Last year I took the BJCP beer exam for the first time. The test is pretty detailed and takes more effort than one might expect. First, the questions are fairly detailed essay questions. There are only nine of them, but each requires quite detailed responses. Since the test is only 3 hours long that breaks down to something like 15 minutes for each question (there is a multiple choice section too).
If that were not enough, during the exam they bring you four beers to evaluate, these responses are also evaluated. While you are tasting the beers, a National level judge is in the next room doing the same thing. Your evaluation is then checked against thiers to determine your grade on that part.
When I took the exam, I did not score as well as I wanted too. My combined score was in the mid 60's. The tasting score was higher, but the written portion is waited as 70% of the score. True to form for me, most of the information gelled in my head about two months after the exam was over.
This comming April I plan on taking the exam again and this time I have a stategy. There were many things I spent time studying last time that I am going to blow off this time around. For example last time I tried to memorize the stats for every subcatagory of beer. Turns out there is a distinct list of beers that are part of the exam pool, so this time I will focus on those beers. Also there are several "compare and contrast" questions in the pool. This time I plan to have a list of three beers memorized for each of these questions. Then I will only have to write what I know rather than trying to think of three beers each time.
The other major thing that I am going to do is blow off the tasting portion of the exam. I have a decent enough score on that part and it will not do much to pull up my exam even if I score perfectly on it. When they calculate your current score they take the HIGHEST score from each section and use it. So if I get a score in the mid 80's, I can get my score up quite a bit.
The other nice thing is that if I should get a great written score, but not quite enough to get what I want for a score, I can then take the tasting portion without worrying about the writting. Thus I can work on one section at a time until I get them where I want.
The only fly in ointment here is that I am going to be taking the BJCP mead exam in March so I will have to devote some time to that as well. But I am a fairly decent mead maker and that exam is pass/fail at 60% with no tasting portion.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
I'm Not Dead!
Wow it has been a while. Part of it was being broke, I did not have much in the way of exploration to be sharing, then I got a job and things got busy. So my early New Year's Goal is to actually update this thing once a week or so.
Today I am going to talk about Anchor's Christmas Ale 2010. This one actually snuck up on me. I was sort of keeping an eye out for it, and lucked into the last six pack that Full Throttle Bottles had. I wanted to get a couple of them for a project that I am launching, but I had to settle for what I could get. The project is to keep an inventory of the Christmas Ale from year to year, allowing it to age and do vertical tastings each year.
I got this idea from my friend Marc Gaspar. He was an incredible brewer and a very kind mentor. When I first started going to meetings at Kansas City Bier Meisters homebrew club, Marc would always be willing to taste my beer with me. He would then give pointers as to what we were tasting. What the problems were, and offered suggestions on how to fix them. He made me a much better brewer and never made me feel bad about my early efforts.
In any event, when they cleaned out Marc's beer cellar they brought it down to the memorial we held for him. In among the bottles of homebrew there were several years worth of Anchor Christmas Ale. This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, Anchor changes the spices they add to the beer each year. They don't go over the top, just enough to give it a unique character from year to year. Second, being a dark beer it does age quite nicely. Marc inspired me to begin my own project this year. I only have one six pack at the moment, and I drank one of those as we will see below. I want to get my hands on at least one more six pack to age around 10 for the base of the project.
Here are my tasting notes from bottle I drank tonight.
Aroma: Dark roasted malt, low hop aroma, caramel notes and faint spice.
Appearance: Dark brown with ruby highlights, tan head with medium persistance and a fine texture.
Flavor: Bitter roasted malt. Notes of orange, chocolate malt. Light hop flavor, variety does not show. Warming alcohol, Clove? Grains of Paradise? Aftertaste fades from lingering bitterness into coffee flavors. As it warms it presents more malt sweetness, some sour twang, and faint anise flavors.
Mouthfeel: Medium carbonation, light body with some astringincy.
Over All Impression: Unlike many winter warmer and Christmas beers, Anchor's Christmas Ale is a standard 5.5% ABV. This helps to keep it from being too filling to drink more than one at a time, and may make it harder to age. The tannins should help this beer age gracefully, much like they do in big red wines. It will be interesting to see how this beer compares back to these notes over the next few years.
On a more personal note, I am now employeed so I hope to be able to get out and expereince what Seattle has to offer in the future. I have attened many things I should have shared with you, such as the Cider Festival and the Winter Beer Festival, but life was sort of crazy at the time. I said early my New Year's Goal was to update this more often. Note I did not say Resolution, the only one of those I ever kept was to quit making them. Now I set goals for the year to come. Sometimes I do alright, sometimes I suck.
Today I am going to talk about Anchor's Christmas Ale 2010. This one actually snuck up on me. I was sort of keeping an eye out for it, and lucked into the last six pack that Full Throttle Bottles had. I wanted to get a couple of them for a project that I am launching, but I had to settle for what I could get. The project is to keep an inventory of the Christmas Ale from year to year, allowing it to age and do vertical tastings each year.
I got this idea from my friend Marc Gaspar. He was an incredible brewer and a very kind mentor. When I first started going to meetings at Kansas City Bier Meisters homebrew club, Marc would always be willing to taste my beer with me. He would then give pointers as to what we were tasting. What the problems were, and offered suggestions on how to fix them. He made me a much better brewer and never made me feel bad about my early efforts.
In any event, when they cleaned out Marc's beer cellar they brought it down to the memorial we held for him. In among the bottles of homebrew there were several years worth of Anchor Christmas Ale. This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, Anchor changes the spices they add to the beer each year. They don't go over the top, just enough to give it a unique character from year to year. Second, being a dark beer it does age quite nicely. Marc inspired me to begin my own project this year. I only have one six pack at the moment, and I drank one of those as we will see below. I want to get my hands on at least one more six pack to age around 10 for the base of the project.
Here are my tasting notes from bottle I drank tonight.
Aroma: Dark roasted malt, low hop aroma, caramel notes and faint spice.
Appearance: Dark brown with ruby highlights, tan head with medium persistance and a fine texture.
Flavor: Bitter roasted malt. Notes of orange, chocolate malt. Light hop flavor, variety does not show. Warming alcohol, Clove? Grains of Paradise? Aftertaste fades from lingering bitterness into coffee flavors. As it warms it presents more malt sweetness, some sour twang, and faint anise flavors.
Mouthfeel: Medium carbonation, light body with some astringincy.
Over All Impression: Unlike many winter warmer and Christmas beers, Anchor's Christmas Ale is a standard 5.5% ABV. This helps to keep it from being too filling to drink more than one at a time, and may make it harder to age. The tannins should help this beer age gracefully, much like they do in big red wines. It will be interesting to see how this beer compares back to these notes over the next few years.
On a more personal note, I am now employeed so I hope to be able to get out and expereince what Seattle has to offer in the future. I have attened many things I should have shared with you, such as the Cider Festival and the Winter Beer Festival, but life was sort of crazy at the time. I said early my New Year's Goal was to update this more often. Note I did not say Resolution, the only one of those I ever kept was to quit making them. Now I set goals for the year to come. Sometimes I do alright, sometimes I suck.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)