This education page is centered around the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) exam. Those not familiar with the BJCP are encouraged to go to http://www.bjcp.org and thoroughly review the information available on the site. Even if you don’t plan on taking the exam, this site has useful information.

“The purpose of the BJCP is to promote beer literacy, the appreciation of real beer and to recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills. The BJCP certifies and ranks beer judges through an examination and monitoring process.” – BJCP website

CBM (Carolina BrewMaster) members interested in becoming a beer judge will note through reading the BJCP website that it entails quite a bit of reading and judging beer to garnish the knowledge needed to pass the exam. Most of your education will come from the recommended reading list. You can see on the site that 70% of your exam score is based on essay questions and only you, taking the time to read through these books, are going to determine how well you do on this portion of the exam.

The other 30% of you score is based on judging four beers. These could be given to you in any combination: as straight commercial examples, homebrews, a mixture or could even be doctored to mimic flaws which you have to identify. We will try to have styles appropriate to the study session for tasting.

The ultimate goal of this study group is to prepare for the BJCP Exam and become a Beer Judge. This requires an understanding of the palette and sensory training in order to accurately identify attributes and characteristics of the beer. In addition we attempt to determine the cause and solutions of specific flaws that may occur in beer, both commercial and homebrewed. Repetition is a key part of learning and contributes towards building trustworthy. The Exam is difficult, but with practice, we can achieve a worthy mark.

Judging beer at competitions is more than saying “yuck” or “this just doesn’t taste good”. You have to know each style (sometimes you can’t pick the style you will be judging at a competition so you need to be familiar with them all), the history behind the style, ingredients used and gravities in order to give the entry a fair score. Was it too hoppy or too malty? Or not enough of either? Was it sweet or dry? Were the grains and hops used conducive to the style? Did the yeast do it’s job? Was it attenuative enough? You need to have a firm grasp of troubleshooting the beers. Is it old? Skunky? Does it have a bacterial infection? If so, what was it caused by and what do you do to correct it? Positive feedback by you (as a beer judge) is written on the scoresheet and used by the brewer to make improvements on their next batch.

The '06 exam study group click here for the syllabus.

The books listed in the Study section of the BJCP website (and here) are highly recommended. Your reading this material is paramount to passing the exam. There is no way to relay all the information provided in those books at a study session. There is simply too much material.

Click here for websites to help with studying