There are new Brewers Cup rules! These have far-reaching implications for the discipline. We have summarized and analyzed the consequences for you.
- Extensive changes in Compulsory Service
- New scoresheets, changed sensory focus, and new calculation bases
- Significant upgrade of the Head Judge with own score sheet
- New definitions for water to be provided by the organizer
- Far-reaching consequences for the competition setting as a whole and coffee selection in Open Service
Compulsory Service
There have been quite a few changes! In particular, paragraph 9.1.C. now looks completely different. Let's first look at the facts and then venture an interpretation.
In the future, not only the provided coffee must be used, but also the water made available and the grinder.
The old rule 9.3.C. also disappears, which stated: "Coffee ground before the competition time will be allowed." Now the coffee must be ground during the "Competition Time" (See also 11.3 second paragraph).
Consequences: With the ability to choose your own water, you could previously adjust the character of the Compulsory Service coffee relatively easily. By choosing softer or harder water, you could emphasize acidity, body, or sweetness as desired. This tool is now gone. The brewing recipe and brewing method become all the more important in the future.
An interesting added difficulty: the coffee cannot be conveniently prepared and sieved multiple times before the Competition Time. In fact, not even during the set-up time, if we read the rules correctly! (See, among others, 13.2.3. fifth paragraph)
Depending on the brewing method, this brings a certain time pressure to the 7-minute Competition Time.
Score Sheet Cup Score | Open and Compulsory Service
Flavor and Overall are no longer weighted twice. Instead, Acidity and Body are the new major point providers. These rule changes apply to both Compulsory Service and Open Service, but have quite different effects.
In Compulsory Service they are an interesting complement to the other changes noted above. Both Acidity and Body are components that can be wonderfully adjusted through the choice of brewing devices and recipe.
Decisive for acidity is how clearly it contributes to the liveliness and fruity character of a coffee, without being sour, sharp, or dominant.
Body is a very interesting variable that describes the tactile performance of the coffee in the mouth. It's not primarily about intensity but rather about quality. A "light body" can be wonderfully soft and earn many points. While a "heavy body" that is astringent and clunky scores poorly.
It's certainly good that Overall is no longer among the double points. Compared to all other Cup Components defined in the Brewers Cup rulebook, Overall is the door most open to subjective impressions.
In Compulsory Service, the question of coffee selection doesn't arise—it is provided. In Open Service, this question very much does arise. Does this new evaluation approach affect coffee selection? I would say yes, definitely. But let's first get to the other changes in Open Service.
Open Service
At first glance, you could overlook the changes. Both in the summary of the overall competition and in the description of Open Service itself, nothing initially stands out. But things have changed. First with the water.
When selecting water for Open Service, the participant is no longer bound by the range defined in 11.2. that applies to the water provided in Compulsory Service. This opens up entirely new possibilities to play with the water topic even more! What Compulsory Service loses, Open Service gains back and then some.
- The Head Judge must taste "their own water" hot and at room temperature. This is to ensure that the water is flavor-free.
All other rules are hidden in the Score Sheet! We've already reported on Cup Score above. But things have also changed in the Presentation Score area.
The three judges continue to award 40 points, but no longer double for the now-defunct "Overall Impression" category. Instead, they award double points for Customer Service and Taste Description in the future.
The Cup Scores in the upper part of the sheet are filled in by the judges as in a blind tasting. It doesn't matter what the participant says, sings, or does. With Taste Description, it is now compared whether what the participant described matches the blind tasting. And more than ever, this is important going forward, because otherwise it hurts twice as much! And Customer Service also goes up, displacing Overall Impression.
The contents of Overall Impression don't disappear, however; they move to the Head Judge's score sheet. And yes, in the future the Head Judge is not only allowed to cup but is also simultaneously a Technical Judge.
Overall Workflow takes on Overall Impression. In the future, the workflow, use of tools, items, and their organization are evaluated. Cleanliness AND consistency are also evaluated!
Finally! Of course, what's in the cup is important. But I've long believed that consistent and uniform procedures are equally crucial. There's now space for that in the score sheet.
New is also the evaluation of sensory uniformity. And there's actually a rule change hidden here. Because previously it wasn't necessary to brew three identical cups. I specifically didn't do that at the World Brewers Cup in Rimini. In the future, that's no longer possible. Instead, all cups must perform the same over the duration of time.
In total, the Head Judge can award 20 points. I'll get to the overall scoring and impact further down.
Water
- In the future, water will be provided in Compulsory Service. (see 9.5.A and 9.1.C). So the possibility of playing with water disappears, as described above.
- The range of water to be provided by the organizer has become significantly narrower and noticeably much "softer". Instead of a target range of TDS 150 mg/L and an allowed range of TDS 75–250 mg/L, the future requires TDS 85 mg/L or a range of 50–125 mg/L. The "Calcium Hardness" is set at 51 mg/L instead of 68 mg/L.
What Doesn't Change!!!
9.4.D. This rule has been the downfall of many participants worldwide. It remains. It simply states that at least 120 ml must be served in a vessel. If the participant pours from a brewing vessel into a cup, then the served cup must contain exactly 120 ml!
Scoring
New: only the Compulsory round counts toward the finals. Previously, all First Round results were "carried forward". This eliminates the points from a possibly poor or good Open Service round. This makes the Compulsory Service results all the more important! Because they are added in full to the Open Service results of the finals!
That sounds simple, but it's a really big deal! I interpret this as a strong upgrade of the individual brewer's ability to deliver with an unfamiliar coffee!
Open Service is calculated as follows. The results of Total Cup and Total Presentation are added per judge and divided by 1.40. Then the Final Scores from each judge are added and the average is calculated by dividing by three. This number is then multiplied by 1.4, the Head Judge's score is added, and that is divided by 1.6. Example: J1 gives 71, J2 73, J3 72 points = 72 on average x 1.4 = 100.8 + 15 from Head Judge / 1.6 = 72.375
Seems complicated. It is. Let's take the same example and have the Head Judge give more or fewer points, in this case 10, 12, 14, etc., while the sensory judges stay with their average. Then it looks like this:
10 => 69.25, 12 => 70.5, 14 => 71.75, 16 =>73, 18 =>74.25, 20 => 75.5
Ten points from the Head Judge score are thus around 6.25 on the overall score. That's quite a bit! These are points that no one wants to miss. It's likely that at the finals, championship level will be very close, and then two more or fewer Head Judge points really hurt!
Summary and Conclusion!!!
I dare to claim: future Brewers Cup champions and world champions will be crowned through the Compulsory Service. And that's good, because that's the part of the competition where a brewer can show off their skills the most! The importance of coffee in Open Service is dampened. There are still plenty of points for it, but presentation and consistency in work are valued more heavily.
Recently, the Brewers Cup has increasingly become a question of available budget for exquisite coffees and has been dominated by certain varieties or raw coffee companies. This development now receives a damper.
In fact, the higher scores for Acidity and Body open up entirely new possibilities in raw coffee selection. I'm excited to see what comes in the coming years.
Overall, I would say the new rules are very good for the Brewers Cup. I believe that the Brewers Cup will continue on the fast track with these rules in its pocket! In that regard, my high praise goes to the team of WCE which developed the new rules!
PS: This is also important. 🙂
