CAMRA Beer Judge Training

This course is designed to help improve beer assessment and judging skills. We learned how to judge a beer based on CAMRA criteria and had the opportunity to determine the winner of the Welsh bottled beer (4.4%+ ABV) category, which will go through to national judging in 2027. What’s interesting is that, unlike in the National Homebrewing Competition, where brewers select the category in which the beer will be judged, CAMRA members and tasters determine which category the beer should be placed in. This ensures that the beer is judged in the correct category, with the aim of eliminating points lost for not being true to style. We worked as a team to judge and come to a consensus on each sample, and the scoring system is designed to account for everyone’s individual judgment. Overall, even though each judge had completely different experiences and backgrounds when it came to tasting beer, we consistently came to similar conclusions. I gained more experience leading a tasting and judging panel and working together to give constructive feedback.