New 2014 BJCP Style Guidelines

Anyone who went to the NHC hear anything about the timing for rollout of the new bjcp style guidelines? Did Gordon share any specifics about changes? Anyone else excited to see these?

Very excited, disappointed I don't already have them in hand.

There's a bit of information on the BJCP FB group re: style changes. It sounds like the guidelines should be posted to BJCP.org in "a few weeks", and video of the presentation at NHC should be up sometime this week.

That's good news, I've been looking forward to the changes.

Wish my vacations involved the NHC!

There's only two categories now:

1. Black IPA
2. Not-Black IPA

They're adding an American Wild Ale category. IPA will have several varieties as well as strength specified. They're moving belgian specialty out of 16. Historical beers is a new category with Gratzer, Kentucky Common along with several others. This is only a highlight. They should be released in the next few weeks.

You can find the slides from his presentation here:

http://www.bjcp.org/docs/NHC2014-styles.pdf

I'm anxious to see the new guidelines myself. It has been a while since it's been updated. Keep us posted...

I am mixed on the new guidelines at this point. I think some reorganization was needed, but there are going to be a lot of new categories and a loss of some. Some are changing names.

The roll out is starting soon, with everyone hopefully on board by the start of next year.

At least it will be hard to find a style that doesn't fit your beer. There are some additional styles that better incorporate foreign and classic beers. It's pretty exciting, but I hope the changes don't cause a problem for judges and organizers.

Homercidal said:

I am mixed on the new guidelines at this point. I think some reorganization was needed, but there are going to be a lot of new categories and a loss of some. Some are changing names.

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There will definitely be a learning curve, but once all of the judges are "up to speed" I think the new guidelines will be much more logically organized.

Questions.....

1.) I am looking at starting the BJCP process...... will these changes be immediately implemented into the testing process? If I am studying the current guidelines..... and take on line test in a month or two - Will the test be based on the current guidelines or the ones coming out in the next couple weeks?

2.) When will these "styles" show up in competitions? Is this something that will be showing up in competitions a couple months from now, or is it something that will show up next year?

Braufessor said:

1.) I am looking at starting the BJCP process...... will these changes be immediately implemented into the testing process? If I am studying the current guidelines..... and take on line test in a month or two - Will the test be based on the current guidelines or the ones coming out in the next couple weeks?

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It will likely be quite some time before the revised guidelines are incorporated into the entrance exam. The official revision will not be phased in until the end of the year according to the presentation. Keep an eye on the BJCP website for more info.

Braufessor said:

2.) When will these "styles" show up in competitions? Is this something that will be showing up in competitions a couple months from now, or is it something that will show up next year?

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This is up to individual competition organizers but likely next year. Once the draft revision is out a brewer can specify one of the new styles as a "special ingredient" in the applicable categories. A judge should be able to reference the draft guidelines.

Homercidal said:

At least it will be hard to find a style that doesn't fit your beer.

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Yeah, I think that was one of the main drivers. Cat 23 was getting too many entries that really should fit somewhere else, but didn't with the existing guidelines. Cat 23 is really supposed to be all of the weird stuff that truly doesn't fit a defined style.

Yeah Gordon mentioned that when he was judging that category at NHC.

On a more specific note; last month's BYO had an article on the different IPA’s. In it Jamil said, “Half of the people I talk to about White IPA think of it as a Belgian-style witbier that is hoppy and brewed to a higher ABV. Then the other half believes a white IPA is an IPA made with wheat.” Was there any indication which way the BJCP will go? Seems to me that there will already be a Belgian IPA and that this style should be more like a hoppy, higher gravity American Wheat.

For the purposes of his article, Jamil used the Belgian-style definition to describe White IPA, but right below White IPA he had a separate section on Belgian IPA. Seemed kind of strange.

Gordon's slides had Belgian IPA and White IPA listed separately as "Specialty IPAs". The presentation is posted online now:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQgPmW1LboU[/ame]

TobyG said:

Gordon's slides had Belgian IPA and White IPA listed separately as "Specialty IPAs".

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That's what had me curious. Unless I missed something, the styles are listed there, but there are no descriptions. In his article, Jamil also listed them separately, but chose to describe both in terms of a Belgian style beer. I was hoping that in the verbal part of the presentation that Gordon got more specific.


edit:
Sorry. I thought that was the slide show, not his presentation. Listening now. Thanks.

AnOldUR said:

That's what had me curious. Unless I missed something, the styles are listed there, but there are no descriptions. In his article, Jamil also listed them separately, but chose to describe both in terms of a Belgian style beer. I was hoping that in the verbal part of the presentation that Gordon got more specific.

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He doesn't get into much more detail unfortunately, so we're going to have to wait until the full draft release in the next couple weeks. The formats for the new guidelines are a lot more functional for judging. The draft guideline for Kentucky Common follows the new format and was presented at the Judge's reception. It's posted online:
http://www.bjcp.org/docs/NHC2014-kycommon-style.pdf

See I would not fit a White IPA into a Belgian Category unless it had a noted Belgian Yeast character. However, if it had all of the other indications of a White Beer with the strength and hoppiness of an IPA, it might fit the White IPA category.

Man what is with all the white IPAs lately? White is the new black?

Personally, I think white IPA, black IPA, Belgian IPA are pretty weak styles. Just because you throw a bunch if hops into something doesn't mean it's going to be good. Now maple smoked bacon peanut butter bourbon vanilla porter aged on cherries, there's a style.

Homercidal said:

See I would not fit a White IPA into a Belgian Category unless it had a noted Belgian Yeast character. However, if it had all of the other indications of a White Beer with the strength and hoppiness of an IPA, it might fit the White IPA category.

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I think the issue is that the witbier (White Beer) sub-category is traditionally a Belgian style. The reason for being listed separately is the characteristics of a witbier/IPA hybrid are going to be different than a Belgian IPA (which is probably effectively a more aggressively hopped Belgian Pale Ale).

tagz said:

Man what is with all the white IPAs lately? White is the new black?

Personally, I think white IPA, black IPA, Belgian IPA are pretty weak styles. Just because you throw a bunch if hops into something doesn't mean it's going to be good. Now maple smoked bacon peanut butter bourbon vanilla porter aged on cherries, there's a style.

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The point isn't that there are few examples, it's that many styles previously submitted to competitions had NO good place to enter them into.

Some of the proposed styles are likely proposed because the BJCP anticipates that these styles will be relatively popular in the future.

Part of the seminar focused on how the BJCP is trying to use new-found historical information on beer styles to frame the guidelines. They are also creating new styles so that brewers have more options when brewing something unusual that doesn't necessarily use an odd ingredient.

The joke at the start of the seminar is that Gordon Strong showed a slide that said: "New Style: Black IPA" The next part of the slide basically indicated that Black IPA encompassed the entirety of the proposed changes.

The joke is that the demand for a Black IPA was so strong that it overshadowed the rest of the work. Black IPA is kind of passe now, to a lot of people, and it may be that White IPA is the new black, who knows.

The big deal with the proposed changes is that styles can be mixed and matched, so that you could, in theory, brew a White, Sour, American, Wheat IPA and find a place to submit it.

The proposed changes are not available yet as far as I know, so we will have to wait to see how it all shakes out, but there is a LOT of new stuff, and I wish organizers and judges good luck in making the change. I think it will solve some of the problems a lot of people had with the previous guidelines, but I'm inclined to think that there will still be challenges, not just in accepting the changes, but implementing them as well.

Homercidal said:

The joke at the start of the seminar is that Gordon Strong showed a slide that said: "New Style: Black IPA" The next part of the slide basically indicated that Black IPA encompassed the entirety of the proposed changes.

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Sort of. The joke was that there were now only going to be two categories: Black IPA and Not Black IPA. Incidentally, it's about 9:30 into the video above.

My comment was not a real critique. I was just being snarky. I guess my more serious question would be, why not just have a "specialty IPA" category, rather then legitimize some marginal styles.

tagz said:

My comment was not a real critique. I was just being snarky. I guess my more serious question would be, why not just have a "specialty IPA" category, rather then legitimize some marginal styles.

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From what I gather that's exactly what it will be. They will just be writing up descriptors of the more definable specialty IPAs to give the judges something to base their scores on. In other words, both will be specialty IPAs, but if you designate it as being a Belgian IPA, the judges should use those descriptors to score you.

Full review of the proposed changes to the 2014 BJCP Style Guidelines at http://tinyurl.com/2014bjcp

Let me know what you think!

Been going through the new guidelines and the representation of British ales is much better than before. Naming is better too (strong bitter and strong ale, for example). Lots of good revisions. Good additions like golden ale are in there.

I downloaded the new style guidelines into Beersmith a couple months ago. Interesting new style definitions do seem to better fit what we're brewing.