Judging Process
Brief guidelines for our respectful judges and participants
Judging needs its experts!
Judging panels are the responsibility of the Head Judge. The categories guidelines for the judges are based on the ABA standards. To judge your samples in the right way, it is important to submit them in the proper category and fill in the details for your beer (yeast, barrel, fruits or other ingredients, bottle conditioned, haze, unfiltered, unpasteurized), please refer to the guidelines.
The main philosophy of the competition is to award beers for their complexity in aroma and taste. Great beers at all! Beers with off-flavors or negative impression, lose points. If your beer does not fit any style of our Beer Categories according to the Competition Guidelines, then enter it in the Specialty Lager or Ale, add all the necessary -asked- details, and add a note/request for a specific new style. We consider any proposals you have.
Every sample is evaluated by each judge, who is adding notes and points for every evaluation part on the form. The feedback is sent anonymously to you, without name and points, after the awards evening. If anything negative comes to the judge’s attention, the judge’s table can ask for a second sample from this beer.
The organization in agreement with the Head Judge reserves the right to merge, split, or add categories.
Decisions are made only by the Head Judge, who is also responsible for the samples classification and flights as well as the judges panel and Table Captains. The Head Judge is not participating at the tasting and has the obligation to remind the philosophy of the competition to the judges.
Greek Beer Awards invites judges from abroad to ensure the integrity and transparency of the tasting process and the outcome. If you want to become a judge or suggest someone please visit the page.
Have you seen the categories?
New tasting process
Beginning in 2024 the judging process will change. One more tasting round will be added before the decision on the medals and top of each type.
All beers will be judged in the first round. Then in the second round, all beers that have been evaluated for any medal will be judged again, in order to have the finalists. In both rounds, judges will keep notes for the feedback.
If there is anything that does not allow the judges for a clear decision on the Top Lager and Top Ale, then a third round only for those beers will be held.
Ready to register?
SCORE 71-80
Score 81-90
Score 91-100
top aLE & Lager
Maurizio Maestrelli
2025 Head Judge
Journalist and author. Responsible for the Italian magazine “Il Barman”. Judge and table leader in various international competitions for beers and spirits. Member of the Greek Beer Awards judges in 2018, 2021 and head judge in 2023.
Greek Beer Awards are a great opportunity, first of all, to discover the state of the art of the emerging Greek beer scene but it’s also a challenge for your tastebuds considering the variety of styles that are present in the competition. Last, but not least, it’s also great fun in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Athens!
31st July 2024
Leading the process
The head of judges
The head judge is a well respected and experienced person, chosen by the organizers to fulfill the following responsibilities:
