What is the main requirement for a competition organizer acting as a judge?

The main requirement for a competition organizer acting as a judge is that they cannot have knowledge of the entries and entrants. This is crucial to ensuring the integrity and fairness of the judging process. When judges are unaware of the identities of the entries and their makers, it minimizes the potential for bias and favoritism, allowing for an objective assessment of each sample based solely on its quality and adherence to style guidelines.

This essential detachment from the entries helps maintain the competition's credibility and allows judges to provide an unbiased evaluation based purely on the sensory attributes of the beers. Knowing who the entrants are can cloud judgment and lead to conflicts of interest, which undermines the competition's integrity.

In contrast, prior judging experience is valuable but not a strict requirement for all judges at every competition. Similarly, knowing judges personally can be beneficial for coordination but does not affect the fairness of the judging process. Having a minimum number of judges is often a guideline to ensure a balanced panel, but the key requirement that specifically upholds the integrity of the judging process is the impartiality afforded by the judges' lack of prior knowledge about the entries and entrants.