Entering beer awards as a brand

What a medal is worth

At a well run competition, judges taste beers blind, in flights, against published style guidelines. They do not know the brewery, the price or the label. That is why a medal carries weight with distributors, bar managers and drinkers. It says trained tasters, with no reason to favour you, found your beer clean and true to style.

A medal is not a marketing campaign on its own. It is a credential you then have to use well. Many breweries win something and do nothing with it beyond one post.

Choosing which competitions to enter

Competitions differ in size, judging standards and who notices them. Large international competitions such as the World Beer Cup and the European Beer Star attract entries from around the world and are judged by experienced panels. Regional and national competitions are smaller but may matter more to your local trade.

Ask a few questions before entering. Who judges? Are they trained? Which style guidelines does it use? Who notices the results: drinkers, distributors or other brewers? Can you get fresh beer there? Entering one or two well chosen competitions a year is better than spraying entries everywhere.

Pick the category the beer fits, not the one you named it

This is where most entries fail. Judges score against the guidelines for the category you enter. A beer you sell as an IPA may score poorly as an American IPA if its bitterness or aroma sits outside the range, yet do well as a pale ale. Read the guidelines for your chosen category, then taste your beer against them honestly, ideally with someone trained.

If you have staff studying for the BJCP exam, use them. A blind panel at the brewery that scores your beer against two or three possible categories will tell you where it belongs. Also check the beer is clean. A trace of diacetyl or oxidation that regulars never mention will cost points at a judging table. Our guide to beer off flavours covers the common ones.

Getting samples there fresh

The beer judges taste should be the beer you sell, at its best. Send packaged beer from a normal production run, not a specially pampered batch, because a medal for a beer you cannot reproduce is a risk.

The floor detail that matters most: never fill entries from a tap into a growler or a bottle without counter pressure filling. Beer filled open from a tap picks up oxygen and loses carbonation. After days in transit it will taste stale or flat. Use cans or bottles from your packaging line, keep them cold and time shipping so they arrive close to the judging date.

Shipping beer abroad from India, or even across state borders, involves excise and transport permissions that vary by state and change. Check with your licensing adviser well before the entry deadline.

Using a medal honestly

When you win, be precise. Name the competition, the year, the medal and the beer: "Silver, [Competition] [Year], for our Pilsner." Do not stretch a medal for one beer into "award winning brewery" on everything. Do not keep shouting about an old medal for a beer whose recipe has changed. Drinkers and trade notice.

Put the medal where it helps a decision: on the tap list, on the beer's page on your website, on a neck tag or sticker if your label rules allow, in your trade sales deck and on a framed certificate in the taproom. Our guide to beer brand positioning covers how a credential like this fits your wider story.

When you do not win

Most entries do not win. That is useful too. Good competitions return judges' score sheets. Read them as free feedback from trained tasters. If several judges mention the same fault, fix the process behind it. If they say the beer is good but out of style, consider re-entering it in a better fitting category next year, or adjust the recipe if that style is what you want to make.

Treat awards as one part of a brand plan, not the plan itself. The breweries that get the most from medals already know what they stand for and use the medal as proof.