2015 BJCP Exam

[Leann ull]

The very best of luck to those BJCP candidates sitting their exam this morning for the first time and also those having another go to improve their previous grading.
They are a dedicated lot to drink beer at 10 in the morning, and are doing it to help the NHC raise the standard of judging in this country.
I am certain we have the highest number of Judges outside the US per capita which for an amateur organisation is some achievement, we should be rightly proud of these boys and girls.
Thanks to the organisers without whose dedication it would never happen in the first place.

[delzep]

Roughly how many qualified judges will be in Ireland assuming everyone doing the exam today passes?

[Leann ull]

I'll let the organisers answer that one, but I believe it's nearly 30 now.
I saw a list of "IE" judges on the BJCP last time I filled in competition form.

[molc]

God some of the poison we had today at the exam. There was a Weiss and a dark mild that could turn stomachs.

Great effort from all the organisers and it went very smoothly. Now begins the wait for our results, but we'll certainly have a good few extra judges comes the nationals.

Now I need a nap. Fecking knackered!

[johnrm]

Lads, good show today.
Try and score the odd beer at home when you get an opportunity, or better still, get some of your beer buddies around and do it with them.
You will need BJCP points next, so jump in and do some judging in competition straight away - if you can make it get in touch with the Belfast lads.

[Shanna]

God some of the poison we had today at the exam. There was a Weiss and a dark mild that could turn stomachs.

Great effort from all the organisers and it went very smoothly. Now begins the wait for our results, but we'll certainly have a good few extra judges comes the nationals.

Now I need a nap. Fecking knackered!

Apologies to the taste buds of all concerned, as I suspect it was my Weiss I knew it had a lactic infection of some type probably from an infected starter.

Shanna

[molc]

God some of the poison we had today at the exam. There was a Weiss and a dark mild that could turn stomachs.

Great effort from all the organisers and it went very smoothly. Now begins the wait for our results, but we'll certainly have a good few extra judges comes the nationals.

Now I need a nap. Fecking knackered!

Apologies to the taste buds of all concerned, as I suspect it was my Weiss I knew it had a lactic infection of some type probably from an infected starter.

Shanna

We learn very little from the good beers so it was great to have it in the mix. I brought one or two along to the practice sessions that had some real issues as well. Also way easier to comment on an obvious off flavour.

Thanks to anyone that gave beer for the exam and hopefully we can return the favour with some decent judging in the future.
Now to go rest my poor liver. Haven't drank this much in a week since college

[Will_D]

+1 on the idea thay you will get a better sheet for a poor beer than a great one.

However amazed that the Irish red only scored 24! That's saying that O'Haras Red is only "Good" [Good is 212 - 29]!

Gordon scored one he considered stale as a 44!

And he scored their stout at 47! Proctors gave it 32!

Ah well time will tell.

Last time the results took about 6.5 months to arrive. So be patient, judge lots of comps to get those judging points racked up.

Who will become Irelands first National judge?

[SlugTrap]

... a dark mild that could turn stomachs.

I'll gladly take the blame for that one.

This was the Mangrove Jack's yeast that was so slow to kick off.
That + all the solvents you tasted, to me, point to underpitching.
But I'd love to hear from anyone who knows better.

[molc]

... a dark mild that could turn stomachs.

I'll gladly take the blame for that one.

This was the Mangrove Jack's yeast that was so slow to kick off.
That + all the solvents you tasted, to me, point to underpitching.
But I'd love to hear from anyone who knows better.

Yeah totally stressed yeast and also check out the fermentation temperature to make sure it wasn't high. Id say both contributed, as the solvents were very strong.
I got some acetone in there, along with burnt rubber and plastics, so the yeast must have been worked really hard and underpitched for it to happen.
Check out the yeast calculators online as well. They give great guidelines on how much to pitch and really make a big difference.

One other thing I noted on my sheet was it was quiet cloudy, so looks like a lot of suspended yeast as well. If you can do a cold crash, it will really brighten your beers up.

Thanks again for the samples, was a great one for the exam and a strong off flavour made it a lot easier to give feedback.

[Jonnycheech]

I found that Dark Mild to be very Phenolic, it tasted like I was sucking on a bottle of TCP! This usually points to an infection I thought, which explains the cloudiness, chlorophenols in the water supply or improper rinsing of a sanitiser that contains chlorine.

It was a great beer for the exam though, cheers!

However amazed that the Irish red only scored 24! That's saying that O'Haras Red is only "Good" [Good is 212 - 29]!

Gordon scored one he considered stale as a 44!

And he scored their stout at 47! Proctors gave it 32!

That's very interesting regarding Mr Strong's scoring of those beers. Any chance of the proctors score being changed with this in mind? Also I presume everybody taking the exam scored those beers fairly high so the overall consensus should be much higher than their scores.

[DoubleG]

I found the problem with the Irish Stout and Irish Red is that because we had done them the week before and had print outs of the score sheet by Gordon Strong that I had that in the back of my mind. I was never going to score it low knowing he had scored it so highly. I thought there was a lot more freedom in the other beers especially with the off flavours as you could properly assess them on the day. To be fair in a homebrew competition you are more likely to get some of those off flavour beers than a near perfect O'Haras type stout or red ale.

[molc]

Regardless, it's just a snapshot in time. For me, the real strength in this whole experience has been improving our tasting and scoresheet abilities. The club should have another ~20 additional judges that are capable of judging to a high competition standard. Hopefully if the exam continues to be an annual thing, we can continue to improve our marks through experience over time.

That said, really hope to pass now!