I am taking the BJCP tasting exam this weekend. Based on the advice here and elsewhere, I need a good vocabulary of adjectives, "flowery words (Dave!), grandiose language, etc to put on my scoresheets. I also need to list out some suggestions that I can use.
Does anyone care to share some words for each judging section?
Thanks!
Dan
grandiose words don’t, in my humble opinion, a helpful or valuable scoresheet. I would suggest using straight language to write what you taste/smell. Just my opinion as a multicomp entrant, award-winner, and bjcp judge. If I detect something in a beer and a fancypants word immediately leaps out at me I’ll write it, but otherwise I want to spend more time sensing the beer, not searching for words.
Wine judges say “boxwood” where beer judges say “cat piss”. Point goes to the beer judges on that one, IMHO.
That said, http://www.beerflavorwheel.com/
Good luck on your exam. Don’t do stupid stuff like I did. The question was for a 5 gallon batch of pilsener, but I always brew 10 gallons so I wrote down that recipe which would make 5 gallons of hoppy Mai Bock. I did score well on the test, but would have done much better without simple mistakes like this.
I agree with beermebeavis. Just write what you taste in a way that is helpful for the brewer to duplicate good flavors in the future or eliminate flaws. It does not have to be fancy. It does need to be thorough. Everyone hates getting back score sheets with one word descriptions in the scoring sections. Use at least a couple of sentences to describe what you are tasting/smelling.
Thanks SA. Another point for a new judge that is just as or even more important: Write legibly. Honestly people! More than half the sheets I get back are illegible or partly illegible. No matter what valuable info the judge detected and suggestions he makes are worthless if the brewer can’t read his writing.
I second the advice of using your own vocabulary, but it doesn’t hurt to check that other understand what you mean. When prepping for the exam, I did a lot of tasting and judging with other folks to calibrate myself in a sense- both finding what my palate is good at detecting and how to best describe the flavors, aromas, and mouthfeel. The style guide has a lot of words in the descriptors which you should at least understand their meaning if not adopt those words for your own descriptions.
Get ahold of Michael Jackson’s “New World Guide to Beer”. Read his beer reviews. It’s a PhD level crash course in how to describe beer.
Thanks everyone. I will never forget when a local beer legend and BJCP master judge described the aroma of my American wheat with chamomile as “having a beautiful aroma reminiscent of a fine French brothel.”
Last night my wife and I judged a bottle of Wheinstephaner Vitus. It completely threw me through a loop it is a masterful beer worthy of a 40+ score, but a gave it a 26 as it was no where close to style for a weizenbock. I think in the end it was a 26 for being an overcharged, imperial strength hefeweizen.
who was that?!
To: Dozens of BJCP judges;
PLEASE,PLEASE, please. Please print. Your cursive is beyond legible. In fact it is downright deplorable. Print please. The long scribbled lines remain a mystery for now but hopefully can be deciphered at a later date.
Better Yet. Can’t these judges just type then the score sheets prints out. If not then they need to practice writing instead of typing all the time.
Wally - I have a theory: when they get awarded their judgeship, they immediately get a blown up ego along with it, causing them to think they are in fact, a real “judge;” hence, they must write like a highbrow doctor, judge, etc, because they write sloppily. The sloppy writing shows how smart and sophisticated they are. If you are half as sophisticated, you should easily be able to decipher their scratchings. Science according to Beavis
Just a question concerning the pace of scoring/judging–how much time can a reviewer spend tasting, scoring, and commenting on each beer?
The reason I ask is that my handwriting is fine if I take it slow, but atrocious if I have a lot to write in a short window. When taking notes just for myself I find that if I try to write down a lot of detail much of it will be illegible, so I kinda force myself to edit in real time.
[quote=“rustyhoover”]Just a question concerning the pace of scoring/judging–how much time can a reviewer spend tasting, scoring, and commenting on each beer?
The reason I ask is that my handwriting is fine if I take it slow, but atrocious if I have a lot to write in a short window. When taking notes just for myself I find that if I try to write down a lot of detail much of it will be illegible, so I kinda force myself to edit in real time.[/quote]
At NHC final round, we shoot for a beer every 7 minutes. At most comps, you definitely need to keep it less than 15 min. or you’ll never get through the flights.
