Pencils down at 4 p.m. on the dot… and my hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder were in agony by that time. It sounds silly, but the worst part of the BJCP exam was writing with a pencil for three hours. We started at 1 p.m. with the expected purpose of the BJCP question and the expected judging level hierarchy question. Then 15 true/false questions about the judging rules and process, followed by 9 essay questions, and four tasters.
I got lucky in some respects. The style questions were all relatively prominent styles except for the sour ale question, and I knew enough about those beers to make what I think was good commentary, save for the fact that I couldn’t remember a commercial example for the Flanders Red style, or the Berliner Weisse style.
The recipe formulation question went well because they chose Oktoberfest/Marzen as the required style. I studied specifically for this style and I feel like I did a fairly good job at it.
The brewing question — mashing — went pretty well also. (more…)