WelcomeWelcome to the Beer Judge School website. We have put together all the information you need to pass the BJCP exam and become a better beer judge. On this site you will find video lessons, preparatory materials, and contact information for getting in touch with an experienced judge to mentor you through the process. Check out the links to the left to each of the lessons.
About Beer Judge School
The Beer Judge School series teaches you what you need to know to pass the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) exam and become a better beer judge. Ultimately, all the material serves to support the goals of the Beer Judge Certification Program: “to promote beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer, and to recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills.”
Grand Master Judge David Teckam has been delivering local courses for years training cerevisaphiles to become better judges and to pass the BJCP exam. Realizing that there was a huge demand for structured course material beyond his local area and that many candidates wanted to work at their own pace and schedule, David got together with other dedicated beer judges to put together this video series. Do not be mistaken, this is not a high dollar production in a fancy studio in Hollywood. Rather, this is the best approximation of attending weeks of hand crafted lessons from someone passionate about beer judging and teaching others.
Beer Judge School Blog
Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:47:03 GMT
Jan 09, 2010 12:53PM
Jan 09, 2010 10:32AM
Beer Characteristic Flash Cards
We've revised the beer characteristic flash cards so you can use them to help study for the beer characteristic question on the exam. You can find it on the "Additional Resources" page of the site or download it here. We hope it helps you prepare for an area of the exam that many students find challenging.
Sep 12, 2009 07:06PM
With the start of my last preparatory course for a while, I will be making a switch to online teaching, maybe for a couple of years. This is meant to help those who are beyond the range of classes that might be offered by a homebrew club. Some people will travel a hundred miles or so for an exam, but that is usually not reasonable for proper exam preparation. Once the syllabus on this site is updated, the details for my online course will be more clear. This will be in Need Help.
There is no enrollment time. It will be a matter of potential examinees finding an exam and giving the contact person (go to Need Help to see the list of scheduled exams), and themselves, proper notice. All one would need to do is to allow themselves about three months for studying with me, and to have the commitment to do this.
I will be teaching my current group of students through mid-November. After that, I will be ready to take on more students. I am careful not to overwhelm myself, and I have a track record for exam success. Some students I did not meet until exam day, but they all passed. You can contact me for more information if you are interested.
Jun 30, 2009 09:11AM
With the AHA Conference in Oakland over, that also means our most recent Beer Judging 101/201 Seminar is history. This also sold out and was very warmly received. Brian Cooper told me that attendees raved to him when they saw him during the conference. The AHA Conference brought in people from the East Coast and many signed up for both portions.
We are considering our next 101/201 Seminar for Stockton CA for the first Saturday in December. Nothing in stone yet; just planning ahead. We are also working on a concept for a 301 class that will go into more depth and will be geared towards the BJCP judge. This will be a requirement for the class.
I?ll have a list of beers we sampled for the June 16th seminar very soon.
David
Jun 22, 2009 08:35AM
Sam Adams Longshot, AHA nationals, and Amador County Fair
While the Sam Adams Longshot competition is long done with (at least our part of choosing a beer to be considered by the company for release), it is still a fine memory as this is a premier event for the beer judge. Much thanks to Boston Beer Company for treating the judges so well. A hotel room and meals paid for is a great way of taking care of the judges. I thought I would be reporting on how a different score sheet was used,but the standard BJCP score sheet for maximum brewer feedback was used.The Grand Prize I spoke of in the last posting will be $5000 and Boston Beer Company will make your beer for their Longshot pack due out next year, if I am correct. Of course, that is up to them, and their company chooses the final winners. There are other judgings for this competition in other areas of the country.
The AHA conference now being over with, gives me a good reason to post some more information on judging events. This might be the Super Bowl of competitions (despite no Grand Prize like the Longshot competition),but the quality of this national (or is it world-wide) event is probably second to none. The beers I judged were high-quality and the ciders for Best Of Show were excellent. This competition did uses the score sheets I was expecting for the Longshot. They were along the lines of check boxes, making the judging more efficient, or at least more brief. The point is that there are more than one type of score sheet that can be used in a competition.
Next up for me is the Amador County Fair. No complaints on the quality of entries here which is always nice for the judge, but the quality of judging remains a high-point for competitions I am involved in. This makes it easy to advertise this event for the brewer who would like feedback on his or her beer, mead, or cider. There is also a commercial competition that takes place at the same time, in the same room. And this is the rare commercial competition that gets feedback for the professional brewer, and utilizes yet another type of score sheet. For more information go to www.brewangels.com or e-mail me at dteckam@beerjudgeschool.com
Hope to see you there on July 11th.
David