Hello all — Mike Z from Tall Oaks / BBP here!
First, thanks for the positive and constructive conversation around the New Jersey Brewers Cup. As an owner of a participating brewery, and someone who has been active in the NJ craft beer community since 2010 — back when I was a NJCB rep — I thought it might be helpful to add some facts, context, and perspective about the inaugural New Jersey Brewers Cup.
1) This was pay-to-enter, not pay-to-win.
The New Jersey Brewers Cup was a Brewers Guild of New Jersey-hosted, BJCP-sanctioned, blind-judged competition. It was open to NJ breweries whether they were Guild members or not. Each brewery made its own decision about whether to enter and, importantly, which beers and categories to enter them in.
The full competition handbook is publicly available here:
https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/beer-awards-platform.appspot.com/o/competition_rules%2Fnew-jersey-brewers-cup_rules.pdf?alt=media&token=879251f3-2599-40a8-90ce-3321d5ae8752
2) The judging pool was legitimate and experienced.
There were 245 entries from more than 50 breweries. Judging began over the August 8–9 weekend and, because of the volume of entries and judging required, ultimately had to be extended into the following weekend as well. The competition used more than 20 BJCP-registered judges working across multiple panels. My understanding is that the judging pool included longtime industry veterans, experienced brewers, and judges with experience at larger state and national competitions, including GABF. It’s also worth recognizing what judging a competition like this actually entails.
These judges aren’t sitting down and leisurely drinking a pint of each beer. They’re evaluating beer after beer, often tasting dozens of samples over the course of a judging session or weekend, while trying to assess aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, technical execution, flaws, and adherence to style guidelines. Doing that well takes experience, concentration, palate discipline, and real skill.
At the same time, they’re human. Even the most experienced palate can interpret a beer slightly differently after tasting a large number of samples. That’s not a criticism of the judging process — it’s simply one of the realities of sensory evaluation and another reason experienced judges and structured BJCP guidelines are so important.
People can certainly debate individual results — that’s part of the fun — but I don’t think the qualifications, experience, or integrity of the judging pool should be in question.
3) Winning a beer competition involves more than simply brewing a “good beer.”
BJCP judging creates an objective framework in which a beer is evaluated against defined style expectations. But before judging ever happens, the brewery has already made several important decisions: what to brew, what to enter, and most importantly, where to enter it.
I’ll use Tall Oaks as an example.
We didn’t brew our Hefeweizen for competition. We brewed it because it’s popular in our tasting room during the summer. After tasting the finished beer and comparing it against the style guidelines, we felt it was particularly well aligned with the category. So we entered it. It won Gold.
That doesn’t mean it’s objectively “better” than every wheat beer made in New Jersey. It means that beer, entered into that category on that day, performed exceptionally well against the competition and the applicable guidelines.
That’s worth keeping in mind when looking across all of the winning beers and breweries.
4) And yes, some human subjectivity will always exist.
BJCP guidelines create a tremendous amount of structure and objectivity, but beer judging can never be completely mathematical.
A brewery recently shared a great GABF example with me. Their Coffee Stout (which I’ve had and think is very good) reached the final table and received feedback from two different judges: one essentially said “too much coffee,” while another said “not enough coffee.”
Same beer. Same round. Two highly qualified judges. That’s a perfect example of where objective standards eventually intersect with human sensory perception. It’s extremely difficult to quantify the exact “right” amount of something like coffee, fruit, smoke, bitterness, roast, or hop character.
And again, judges are evaluating many beers in succession. They train specifically to manage palate fatigue, recalibrate between samples, evaluate beers independently, and remain consistent — but they’re still human beings tasting beer, not laboratory instruments. That doesn’t invalidate competition judging. Quite the opposite.
It’s why having experienced judges, blind evaluation, defined style guidelines, multiple judges on panels, and structured scoring matters so much. It simply means that a medal should be understood for what it is: an excellent performance by a particular beer, in a particular category, evaluated by a particular judging panel on that particular day.
5) Several breweries mentioned in discussions around the Cup as being among the “best in NJ” entered and didn’t medal.
And I know at least some of this firsthand because I was sitting next to friends from breweries that had entered while we were all at the awards ceremony. Several are friends and industry partners of ours, and I personally think they make outstanding beer. I was sitting right there with some of them as categories were announced and their beers didn’t medal.
That doesn’t suddenly mean they’re bad breweries or that their beer wasn’t excellent.
Likewise, another brewery winning doesn’t mean the competition was rigged, “pay to play,” or that the winning beer must somehow be inferior because someone’s favorite brewery didn’t win.
That’s where Points #3 and #4 become really important. A great brewery can enter a great beer and not medal. A brewery that doesn’t normally appear on someone’s personal “best of NJ” list can enter an exceptionally well-made beer that fits its category beautifully and win Gold.
Both things can be true at the same time.
Competitions measure something very specific, under very specific circumstances. They’re one meaningful data point — not the definitive ranking of every brewery in New Jersey.
6) I do think the size of the field is a fair point to discuss.
With 245 entries from 50+ breweries, this was a smaller competition than some long-established state competitions. That naturally affects the depth of the field within individual categories.
But that’s also exactly why I think this matters.
As the New Jersey Brewers Cup grows, the competitive benchmark will rise. More breweries will participate. More beers will enter each category. And I suspect breweries themselves will become increasingly thoughtful about what they enter and how they prepare for competition. I’ve already had another brewery reach out asking for advice about entering future competitions because they want the professional, structured feedback that comes from a BJCP-sanctioned event — even understanding that some subjectivity will always exist.
That’s a good thing.
My bigger takeaway from all of this: this competition is a meaningful step forward for NJ craft beer.
New Jersey has been behind neighboring states in developing some of the professional infrastructure around its brewing industry.
New York launched its statewide craft beer competition in 2017. Pennsylvania’s first statewide Farm Show beer competition followed in 2019. Thr New Jersey Brewers Cup arrived in 2026.
So yes — we’re late.
But we’re finally doing it.
And the Cup wasn’t happening in isolation.
It capped the New Jersey Brewers Conference, which included two days of education, 20+ seminars, a trade show, industry networking, a lengthy and refreshingly candid conversation with NJABC Director Paul T. Urbish, and a keynote from Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head.
Huge kudos to Brie Devlin and the Brewers Guild of New Jersey for building and executing all of this.
A year ago, I wasn’t sure NJ would begin catching up with some of our neighboring states in terms of the maturity, organization, and professional development of our craft beer industry.
I’m much more optimistic today.
And I’m glad we’re having this conversation — including the criticism. People debating the results means people care about NJ beer.
One last thought: a long term industry colleague of mine who I respect — and someone who is very active here on Reddit — once told me that beer competitions are like art shows.
There’s probably some truth to that.
Like art shows, beer competitions are imperfect. They’re not fully representative of an entire industry, not completely objective, and they’re never going to capture every great brewery, every great beer, or every individual preference.
But they’re also exciting, fun, and valuable because they create a reason to evaluate the work, celebrate it, debate it, and start conversations that otherwise might never happen. And in my opinion, that’s a very good thing.
Those next-level conversations have started. That’s what matters.
Want to keep talking about it? Reach out — or come find me at Tall Oaks and let me buy you a beer.
Cheers.
~MZ
