Congrats! Any insight on the exam and courses? Challenges? Awesome beers?
Gordon Straw signed my certificate - that means we're bros now
I wrote up my thoughts on it in a blot post here http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/The-Blog.html
Don't make me do it!
Who's Gordon Straw?
uhoh, Pappers. both the Weirdo and I are "higher" ranked than you.
Good thing you have some comps coming up so you can pass us!
Outstanding job! Congratulations. I've got my exam on Saturday. Any pointers for me or just a general what to expect? Thanks.
Yes I bow before your superiority!
Congrats! How long did it take you to get certified?
Actually, even though I'm teasing Pappers (a lot) about this- he was extremely helpful to me in getting ready for the test.
I don't have a homebrew club and I live in the middle of nowhere, so I was prepping totally on my own. Pappers' advice helped me quite a bit with getting ready for the tasting portion. He tested about 6 weeks before me, but we got our results on the same day so our exams were scored at the same time.
His advice is helpful and I really appreciated it. It's probably more helpful to take a class or two through your homebrew club than attempting what I did and doing it alone- but my certificate is proof that you can do it on your own as well.
The tasting exam isn't hard at all- IF you know your beerstyles. In a real competition, it's much easier as you can have a copy of the guidelines in front of you as you score. During the test, you really have to exhibit that you know the guidelines for each style. You can't really say "too much" at all- but you can say too little.
A rule of thumb that Al Boyce told me is to give one piece of corrective advice for every 10 points under the score you give. That means, say, for a 30 point beer, you give two very good points of advice. Not "watch sanitation", which is easy to say. But to say, "The staleness could be signs of oxidation- make sure that transfers are done without splashing to avoid oxygenation" if you gig the beer for oxidation. If the beer is infected, talk about sanitation and how to avoid infection, not just "watch sanitation".
And if you've got a seat in a tasting exam- good for you! I know Pappers (who lives in a HUGE metro area) had to travel for his exam, and I traveled to Minneapolis for mine.
I hope my comments have always showed the respect I have for you, if not, I apologize, oh judge!!!! I mean "Your Honor!"
I've got my exam on Saturday. Any pointers for me or just a general what to expect? Thanks.
I meant how long from the time you started pursuing being bjcp certified till you got certified.
Good luck, but I'm sure you won't need it, you'll do fine!
Thanks! I think I'm going to do a last minute off flavor panel later in the week with as many off flavors as I can easily get a hold of, just so they're all fresh in my mind.
For what it's worth, I took the test a year ago (one of the last full essay/tasting combined exams) end of January, and got my results back in I want to say end of July or early August.
I think the real story here is that a disproportionate number of homebrewers have the first name "James".
With the acquisition of Pappers_ and Homercidal, "James" dominates the mod category as well.
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