Wow.
I’ve taken some classes in the past that did a pretty good job of trying to intimidate students on that first class, and the BJCP exam study course I attended yesterday is right up there with certain physics courses in terms of breadth and depth of material.
I expect to have to really improve my ability to memorize, but I also expect to exercise certain other abilities that I think are generally less common to the average person, much less the average beer drinker. I’m going to have to exercise my ability to make aesthetic judgments while suppressing my own personal preferences in a disinterested way.
It seems odd, but the BJCP process is surprisingly Kantian in the way it goes about asking its judges to make subjective judgments in a way that can be understood by anyone judging in the same manner the initial judge did. At least until the best of show situation, judges work to experience a beer based on specific criteria — Aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel, and an overall impression of the beer. A maximum of 50 points can be allocated to the beer — ten in each category, but a 50 point beer is pretty much the Platonic ideal of beer; you’re never going to encounter one. And each beer falls into a specific stylistic category, so there’s a ton of information to imbibe.
Best of show beers are judged a little bit differently, with preference being completely part of the process. You eliminate beers by preference, but with a specific reason attached — kind of like the way judges in a dog show eliminate dogs until the top three are all that remain and placed in order.
For my first tasting encounter, our class leader had us taste an unmarked beer with no prior instruction. We wrote down responses in the five categories, and then he told us that we wouldn’t find out what beer we’d tasted until the final class when we tasted it a second time. This to give us a vantage point from which we can determine how much we’ve learned during the course both in practical knowledge and vocabulary — pretty cool, really.
We also divided up 5 topics we’d be interested in teaching to the class in order of preference. I was the only person to say I’d be willing to teach on light lagers — not too many work-a-day drinkers in the class, obviously. That topic will be taught on by the course leader though, so I don’t feel horribly pressured to make myself an expert on the topic yet. Each presentation is to be approximately an hour and a half long. Can’t wait to see what I draw.
Tags: Beer Judging, BJCP, Continuing Education, Difficult exercises