Where’s my feedback, nothing but static.
Just a quick comment/complaint/gripe here. I recently was in a homebrew competition, a Best of Show type competition. There was no style categories everyone is judged as one group, there was also an optional people’s choice competition. The people choice is a great component, I love serving people my homebrew, it is a great way to get out meet people and find out what they think about your hard work. My problem with these competitions is the lack of feedback from the judges core. Since we are not part of the “closed door” judging, it is very important to get some feedback on what the judges thought of your beer.
I’m not going to mention which competition this was, because it hasn’t been the only one of late. However, with the last event, I emailed the event organizers twice about getting feedback and they didn’t even have the courtesy to respond to my email. That really annoyed me and that is what prompted the post. I take my brewing very seriously, I work hard at it, I study, I research, and plan. When I take 8-10 hours of my time to prepare a beer for an event where it will be judged and don’t receive any feedback it is very frustrating. If I don’t know what was liked and disliked in my beer, how am I supposed to become a better brewer?
Part of me is starting to think that some of these competitions don’t really care about the homebrewers, they are just using us to promote themselves. Frankly that is fine, but I want something out of it in return.
I agree. And you’re right, it is a whole lot of work that they’re also going to benefit from. Whether it be for club exposure or them feeling good by handing a big check to a charity, you’re the reason they’re able to accomplish that.
Hell, if they don’t want to take time to give feedback they should state that on the registration site. Then at least you’d know.
When one accepts money from people, there are responsibilities to uphold.
I’d be pissed. If they don’t make it worthwhile to enter then they’ll see participation drop. If you drink a beer and judge it, is it that hard to write down some comments?
Great points. I think I was in the same subterranean contest. Long day . Shaky organization of the event. I was in peoples choice as well,I didn’t get enough notice to have my friends come and stuff the ballot box, and it totally would have scored points to me if they came around and gave a little interest in what I had prepared. Just to make me feel good about my all encompassing problem.
Maggie, right on. They were charging money for the event for people to drink our homebrew not sure where the money went to, finger food and cleanup? I probably still would have done it, even knowing upfront there would be no feedback because I love doing these events where I can share my beer with people. But don’t ignore my emails, especially when a simple yes or no answer doesn’t take any time write.
Billy, my thoughts too. there looked to be about 15 people hold up in a corner group judging different beer. couldn’t tell if they were taking notes or not. You don’t need BJCP score cards here, something simple would have sufficed.
Toemas, LOL. Yes it was a subterranean event, I had fun. Good Crowd and good homebrews. You should expect the friend Popularity contest in these People Choice, I do so it doesn’t bother me much. Like I said the lack of feedback was disappointing. And that goes for all the competitions I’ve been in who offer a Prize but then don’t give you any feedback as to why your beer may not have been considered.
As I wrote my last response, I was thinking, “Had I won would I have written this post?”. Most likely not. However hypocritical that may be, it would not have triggered the 2 emails to the organizers about feedback with no response and I wouldn’t have got annoyed about it. C’est la vie
Yeah, but there’s nothing wrong with wanting to know how to improve. Since you didn’t win, clearly they thought you had room for improvement.
IMO, there’s nothing hypocritical about wanting to know what you can do better.
Unless you typed your e-mail in All-Caps claiming it was “rigged.” 🙂
I just started sending my homebrew into competition specifically for the feedback. It’s great to share homebrews with friends and family but the judges feedback is impartial and objective and helps you to grow as a brewer. I even placed in a competition and as great as that was the feedback was still important to me. A feedbackless competition would be a huge frustration.