I received an unexpected email this morning. I got my BJCP exam score today a full two months earlier than I figured it would come.
I achieved a score sufficient to attain the level of Certified once I’ve gotten four more judging experience points.
This isn’t too shabby, but I’ll more than likely end up taking it again sometime soon.
Back in March, I posted about the beginnings of my BJCP study course adventure. I wrote about how I didn’t intend to become a beer judge, how I felt that blind adherence to the styles was a bad thing, and that I didn’t think my enjoyment of beer would be improved by analyzing every sip.
So what changed between March and August? I still feel essentially the same about these things, with beer judging being a bit of an exception — I’m not expecting to ever become a master judge, but I would enjoy testing my skills in competitions.
I think outside of the style specifics and technical topics, the most important thing I learned from the class was how to really engage my palate, and taste things. It’s odd how much we take for granted the way certain things taste. What I used to taste in most beers was an amalgam of the ingredients, and I couldn’t really pick out much about what I was ignorantly tasting. Now, I can blindly taste a beer and tell you at least what style it is, if not what kind of hops were likely used to make it, or what the grain bill was probably made up of. (more…)
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…)
I should be arriving at Clipper City for the exam in approximately twelve hours.
I’ve spent most of the evening cramming. Wish me luck.
So I take my BJCP exam on August 9th. Three hours, ten essay questions, fifteen judging process true/false questions, and four tastings. 20+ style categories, with multiple sub-styles in each style.
In addition to all of my studying for this exam, I’ve started a new job, I’m working on some freelance projects, starting Baltibrew — meeting is today at 6:30 pm at the Wind Up Space — writing a proposal and conceptualizing slides for a talk I want to do at Ignite Baltimore 4, and doing the best I can not to lose my mind as my wife and mother-in-law drag me around to look at houses. Saturday’s annual customer appreciation day at the Thirsty Brewer should help calm me down a little bit. Once I’ve plowed through all of this I’ll actually have time to post more “How do I do that?,” and maybe even a bit on specific styles.
To prepare for all of this, I asked our class leader— Les White — to set up a practice tasting and subsequent judging in the fashion we would expect to be tested on. My classmate and friend Stefin Clapham joined us at Max’s and we blew through three tastings. (more…)
Got out to the Guild picnic last week at Patapsco Valley State Park with time to sit down at the judging table for the wheat beer competition that was held.
While I’m not an examined judge, the event wasn’t sanctioned, and my votes wouldn’t have counted toward an official result, it was good experience for my exam in August.
I got to taste the finalist round of beers, all of which were pretty good.
My scoring was within four or five points of both Les’s scores and Walter Ames’ scores. Both of these guys have taken the exam, and both of them know what a wheat beer should taste like, hopefully this bodes well for my chances on the exam. (more…)