Though I'm not certified, I've done a little beer judging. Come to think of it, I'm not certified to do anything. Not even my job. Though people have said to me in the past "You should be certified." I think they were trying to compliment me on the depth of my knowledge. Currently I'm busy tasting beers for the "Beers Of the World" competition.I did it last year, too. Due to the incompetence of the parcel service, who kept breaking stuff, most of the packages of beer had to be sent to me twice. Very frustrating. This year things have gone much more smoothly. Everything arrived intact first time. As you can see from the photo, they had perfect packaging this time around.
Very conveniently for me, they use a 100-point scale. So do I. My usual scoring system can be applied. That's one less thing to worry about.
Taking the BJCP exam would be fun. I wonder what my score would be? That would probably depend on whether I tried to answer the questions truthfully or not. To pass I'd need to learn the right answers. On second thoughts, that might be just too confusing.
Posts
7 comments:
Is it right to 'judge' a beer. A thing of beauty, where time, place and personal circumstance interact with serving method, temperature, history and environmental factors. Subjective it ain't, and yet truly objective neither.
Or you could say "yup, it's clear, yup it smells of beer/hops, yup it tastes of beer/malt/hops". Waste of time judging beer; just let the experience wash over you man......
Judgmental wankers.
Funny you should mention BOTW. Just last week was the first time I saw this magazine in the US. I do have to say that I thought it was quite well done and very pretty to boot. :)
I agree with all the things fatman said about judging. That being said, anyone that enters a competition of any kind should understand those things also. You try to put your best people forward to do the best jobs they can. That being said, some people have agendas which is why you see a lot of the same beers win when similar panels judge them. It seems to be the case for the GBBF (goes in cycles doesn't it) and it definitely is for most of the US stuff. Im not sure on the GBBF stuff at all but when I look at the results and the beers/recipes don't change but the panels do its very interesting stuff.
Why am I trying to identify the beers in the box?
Is that a Wychwood bottle I see?
fatman, I sort of agree with you. But when someone offers to send you 55 bottles of beer to drink for nothing, you may well notice a positive aspect, as did I.
Andy Holnes, yes that is a bottle of Wychwood. Or rather it was, as it's now empty.
Also it's (or was) Hobgoblin of course? I've got a bottle of Black Witch at home that I must try.
Andy Holnes, yes it was Hobgoblin. I daren't say more. Oath of secrecy and all that. Check the results when they come out.
If someone sent me a bottle of Hobgoblin I'd send it back to them with a note suggesting that they should stick it up their arse sideways for daring to post such absolute dross to my house.
It's total shite - as is the entire Wychwood (sorry, Marstons) range.
Post a Comment