Beer comp result question

[bluue13]

Hello fellow brewers-

Has this ever happened to anyone?

So I entered the NEIPA I brewed into two categories in the local home brew competition this past weekend. I entered it as 21B7 which is the new NEIPA category and 21A.

Now I expected the scores to be a little off in 21A as its really pretty close to the NEIPA style and not classic american IPA. However, what I didn't expect is what happened.

It scored very well in 21B7, positive comments, and said overall it was a very good beer, great flavor, hop characteristic etc, with NO evidence of off flavor and/or oxidation.

The judges who rated it in 21A said it was phenolic, oxidized, tasted old, etc, etc. I bottled it carefully from my keg, purged bottles with CO2, capped on foam, everything to assure there was no oxygen present at bottling.

I'm feeling like somehow a bottle got mislabeled as mine, as its the only way I can think that the same exact beer, bottled at the same exact time, under the same exact conditions, could be such polar opposites.

Just wondering if any experienced brewers have had a similar experience or if its likely that somehow some way that one bottle became so infected in the short amount of time from bottling to judging that it was so far off.

TIA!

 

[Backslide]

Could have been different judges too man. I've had one judge tell me it was the best beer of the day, while another judge sad it was mehhh.

 

[bluue13]

Could have been different judges too man. I've had one judge tell me it was the best beer of the day, while another judge sad it was mehhh.

Yeah, I mean I know these things are designed to be objective... but if your palate doesn't like something, I guess you're not going to mark it well.

 

[smellysell]

Lot of bad judges too. Entered a BSDA once and was told it wasn't dark enough when it clearly fell within the guidelines.

 

[bluue13]

Lot of bad judges too. Entered a BSDA once and was told it wasn't dark enough when it clearly fell within the guidelines.

I'm actually leaning toward this. This particular competition I've been a steward for and each time they're begging people to volunteer to be a judge even for a category they may not be comfortable with. Seems off to me. Also its gotta be super hard to judge the IPA table. Once you've had 2 or 3, your palate is shot.