brewindruid wrote:I have a question here, how much of getting through to the top flights is very much about strategy and gamesmanship? What I mean by that is, entering a style category that isn't a large field at that particular time.APA late in the fall as opposed to a stout.
APA is always large, even in December. Then again, you get more noise from beginning brewers in those categories (see BDawg's comment about not usually seeing bad light lagers).
Yet I have friends and aquaintances who have entered with beers every bit as high in quality and so to style that they match any commercial brew, yet they don't get through regionals because of "taste fads", only West Coast IPA"s are getting through, leaving others to wilt on the bine.
IPA is a tough category at large competitions due to palate fatigue. If your less hoppy beer follows two quite hoppy interpretations, particularly later in a potentially large flight, you will rarely do as well as if you were the first 14B judged. Then, there is the mini BOS, where anything goes and palates are usually fatigued.
My first question is "so to style" according to whom? If you're winning medals at other 500+ entry comps but not NHC, that's one thing. What's more likely is that the beer sitting in front of the judges is not the exact same as what you are tasting at home. Packaging, shipping, handling, even pouring all have an impact on the beer. Optimizing this can be the difference between advancing and not; whether you call that "gamesmanship" is up to you. Gordon Strong's book has a section of advice on getting your beer to the judges in optimal condition.
Is this just my ignorance of comps?
Go help out at your next local competition. They'll love the help, and you'll learn a lot.
