Did you know that the BJCP just passed 1,000,000 beers judged in sanctioned competitions? That we have sanctioned competitions in 14 countries? That we are growing competitions at approximately 12% annually?

As your Competition Director I’d like the membership to know the status of our competition program. First there has been growth in the number of competitions year-over-year providing more opportunities for judges to exercise their skills. There were 443 competitions in 2012, 493 in 2013 and we had 583 competitions in 2014 with a total of 604 competitions registered in 2014 giving a great start heading into 2015. We have sanctioned competitions in USA, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Australia, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Ireland, UK, Hungary, and Croatia.

There are a number of organizing groups for sanctioned competitions. Most competitions are run by local clubs. But there are also competitions run by state and county fairs, homebrew shops, breweries and charitable organizations. Some competitions, run by state fairs, limit entries to their state residents only. Some club only competitions limit entries to only their club members. There are many special competitions that limit entrants; the BJCP does not state or competitions are to be organized and managed, so long as our basic principles are met. Not only does the BJCP sanction homebrew competitions but also several commercial competitions, with the GABF and the World Beer Cup being the premier commercial competitions that we sanction. So long as competitions adhere to the principles of the BJCP (blind judging to objective standards with feedback to the brewer/entrant) it can be sanctioned by the BJCP. Enjoy judging at any of the BJCP sanctioned competitions. If you are traveling to another state or country, look at the BJCP Sanctioned Competition Schedule and contact the organizer to judge while you are visiting another location.

Since the growth has brought about new competitions, run by non-BJCP organizers, the BJCP needs you to help them. First, we often get requests from new organizers for help. Higher ranking judges in the area are contacted to help organize these competitions. If you are contacted to help organize and run a competition, please do so, or help find someone else in the area to do so. We all want more competitions in which to judge and we want them to be well run. Having knowledgeable BJCP judges involved will make these competitions much better. Some new competitions may be unusual in their organization but the principles should still be maintained. New ways of doing things may be fun too. As you judge in any competition, please help maintain these principles by speaking up and pitching in to help organize, not just judge.

Not all competitions are sanctioned by the AHA/BJCP Sanctioned Competition Program. Some internal club competitions, charitable events and fairs have been having competitions for years without formal sanctioning. Nothing wrong with that. BJCP judges certainly can use their skills in any beer competition. But remember that you will not receive judging credit unless the competition has been sanctioned. So ask before-hand if the competition is sanctioned. If there is a scheduling conflict between sanctioned and non-sanctioned competitions we do ask that you support the BJCP by prioritizing judging for the sanctioned competitions.

As most of you are aware, competition organizers must file an organizers report within 21 days of a competition. This report is how the BJCP knows who participated in the competition as judges, stewards, staff and the organizer. It’s the only way we get the information to credit participants with their earned points. When organizers are late filing their report, the competition is listed on the BJCP web site. If you haven’t received expected points look at this list of delinquent competitions to see if the competition is on the list. If so, you can help by contacting the organizer to ask them to file their report. We do contact organizers when delinquent competitions first make the list and periodically afterward to get these reports filed, but sometimes only encouragement from the judges, who will be needed next year, to receive their earned service credit, will get older organizer reports filed. Please help the BJCP help you get your service credit by contacting the organizer for competitions that are on the delinquent list.

I am contacted occasionally by brewers/entrants who have received very poor judging forms filled out by the judges at competitions they have entered. The BJCP does not run any competitions; we sanction them. Competitions are run by organizers on behalf of their organization. I do contact the judges and the competition organizers to pass on these complaints. Surprisingly some of the worst examples of judging come from experienced judges. Competitions sometimes have to refund entrance fees for poor judging. It’s good customer service for the competition but it is a black mark on the BJCP as a whole. So when you judge in any competition, please fill out the forms completely, as if you were taking the tasting test again. Judge the last beer of the day as enthusiastically and completely as you did the first. Give the entry your full attention and provide excellent observations and feedback to the entrant. Remember the Golden Rule of Judging: “Provide entrants with judging forms that you would want to receive.”

There have been some changes in the past couple years. Some of these have been behind the scenes to make the process of handing the growth in competition registrations easier to deal with. Some have been visible to registrants. For example, we only accept PayPal as a means of paying for competition registrations and recently automatically linked the payment to approvals. We no longer send out a free entry form to the National Homebrew Competition; few were actually redeemed and the growth in the NHC no longer needed marketing. Rather than have registrants select the judge lists that would be sent to them, we now send a sorted Excel file of all active judges to the organizer. Forms are on-line, available for download rather than emailed to organizers. Additional changes are in the planning stage to create an organizer portal to further improve service to registrants and simply the overall process.