And does obtaining these qualifications necessarily make for better judging? A whole cottage industry has been built around these, and which has thus far apparently escaped any critical attention.
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The outcome is also only based on who actually enters. If a competition is pay to play (which makes it even worse that they are not paying judges) then, again, only the breweries with the means actually submit their beer.
Sadly there are no perfect competitions, CAMRA & SIBA bothered have their faults. Pay to be in means those with deeper pockets, or those playing the odds to win something can hope to make the investment pay.
I've judged alongside qualified judges, some are very good, but I've come across a few who try to lead a table towards their judgement of a beer. That's just not acceptable.
I’ve judged my share of beer competitions, others will have views on whether I’m any good at it, but I mostly get asked back. I’m not wealthy. I have a qualification that I paid to get as I believed it would help professionally, and I decide whether to accept judging invitations on the same basis.
David and I are friends, and I can see his point of view. There’s a ‘beer competition’ industry because people see an opportunity to make money by running them. Like all awards, including awards for writers and journalists, you’d be daft to take any of it too seriously.
It's a rabbit hole we can all go down. This year marks my 41st as a journalist, and I remain entirely non-award winning. However, I've raised four kids, seen them through uni, bought a house and paid off a mortgage, seen a chunk of the world and stashed a modest few quid away for my dotage.
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