Are you trying to point out the poor taste of the judges? Because I really don't "get" many of the selections you highlighted.
with the exception of Boston Beer, which i highlighted because it's a surprising result, all the breweries are from DC, MD or VA.
also, it was a platform for you to point out how people who don't share your taste automatically have poor taste
Yep. I honestly didn't read much about it.
yet you opined rather strongly...
But there were a hell of a lot of breweries at that thing this year so it at least seems like the competition would have been stiff.
the competition is indeed really tough. there are way more potential entrants than there are entry spots. breweries are limited to 4 or 5 beers, total, across all categories. i believe there were something like 9,000 entries this year. so the fact that all, or 4 out of 5, Devils Backbone beers won medals is really impressive.
The idea that Duclaw's Sweet Baby Jesus would win any kind of medal at anything just seems wrong though.
there has to be something weird going on with that beer. like you, when i tasted SBJ it was disgusting. yet a lot of folks LOVE it and it won a medal at GABF (meaning that it won several rounds). maybe there were some bad batches?