2016 CAF Brewoff Challenge
Unless you've been hiding under a rock, 2016 Central Arkansas Fermenters VP of Competitions, Josh Davis, has a treat for us this year. Internally, as a healthy competition among CAF members, Davis set up six brewoff challenges for the year. Starting in March 2016 and then every other month thereafter until January 2017, there were will be a style-specific "mini" BJCP contest.
What is exactly is BJCP? BJCP stands for "Beer Judge Certification Program," which is actually an organization started in 1985 made of an elected board of directors and members throughout North America. From its website, the purpose of BCJP is to:
- Encourage knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the world's diverse beer, mead, and cider styles;
- Promote, recognize, and advance beer, mead, and cider tasting, evaluation, and communication skills; and
- Develop standardized tools, methods, and processes for the structured evaluation, ranking and feedback of beer, mead, and cider.
As a style-specific "mini" BJCP contest, anyone who intends to compete and anyone who will be juding the entries will abide by the rules of BJCP for a fair contest. What are some of the ways this contest is made fair? Let's have an example: Davis set the "American Pale Ale" as the March 2016 CAF Brewoff Challenge contest. Under the BJCP 2015 Guidelines, the American Pale Ale falls under category 18B (see link below):
Here you get an entire page and a half on this particular style of beer. As you formulate your recipe (or borrow/modify other recipe), you will want to make sure that your beer falls within the acceptable ranges and expectations of the style. Now noone likes for their beers to be boxed in, but again, having these parameters helps with judging.
To best understand how a judge evaluates beers, take a look at the BJCP score sheet (see link below):
If you draw your attention to the left side of the score sheet, you'll see the five descriptors.On this score sheet, every style of beer can be minimally reduced to the following descriptors:
- Appearance (max 3 points)
- Aroma (max 12 points)
- Flavor (max 20 points)
- Mouthfeel (max 5 points)
- Overall Impression (max 10 points)
The maximum score one can receive is 50, while the lowest score is 0 (although BJCP does recommend a courtesy or mercy score of 13 for beers that just have too many technical faults). Beers rarely ever get a 50, but to get a sense of the scores, 40 to 49 means you've got a VERY good beer, 30 to 39 means you have a good beer, 20 to 29 means you've a bad/ok/average beer, and anything less than 20 probably has one or more major errors, off-flavors, infection, etc.
Whether you are brewing for these homebrew competitions, or you are asked to help judge the beers, now you know what you can expect. However, knowing what to expect and actual skill in judging beers can be two completely different realities. There are some things every homebrewer can do... (1) learn to evaluate EVERY beer you try (homebrew or commercial) in a stylistic manner (remember, though, many beers are made that may not fit neatly into a BJCP style), (2) sign up for an off-flavors class so that you can try to improve your detection of things like diacetyl, DMS, phenols, etc., (3) if the opportunity presents itself, go be a judge, and (4) even better, consider becoming a certified BJCP judge (we have a severe shortage of them in Arkansas).
And I must say... you don't have to be a ___________ (negative descriptor for a person) when you evaluate/judge beer. And as a homebrewer, you also don't have to be a ___________ (negative descriptor for a person) when other people try your beer and don't like it. For both cases, you can't expect everyone to like every style of beer. You also can't expect that every one will know how to provide the right kind of constructive criticism. My suggestion? Develop some thick skin, put yourself out there, seek the feedback, and improve on it.
I don't know about you, but I'm excited about participating in the 2016 CAF Brewoff Challenge competitions, and hopefully I will have the opportunity to judge some of them, if asked. Do those who run the competition a favor... FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS AND DON'T ASK ANY OF THEM TO BEND THE RULES. This means making sure you are a paid-up CAF member, packing your beer properly, providing a label, and turning it in at the meeting it is due.
Bring it on competitors and plan accordingly for the following styles and due dates:
- American Pale Ale, Category 18B – 3/10/16
- Helles Bock, Category 4C – 5/12/16
- Saison, Category 25B – 7/14/16
- American IPA, Category 21A – 9/8/16
- Imperial Stout, Category 20C – 11/10/16
- Dunkles Weissbier, Category 10B – 1/12/17
How's your American Pale Ale coming along? Mine's resting in the fermenter...
Happy Fermenting!
Sam