Judging at the International Beer Challenge: By Duncan Sambrook
By Duncan Sambrook
One of my favourite things to do in the beer industry is to be asked to judge beer. This year was the fourth time that I have had the privilege of judging at the International Beer Challenge. All beer competitions are slightly different, with different scoring systems, emphasis of style or beer faults, but the reason that I like the IBC so much is that their judging criteria is simply to identify a great beer. If it is a good beer it gets a bronze, a great beer gets a silver and an outstanding beer a gold. There is no limit to the number of beers that can win an award, simply that the table of judges agrees that they deserve an award.
This year was hosted at the Oval cricket grounds with about 50 other beer judges from brewers to bloggers, sommeliers to suppliers. A great mix to ensure that there was a variety of opinions on every judging table. Each table worked their way through about 45 beers over the course of the day starting with low abv styles and finishing with barrel aged porters and Belgian triples. We awarded 2 golds, 10 silvers and about 20 bronze over the course of the day in the process drinking some very interesting an delicious beer styles.
The stand out category this year was the low to no alcohol section, a style which has been improving immeasurably over the last few years as demand has increased. A cranberry, cherry 0.5% beer was particularly enjoyable. Of course Sambrook’s had a few beers entered (and I was assured that they would be judged on other tables), so it will be great to see if our beers rank highly when the awards winners are announced.