Rules and Regulations
Official Rules
The Killarney Beer Awards are open to brewers on the island of Ireland only. If you are not
sure if your product qualifies, do not hesitate to contact us. We appreciate it is a rapidly
evolving and innovative product market.
All Killarney Beer Awards entries must be commercially available, fermented malt
beverages, conforming to the trade understanding of “beer”, brewed by a permitted
commercial brewery. “Commercially available” means available for retail sale at the time of
registration.
Breweries must meet each of the following conditions as of the end of May, 29th 2015:
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Your brewery is fully open and operating with all required permits.
Your brewery is fully licensed for the manufacture and commercial sale.
Your beer was brewed at a brewery located on the island of Ireland.
Your brewery/brewing company has at least one beer that is commercially available
for retail sale in Ireland or Northern Ireland.
Your beer was contract brewed by a brewery meeting the criteria above.
Home Brewers and other breweries not meeting these criteria are not eligible to
enter.
Beers may be entered under the following styles of beers as recorded by the BJCP. These
styles and substyles will then be ordered in to the 8 basic style categories for competition
purposes. Please use the BJCP guidelines for a list of all sub-styles and their description.
1. Light Lager
2. Pilsner
3. European Amber Lager
4. Dark Lager
5. Bock
6. Light Hybrid Beer
7. Amber Hybrid Beer
8. English Pale Ale
9. Scottish and Irish Ale
10. American Ale
11. English Brown Ale
12. Porter
13. Stout
14. India Pale Ale (Ipa)
15. German Wheat and Rye Beer
16. Belgian and French Ale
17. Sour Ale
18. Belgian Strong Ale
19. Strong Ale
20. Fruit Beer
21. Spice / Herb / Vegetable Beer
22. Smoke-Flavoured and Wood-Aged Beer
23. Specialty Beer
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Basic Style categories for competition purposes.
Pale Ale: Pale Ale, English Ale, English Bitter, Strong Ale, American Pale Ale, Cream Ale,
Blond Ale, Kölsch, IPA, Vintage Ale.
Belgian Style Ale: Belgian Ale, Belgian Dubbel, Belgian Tripel, Belgian Strong Ale, Saison
Dark Ale: Brown Ale, Mild, Scottish Ale, Irish Red, American Amber
Lagers: American Lager, American Lite Lager, Amber Lager, Helles, Marzen, Pilsner: German
Pils, American Pils, Bohemian Pils, Dark Lager: Dark Lager, Dunkel, Schwarzbier), Bock: bock,
Maibock, Hellesbock, Dopplebock, Eisbock
Porter/Stout: Dry Stout, Sweet Stout, Oatmeal Stout, Foreign Extra Stout, American Stout,
Russian Imperial Stout, Brown Ale, Porter, Baltic Porter,
Wheat Beer: Wheat Ale, Weizen, Weissbier, Dunkelweizen, Weizenbock, Witbier
Specialty: Spiced Beers, Smoked Beers, Wood Aged, Fruited. Includes any non-barley/wheat
fermentable such as rice or rye except where rice is used in an adjunct lager such as
American Lager.
Sour Beer: Lambic, Gueuze, Kriek, Flanders Brown/Red, Berliner Weisse
For a full list of beer styles, see the full BJCP beer style guide. If you are unsure which
category suits your beer best, please read the style guides as they will be judged according
to their entry information. That means, if you enter an English brown ale, but it’s actually
closer to an American Porter, you will lose marks.
Terms & Conditions
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You may enter 6 beers maximum, and beers entered in the same category must be from
different fermentations or of different ingredients.
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An entry fee of €10 per entry must be paid for the entry to be complete.
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All entries must be registered and beer delivered to the venue by Friday, May 29th. This is to
allow the beer to settle so it is in peak condition when judging.
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Please register by emailing [email protected] Brewery name, Category,
Number of entries (maximum 6)
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Each entry shall consist of (4) four (330ml – 600ml) glass bottles or cans. 4 are needed to
allow the beer to get through the various judging stages. A fresh bottle/can must be opened
during each stage in the judging process to ensure freshness. Bottles/cans cannot be
returned.
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Each of the 4 bottles/cans must have an entry form securely attached. Bottles that don’t will
have to be discarded and this might prevent a beer making it through to another stage.
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Please make sure to mark the following: BJCP category and Subcategory numbers. For
example – 10 B. Write the Style of the beer, and then the category if applicable. Style:
(Category). For example - Dark Ale: (American Amber Ale)
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Please ensure to also list any special ingredients or processes such as barrel aged, smoked
malt, fruit etc.
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If you are entering a beer with special ingredients such as spices, fruits or vegetables in
categories: 20 to 23, you must include the base style. For example, Category 20 (fruit beer)
American IPA - Special Ingredients: mandarin orange.
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Important: If your beer does not fit in to a standard style category, please use category 23
and provide as much information as you can. An example of this will be newer styles that
have popped up recently such as Black IPA, White IPA, Hopfen Weisse. It can also be used
for little known historical styles such as Gruit and Gose.
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Bottles and cans should have no brewery labels or identifying marks of any kind. Where this
isn’t practical, such as cans, bottle caps or hard to remove labels, please cover them as best
you can. The only identifying information should be the entry form securely attached to the
bottle. While the judges should not be able to see the packaged beer, we want to limit any
accidental sightings as best we can.
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On the Bottle Identification Form attached to all entrants, please note any special
ingredients and any additional information about the beer (If it is bottle conditioned, does it
have Cocoa nibs or other special ingredients). Anything that will help clarify and identify
ingredients in your beer for the judges will be beneficial to include on the Bottle
Identification Form.
Kegged/Cask Beer
Breweries present at the beer festival may pre-register a beer they will be serving.
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In this case, brewers must provide our stewards with a jug of beer to be brought
immediately to the judging room. This beer will need to be available to stewards all
day Saturday and Sunday in order to progress to best of category and best of show
awards. It’s recommended that cask beer be marked as such in order to inform
judges that the beer might not be as carbonated as expected from bottle/keg. It’s is
recommended to have a number of swingtop bottles or regular bottles and a crown
capper in case you are running low on a beer and want to preserve some for judges.
Judging Process
All judges have been organised by Beoir. They will be independent of any brewery, or where
a judge has a tie to a particular brewery, they will not be judging their own beer. All judges
will be experienced beer tasters, beer writers, qualified judges (BJCP, Sommelier, Cicerone),
experienced world beer competition judges. Many will be members of independent beer
consumer groups around Europe such as Beoir, CAMRA and other EBCU member groups.
Less experienced judges will be paired with senior, more experienced judges.
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Judges will not know who brewed a sample or what it’s called.They will be presented
with a jug of freshly poured beer by their steward.
Judges will only know the beer randomly assigned ID, category number and
style/substyle of beer along with any special ingredients or process involved.
Judges will not know the actual ABV of the beer they are drinking but the ABV must be
provided on the entry form and they can be given a ballpark figure. This is to ensure the beer
meets the appropriate style guidelines.
Judges will have experience with the styles they are judging. Where a judge is unfamiliar
with a beer style, they will swap places with one that is.
Round one: Each judging table will judge their beer and assign scores based on BJCP criteria. Medals
will be assigned based on final score. See below for more info.
Round two: Gold medal winners will progress to best of style. There are 8 style categories. A 1st, 2nd
and 3rd place will be assigned to each. Previous scores don’t count.
Round three: Best of show. All 1st place category winners will progress to the best of show round
where the top 3 beers of the competition will be selected. Previous scores/placements don’t count.
There is a 3 in 8 chance of winning a best of show placement of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.
In the unlikely event that no gold medals are awarded for a category, the highest scoring beer in that
category will go through to the next stage.
Honourable mentions: If the judges are impressed by a beer that doesn’t make it to the top 3 in
each category or best of show, they may put it forward for an honourable mention. This is at their
own discretion.
Minimum Standard for Medals
Gold: A world class beer that accurately exemplifies the specified style, displaying the
proper balance of taste, aroma and appearance. 40 - 50 points
Silver: An excellent beer that may vary slightly from style parameters while maintaining
close adherence to the style and displaying excellent taste, aroma, and appearance. 30 – 39
points
Bronze: A fine example of the style that may vary slightly from style parameters or have
minor defects in taste, aroma, or appearance. 20 – 29 points
Shipping
Bottles should be shipped to the following address by Friday, May 29th
Killarney Beerfest
The Gleneagle Hotel
Muckross Road
Killarney
Co Kerry