Reflections on the BCBS 2022 Throwdown

When the Board started talking about club 2022 activities, the internal club competition was one of the more exciting items we had on tap for the year. Besides the fantastic winner’s take (brewing at Sam Adams Taproom + Municipal brewing it for the GABF Pro-Am), I was looking forward to seeing the results to know just how much better the membership’s brewing is today. There isn’t any other form of tangible measurement to know how we’re doing. Certainly, I have heard a number of anecdotal comments over the past 6-12 months from various folks at the club meetings. Something along the lines of “Wow. I had a lot of great beer tonight! There wasn’t anything really off”.

Well, the results are in! While I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag, I can say that we clearly proved the club is collectively making better beer. In 2020, out of 17 entries, 6-7 scored 30 or higher. In 2022, out of 24 entries, 17 scored 30 or higher – and a couple topped 40! For those not familiar with BJCP beer scores (max 50):

21-29 = Good

30-37 = Very Good

38-44 = Excellent

If a beer is scoring in the ‘Excellent’ range, you are winning categories often and taking BOS in some cases. Now, we had the same 4 judges plus two new ones in 2022 compared to 2020, so it’s not a situation where we had significant palate changes assessing the beer. Paraphrasing a comment I heard during and after the competition from multiple judges, “One little tweak here, and that beer goes from ‘good’ to ‘great’. I’d drink a ton of it as-is, but it would be amazing if…”. And here’s the really awesome part – all the entries were judged by three people in an electronic format which means you will get some clear guidance as to what those tweaks are. Huge shout out to Dave Pfirrman for setting the competition up with laptops – you will not need a calligraphy expert to decipher handwritten notes from the judges!

Final thoughts – I’m really proud of the club. We impressed the heck out of three microbreweries’ Head Brewers in the Cincinnati area with our offerings. It is a strong reflection of this year’s theme ‘We are Here’, and for those that want to compete locally or nationally, we are ready to make some noise!