rejected and in categories with limited entries judging teams must be allowed to choose an option that no award is given when no beer reaches an award-winning standard.

1.6. The awards are based on 1st / 2nd / 3rd best with a maximum of three awards per category (with the possible exception of equal best entries).

1.7 The competitions must be open to all breweries in the geographical area covered by the awards.

1.8 Judging must be independent. No beer should be judged by its brewer 
or related personnel.

1.9 Judges must not be allowed to communicate externally while judging.

1.10 Judging must be blind. No judge should know the identity of any beer being judged.

1.11 All entered beers should be handled and stored with due care. They must be 
served at temperatures that are appropriate for the style.

1.12 Beers must be presented in appropriately designed glassware or odourless and tasteless plastic cups.

2.1 The competition should be dedicated to beer only or primarily.

2.2 The beers entered in the competitions should be regularly available rather than brewed only for competition.

2.3 Beers should be served efficiently and as soon after pouring as possible, so as to assist with judging volatile criteria such as carbonation, head and initial aroma.

2.4 They should be presented in a parallel flight/session so that they can be compared with others and if necessary to be re-tasted.

2.5 The judging must follow good practice, with a maximum of 12 beers per judging 
session and no more than 50 beers in a day. It is better that the flights go from lower to higher alcohol strength.

2.6 Judges should have the necessary expertise to judge different styles of beer across the international beer spectrum, including those outside their own beer culture.

2.7 A tasting panel should consist of at least three judges.

2.8 Discussion between judges should be allowed and encouraged when forwarding beers to a next round or awarding medals, to help counter personal preferences or tasting sensitivities.

2.9 There should be an opportunity for the judges’ written comments to be forwarded to the relevant brewery as feedback.

2.10 The minimum number of entries per category or beer style should be at least 10, wherever possible. Where there are fewer, one option is to group them with another style within the same category. Where this occurs we consider good practice to be to identify which beer is in which style. The alternative is to award fewer than three medals in the category unless the quality is outstanding.

2.11 There should be a time limit on the use of the award for publicity purposes or else the year of the award must be stated clearly on publicity material.