Archive for the ‘BJCP’ Category

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My First — semi-real — Judging Encounter

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

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…)

Posted in BJCP, Events, Geek-Out | No Comments »

11 Questions Answered by Les White

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

If you’ve been keeping up with my BJCP class posts, you’ve seen Les White’s name tossed around quite a bit. Les is the president of the Free State Homebrewer’s Guild, and leads the BJCP study course in the Baltimore area. He also recently started a catering business. Having tasted some of the food he prepared for the “Guess That Beer” party I attended at his house, I can accurately say that pretty much anything he whips up for a party is going to be excellent. Les is incredibly helpful, knowledgeable, and willing to give his time to those of us with less experience.

I designed the questions below to learn a bit more about how someone with so much brewing, and beer tasting experience got his start, and also to ask some questions that I think a lot of young brewers would like to be able to ask their respective beer gurus.

Enjoy:
What was the first beer you really remember drinking, and how do you think this affected your formation as a zymurgist?

I remember drinking domestic swill on occasion in college but I can’t say it was “memorable”. So in college and the couple years after I mostly drank mixed drinks and wine coolers. I became quite the mixologist crafting my own drink recipes and even making homemade wine coolers in a 5 gallon beverage dispenser some of us 5-fingered from the dining hall.One of my first memories of craft beer was Oxford Class, a British amber ale brewed by Maryland’s first post-prohibition microbrewery. It had flavor and body – unlike most beer I had tasted before. In the early 90’s there were few choices for craft beer and my friend Glenn mentioned brewing my own. He invited me to another friend’s house to help him bottle his latest batch. I remember being quite excited about learning to make beer and how to bottle it. While I still enjoy brewing beer, the novelty of bottling wore off after the first 4 or 5 batches! (more…)

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Posted in BJCP, Brewing, Industry | 6 Comments »

BJCP 10: Recipe Formulation + Belgian Sours

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

My BJCP class met for the last time yesterday, and it was the best class of the whole course.

We began tasting and judging the same beer we sampled the first day of class. To Les’s credit, my ability to describe a beer has improved considerably — with my responses bearing little resemblance to the monosyllabic, one-word, vague descriptors of my first attempt. My ability to make an educated guess as to what kind of beer I’m drinking blindly has gone from extremely basic to pretty accurate. The beer in question was Clipper City’s Winter Storm, which according to Kurt —one of the brewers at Clipper City, and a class member — is stylistically an Extra Special Bitter, which is what I guessed it to be and judged accordingly. Not quite to style considering its higher than normal ABV, but otherwise a pretty good example. We didn’t score the beer.

Next we tried another beer blindly, but were told to judge it as an English Dark Mild. I gave the beer a total score of 36, noting that it should probably could have benefitted from a litle less attenuation, or increased maltodextrine that would provide body, sweetness, and reduced the roast-malt astringency I experienced. The beer turned out to be Les’s Mild brewed at Big Brew about a month ago. He agreed that the beer deserved to be in the upper 30s, but not quite a 40.

All in all, I feel pretty confident that my abilities have improved, and my palate as developed significantly. I still have no problem drinking a Miller Lite, but I have to note that I’m more inclined to drink bottled beer at establishments I don’t know well, or have experienced the effects of dirty taps at. (more…)

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Posted in BJCP, Brewing, Geek-Out | No Comments »

BJCP 9: Taints & Flaws 2 + Belgian Strong Ales

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

We had yet another round with evil Miller Lites this past week. Again, we got to try the horrible flavors that may inhabit your beers that I discussed in my last BJCP post. We finally received our sensory kit from BJCP partner, Siebel Institute. The kit included additional flavors to the previous session’s nastiness; isolations of Acetaldehyde, Almond, Butyric, Mercaptan, etc. Some of the flavors were described as “sewer-like,” “Farm/Barnyard,” “Soapy/Fatty/Goaty,” “Cheesy/Old Hops/Sweaty Socks.” My favorite descriptor is “goaty.” How would you even know what goaty smells or tastes like?

Les lined up all 24 flavors in doctored Miller Lite in a random order numbered from 1 to 24, and it was our job to attach the corresponding number to the flaw on a sheet. I was suffering worse than usual from my normal seasonal allergies, and I only got four right. Pretty bad. I hope when we take the exam in August that I am not suffering similarly.

Next we tasted Belgian Strong Ales, as presented by CSI member Greg Thompson. (more…)

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Posted in BJCP, Geek-Out | 2 Comments »

Beer Apps

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Having the good fortune to be an iPhone owner, I was directed by my BJCP class president to check out the BJCP style guide app. But without a link, I simply searched iTunes for BJCP and not only did the app I was interested in come up, but a couple others appeared too.

The BJCP style guide app is exactly the same as the paper or PDF version available at bjcp.org. It’s searchable, which comes in handy while you’re out and about, trying a beer and doing your best to narrow down what style it might be, or maybe trying to come up with a classic example of a style to compare to the one you’re drinking. Or maybe you’re wondering if you should be tasting butterscotch notes in a Stella? A quick search, and you’ll know for sure.

Yeah, it’s a bit of overkill but if you’re taking the BJCP course, and you own an iPhone it’s free, so why not download it as a study aid? (more…)

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Posted in BJCP, Geek-Out, Measurement | No Comments »

BJCP 8: Flaws & Taints + Strong Ales

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Sunday’s class involved some nastiness. As part of our training, Les doctored a number of Miller Lites with various chemicals and extracts that we then had to taste in order to become familiar with the specific flavors, odors, and mouthfeels associated with them. Les specifically said that this week’s tainted beers were significantly jacked up, mainly so we could become familiar with the flavors, aromas/odors, and moutfeels associated with them. We also tasted some flawed homebrews presented by MALT member Jeff Heneks, and my fellow Wootowner, Dave Bradley.

FOAM member Bill Heverly presented our tasters.

Of course we started with “Guess that beer,” and tried Kona’s Longboard Lager. I guessed lager but didn’t quite get the style. We also tried Wee Beast, which was a Scottish Ale. (more…)

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Posted in BJCP, Brew History, Geek-Out, How do I do that?, Science | 1 Comment »

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