@Sean - It's a gut reaction based on several things - balance of flavor, fullness of flavor, appearance, nose, aftertaste, aftertaste retention. And so on. However, we rate those things based on certain expectations.

Take head retention and head appearance for instance. We consider better retention a good thing, but the higher the alcohol content, the less likely a beer is to hold a decent head. Carbonation source also contributes - is it using carbon dioxide? Nitrogen? So a carbon dioxide naturally carbonated 11% ABV beer we don't expect to hold much of any head, so we don't detract points if it doesn't.

Same goes for color and clarity. Does the style lend to clarity? Is it completely unfiltered? If it is, we expect sediment. Color is subjective, and we usually don't take off points for color, but a beautiful hue may gain a beer some points.

Finally, we compare the beer to the style it says it is, with modifiers. We've had some winter warmers that tasted like IPAs - and so points have been deducted due to a general miss on the style the brewer was going for. While it may have made a good pale ale, a winter warmer it was not. At the same time, if they tell you it's a particular style infused with a special ingredient, we hope to taste that ingredient and its integration with the style.

That's the long version of the short version. We almost never taste the beers prior to taping, so it's a score we have to come up with relatively quickly. So these are some of the areas of judging we keep in mind.

Dave/Johnny,

I'm just curious, what do you use for your scoring criteria?

Thanks

Sean