Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

The Topic: The BJCP Exam

Last September I took the BJCP exam again. For those unfamiliar this is the exam that ranks beer judges. I’ve heard the uninitiated joke and make fun, thinking this is something straight out of one of my least favorite movies: “Beerfest.” Oh, I can see the humor; I just think “Beerfest” is one vast dump on a very serious endeavor: filled with cliche’s and misconceptions. One would think from watching “Beerfest” all beer related events are guzzling affairs attended by alcoholic nincompoops.

That’s just the opposite of judging beer. The test itself has a well deserved reputation of being tougher than some engineering exams and those who grade it being exceedingly tough. It’s a well deserved reputation.

The majority of your grade is culled from the written part, a far lesser part is drawn from a blind judging of beer samples. I think this is backwards. A beer judge who doesn’t know the various BJCP beer categories by heart can simply use the guidelines when they judge. They are given a copy. But a judge without keen taste buds is a poor judge indeed.

I’m not arguing in favor of getting rid of the written part. I think any judge needs to know beer basics, although I have ridiculed the concept of making a judge design a recipe for the exam: cold; without knowing the style to begin with, and then punishing them for not getting the specific gravity or IBUs right.

I, personally, don’t see how that proves one is a better judge than one who fails at the task.

I certainly think judges should have some knowledge of defects. But actually being able to find those defects; to have similar abilities to taste them with the best of judges? Crucia. But that’s far less important to your grade than the rest.

When I studied for this year’s exam I spent months polluting beer. I bought cans of corn and used the juice, I used cold sprays, Butter Buds: all to mimic well known defects in beer. I used non-alcoholic beer and IPAs, Imperial Stouts… basically all kinds of beer.

Yes, I did better, though not as well as I had hoped.

Of course I’m not sure how they prepared their samples during the test, except one. The last one was to be judged as a Russian Imperial, but what they did is take an Imperial IPA and Guinness Stout and mix them. According to the judges who judged the beer for the BJCP that we were pitted against they felt it didn’t have enough body for a Russian Imperial. The BJCP, of course, has to trust those who do such mixing and the two judges who were pitted against us.

They were wrong. I know they were. But, I could be wrong: I have been before… once. (Chuckle.)

Now some might say if you mix these two that would have to be the result: less body than a Russian Imperial. But doesn’t that depend upon the mix and how hoppy this Imperial was? Imperials can have loads of body: indeed they tend to to create balance with the hops. A thin Imperial would be a poor Imperial IPA indeed. To me it was almost a perfect clone of Old Rasputin by North Coast with just a few more hops. Old Rasputin is a classic example of the style.

But whether I’m wrong, or right, my point is we should be doing constant taste bud calibrations with judges and judges to be. The few I have been to are far too quick, far too shallow and far too, well,  few. You don;t get much education from providing a sample and then moving one. I recommend picking, oh, say DMS and then doing a session with various styles: progressive from thin to bold all with the same defect. Encourage the judges to do tis on their own. Then repeat with various defects.

This would be true training.

This would create better judges, and separate the “real” judges from the lesser ones.

The BJCP site, last time I went to that page, says exactly that, The BJCP test separates out the “real” judges.

No it doesn’t.

At least not yet.

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Brew Biz: Werts and All, is a column dedicated to review, discuss and comment on all things beer including, but not limited to: marketing, homebrewing and homebrew/beer related events, how society perceives all things beer. Also: reviews of beer related businesses, opinions about trends in the beer business, and all the various homebrew, judging and organizations related to beer. Essentially, all things “beer.”

©Copyright 2010
Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
All Rights Reserved

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge, homebrewer since 1979, and club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

Topic: Moose in Beer?

A fellow brewer and BJCP judge, Tom Gentry, owns a homebrew store in Goodlettsville, TN called Rebel Brewer. He is about as dedicated to the craft as one could be without wearing a backwards jacket and living in a rubber room. I know this because he hasn’t recommended using one of his kids for an adjunct yet. Unless he has a secret Ceylon lab down cellar.

Do he know yet that that he’s actually the one to blame for building the Ceylons? Tom, give me one read eye light move to the right if you do, one to the left if you’re clueless about your guilt in the almost total extinction of the human race in the future.

(Isn’t adding “total” to “extinction” a bit redundant? Yes, ‘a bit redundant?” Indeed, “a bit…” Slap Ceylon “face” and continue with article…)

Anyway, I drove up to Goodlettsville to offer him the second addition of ferm tabs to one of my many experimental beers. I know, BJCP now calls that category “specialty,” and I judge it that way. But frankly, if I were organizing that list it truly would be “experimental,” and not bounced off of that broad based of a term. Otherwise we get beers that match other categories and only qualify for “specialty” because someone threw in a little bit of something like chocolate that doesn’t belong in there, or makes a pale ale with a lager yeast. Now mixing three werts, one ale fermented, one lager and a very small batch with a real funky Belgian yeast? Now that’s “experimental.” “Specialty” just doesn’t cut it.

Well that experimental ale I brought him is called Grapenuts Grog.  I was having a carbonation problem. He pretended he was pissed. “I’ve always wanted to brew a Grapenut beer, and damn you… you beat me.” Well, Tom, just wait until I introduce you to my secret devices in my cellar. Can you say, “Give me another? Another? Another, Mr. Master Over Me Brewer, please?”

I kid. Except for the -based beer. Consider       Tom and then think about it Tom. The Brew Gods are waiting.

Naw, I’m joking about that too.

Tom has dreams of a Captain Crunch beer. Not me. I already know I’m not fond of corn taste in beer, which is why a lot of the big brewer beers like Miller stay as far away from me as possible. I do go for their homebrew-based brethren though in competition, only because that’s judging beer: something I love to do. But I have had many weird beers including several versions of rhubarb ale and several editions of Maplead… not honey-based: no honey at all, but maple syrup. I rarely brew the first now because judges seem unable to discern rhubarb from DMS. And I don’t make Maplead anymore because no matter what I do, what I add, how much I carmelize, no judge: including myself, can distinquish it from mead. Why spend sometimes more than three times the cost for good maple syrup when you can do it with honey? And why do it when no matter how well you describe your entry even highly ranked judges still write on the form for my entry something like what one Master wrote, “Try a better grade of honey for this mead,” when I clearly marked everything in huge capital letters, “THIS HAS NO HONEY IN IT. IT’S MAPLE SYRUP-BASED.”

I know. The judge probably never even saw that when the forms were printed out. But after this happened over and over, all I can say is… well, unprintable.

I’ve also just brewed a Shredded Wheat Bran Brown. Promising.

While these are just a few of the weird beers I have brewed, I do respect the ability to fit into a narrow category, yet brew a distinct, unique beer. The problem is I really have no interest in doing it myself. There are already many incredible versions of these beers. Plus, my favorite way to brew is minus borders: up until recently I had dropped measuring specific gravity. I know: sacrilege. But it was actually working quite well. Plus I got tired of buying hydrometers and coming back to use them only to find them broken: unused. Now I have a really nice refractometer; so nice I feel like I’m cheating on my beer or something.

I feel no desire to tweak some recipe to fit someone else’s idea of what makes a “perfect version of a…” If I were an astronaut I’d rather go deep into outer space and discover new planets than go into orbit after the trillionth orbit by other astronauts and have to copy what parts of their efforts NASA considers “perfect form.” I’ve heard all the arguments that usually start with “you have to learn to go by the rules before you break them” and I have yet to meet a brewer that spent a lot of time brewing by strict guidelines then made excellent exotics. The best brewers I’ve met love making both. I just wish I did too. I envy them.

Am I that crazy and out of the box? Maybe not. But I think it’s obvious I have tried.

Many judges hate doing the specialty table. I admit: I rarely am placed there for two reasons: the obvious…. I’ve often entered in a category which disqualifies me, and because I always tell them: wherever you need judges the most. But because of that that qualifier, when I judge somewhere other than my own Nashville competition, I do wind up on the specialty table from time to time, and while I enjoy it… it’s tough. So undefined. You must have a base beer the judge can bounce off of, which I actually think is a tad unfair. The idea, I would think to a certain extent, is to create new categories to a certain extent. Yet I understand; probably more than any non-judge, you have to give a judge some handle to grab a hold of, some borders. Otherwise it would be like telling a judge in a criminal trial that there is no such thing as “illegal” or “legal.” It’s all a matter of opinion. How fair would that be?

I know far too many who would rather our justice system be more like that. Of course I think they’d change their minds fast if they were the defendant. And those who enter their beer in competition might feel the same way when they get forms back that are even less based on some standard because the judges had no guidelines whatsoever.

I enjoy the specialty table, although I use my dump bucket more there than on any other table… except maybe Belgian. I love Belgian beer too, but it’s all too easy to go from “oh boy, funk” into, “ewe, funky.” And its far too easy to get into, “OK, that’s enough of that,” taste bud sense.

I have had a few meat-based specialty beers: not my favorite, although oyster stout with plenty of smoked oysters can be interesting, or smoked salmon. It is a little too easy, as I wrote on one form, to paraphrase, for “the fish to swim away with the recipe.” So if someone wants to brew with their fresh kill, a Maine moose, hey I’m all for taking a sip… but maybe just a sip. Personally I would smoke it or use unique spices. On its own I’m not sure moose would make that much a difference until it did… and then you would rather have had the moose simply walked away from the recipe: or hunted the hunter. And since moose don’t brew as far as we know, we’re probably safe from the other specialty that would arrive in our brew glasses from that hunt.

A glass of Britney Spears Stout, anyone?

I understand those who refuse to go this far off the mash “beaten” path. They can be excellent brewers, the discipline can help and it absolutely is to be admired. If I wasn’t so dedicated to brewing by the seat of my pants I would say to myself, “Why not do both?” Of course I have yet to brew Fruit of the Loom Lager, or Hanes Hefeweizen. No plans yet. I’ll keep you posted if I ever do. But if it were high alcohol, would I call it, “Da Underwear Bomb… er?”

I have said too many times to myself when shaking my head at some brewers arguing about who has the best equipment or getting all anal about their beer, “It’s a friggin hobby, folks, a hobby. It’s supposed to be fun.” I suppose “fun” is a matter of personal definition. And as long as you don’t insist everyone be like you, or that all the beer I brew must fit perfectly “in category,” I won’t insist everyone toss out most standards.

We do need both.

Really.

We do.

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Brew Biz: Werts and All, is a column dedicated to review, discuss and comment on all things beer including, but not limited to: marketing, homebrewing and homebrew/beer related events, how society perceives all things beer. Also: reviews of beer related businesses, opinions about trends in the beer business, and all the various homebrew, judging and organizations related to beer. Essentially, all things “beer.”

©Copyright 2010
Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
All Rights Reserved

Written by Ken Carman

I met Tom Vista: aka, Hop God, aka Hop Tyrant, a year or two after I joined Music City Brewers, if I remember right. A bit tall, crew cut, slightly large ears and probably the only voice that can compete and win over my admittedly loud stage voice. I met Tom Vista shortly after we joined Music City Brewers. Back then Hop God wasn’t quite a deity yet. Maybe a semi deity. I suppose he didn’t have enough “minions” yet to worship his deity-ness, lick his deity toes, kiss his…

Should I stop there? I suppose I should.

But Tom is so much more than Hop God, but let’s cover our deity bases first.

So my readers may ask, “Hop God has ‘minions?’” After Hop God declared February 28th National Hop Day, which oddly coincides with the what some claim is his birthday. (Aren’t gods eternal?) He has also declared…

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

The Topic: Genetically Modified Yeast

“Maybe they shouldn’t have modified it that much?”

I admit: I may need some help regarding this from wiser brewers and judges. Genetic manipulation alone has never been my strong suite. Hey, I graduated college in 1976, and my major certainly wasn’t Science. As a judge, brewer and beer lover I’m always eager to learn more.

My cousin sent me a link to an anti-Monsanto blog that claimed beer yeast was genetically modified. I was immediately suspicious and not because of the Monsanto connection. To say that Monsanto has some rather controversial business practices is like saying, “We breath air.” A generalization and understatement? Duh.

But I’m also not adverse to all genetic manipulation. Intentional, or not, we have been manipulating for centuries at some level: slicing different strains of plants together, morphing Scottish highland dogs into rough collies, growing a whole ecosystem for Avatar. Wait. Please don’t tell me that last one was special effect movie magic. It was? Oh, now I’ll have to go to one of those support groups that help out those who are disappointed there is no Pandora like in Avatar. Sniff. Sniff.

No, I’m not kidding about there being an Avatar support group.

Now, what was I writing about? Oh, beer, that’s right!

Written by Patrick Dever for the Auburn Plainsman

Alabama’s alcohol laws are changing again.

Legislation was approved in the Alabama Senate legalizing home brewing of beer, wine and mead.

Republican Sen. Larry Dixon of Montgomery sponsored the bill, even though he said he was not a home brewer.

“There are home-brewing clubs around the state,” Dixon said. “It’s their hobby. They don’t have a legal way to get their product to their tastings and their shows where they judge the best beer.”

Dixon said home-brewing clubs brought this issue to his attention.

Want to read more? Click…

HERE

Brian H. Gill for Catholic Citizen America

The image of Jesus Christ, holding a beer can and a cigarette, reminds me of the weird but (I trust) well-intentioned efforts in the sixties to make Christianity like, you know, relevant.

It’s not. The image is in a handwriting workbook published in India.

The company that made and distributed that book made a really, really big mistake. India is one of those countries where deliberately offending someone’s religious sentiments is illegal.

Which may or may not be a good idea.

Anyway, here’s an excerpt from the news:

“Christians in India’s northeast are outraged after a picture showing Jesus Christ holding a beer can and a cigarette was discovered in primary school textbooks.

“The image appeared in a handwriting book for children in church-run schools in the Christian-majority state of Meghalaya, where it was used to illustrate the letter ‘I’ for the word ‘Idol’….

“…Police said they were hunting for the owner of the New Delhi-based publisher, Skyline Publications, who faces charges of offending religious sentiment, local police superintendent A.R. Mawthoh told AFP.

“The Roman Catholic Church in India has banned all textbooks by Skyline, while Protestant leaders called for a public apology.

“The state government also denounced the publication.

” ‘We strongly condemn such a blasphemous act. Legal action has been initiated against the publisher,’ M. Ampareen Lyngdoh, an education minister in the Meghalaya government, said….”

(myFOX New York) [emphasis mine]

The rest can be found HERE. Do be aware, while part of the article is about beer, it is written from a Catholic perspective and also deals with Catholic topics as well as beer.

Greg,
I have a few items that may be of interest to the club. One is that next month we will have a pre-order sign up for a 50 lb bag of Briess two row during march. pick up is from April 1-15 and the cost is only $39 a bag. If you don’t order ahead the price for a bag is still discounted at $49 a bag for April.

Second is that we are again hosting a Big Brew Day event. We will provide all the ingredients to make the AHA’s recipe for Scottish ale for those who come and brew with us at the store. We will also have our grill there and cook up a bacon explosion and any other grillable foods that anyone wants to bring.

Roger

Hi all, again.

Just a quick reminder that we will be judging ONLY categories 9-D and 13 (all) tonight, but feel free to bring whatever you like to share.

Sadly, the cider competition at Goold’s Orchard for this weekend has been cancelled.  Reed tells me they are trying to reschedule, and I will let you know when I know.

Reed Antis of the Saratoga Zymurgist is putting together an e-mail list for the homebrew store that will include special offers and other news of interest to club members.  If you wish to be added to his list, drop him a note at:  oosb@verizon.net  or give him your contact info tonight.

Roger Savoy is doing a Big Brew Day event at Hennessey Homebrew Emporium in East Greenbush, and also has a deal on bulk grain for club members.  See the info below…I was told by many participants that it was a good time last year.  He provides all the ingredients, you just bring your brew equipment and make beer!

Finally, we are looking to expand our number of volunteers for this year’s Knickerbocker Battle of the Brews in November at the Albany Pump Station.  There is an organizational meeting this Tuesday, March 9th at 7pm at OSB.  We are looking for a few assistant/trainee types, to take over various jobs in the future, and to assist those and learn the ropes from those of us in those positions.  We are also looking for an activities coordinator for the southern area (Saratoga and south).  This person will coordinate between the club and brewers  to arrange for club brew days, club dinners, and other beer-related events.  See me tonight, or reply to this if interested in volunteering.

See you tonight,

Greg

Saratoga Thoroughbrews.org