The BJCP Bulletin

The Official Newsletter of the

Beer Judge Certification Program

June 2020

2020 BJCP Members Meeting

2020 BJCP Members Meeting

The BJCP typically holds an annual members meeting at the National Homebrew Conference. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 meeting will be held online on Saturday, July 25th at 8 a.m. (CST). Members must register for the free event by Friday, July 10th. Because of the online format, there will be an attendee limit of 1,000. If capacity is …

2020 BJCP Board Election Results

2020 BJCP Board Election Results

The Election Committee has certified the election results for the 2020 election; winners in this year’s elections are: Asia-Pacific: Christopher Wong was elected with 50% of the vote. Voter turnout was 20% of the region's active members. Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA): Omer Basha was elected with 65% of the vote. Voter turnout was 40% of the region's active members. Northeast: Andrew …

Rank Advancement: April- June 2020

Rank Advancement: April- June 2020

Each BJCP Bulletin recognizes judges who have advanced to national or master rank since the last publication. This installment recognizes advancements from roughly April 2020 to June 2020. Congratulations!

National Advancements …

Updates from BJCP

President Gordon Strong

2020 Member's Address

Hello, fellow BJCP judges. I'm sorry we can't be together for our annual meeting and other events this year. As we are all impacted by the global pandemic, I'll focus my remarks on that subject. In our primary role as a certifying organization for beer judges and competitions, we have been flexible with rescheduling and cancellation requests from exams and …

COVID-19 Update 2

Our prior advice remains in effect. Listen to your local public health organizations for guidance. Some areas are reopening with restrictions, and some are still under lockdown. Remember, the BJCP doesn't directly operate competitions or exams, so always seek out the organizer of these events for updated information. The BJCP has been lenient in rescheduling and cancelling events, and in …

All Are Welcome in the BJCP

by Gordon Strong, BJCP President I recently had a conversation with a BJCP judge who was interested in the BJCP’s position on diversity as part of a general assessment of the craft beer industry. I thought it would be worthwhile to share some of my comments with the organization as a whole, just so everyone understands our values. First, our …

Regional Representatives – Quarter 2.2020 Updates

Click here for updates from your BJCP regional representatives …

DIRECTORATE UPDATES

NEW: BJCP Malt Sensory Training Exercise Published

By Bruce Buerger, Director of Education and Training

The Education and Training Directorate is very happy to announce the release of the Malt Sensory Training exercise. This exercise can be used for self-study or in a group setting. It is aimed at highlighting the flavors and aromas of malt while improving judge perception and description skills. https://dev.bjcp.org/education-training/education-resources/malt-sensory-training/ To assist …

Exam Director Update Q2.2020

By Sarah Bridegroom, Exam Director

Understandably, numerous exams have been affected by COVID-19. Over 50 exams to date have experienced some type of effect – postponement, rescheduling, or in some cases cancellation when affected by a related, large scale event. We’ll continue to coordinate with sites as best we can to administer calendar requests while also monitoring overall capacity. Upcoming Grading One consequence of COVID-related …

Competition Directorate Update Q2.2020

By David Houseman, BJCP Competition Director

As many of you know, the COVID-19 crisis has caused many competitions to be postponed or cancelled. This has and will continue to cause a reduction in the number of judging opportunities for judges in 2020 and a shortfall of BJCP revenue as we have refunded the registration fees for many competitions. If you …

Ideas on Conducting BJCP Events Post Pandemic

Alternative Judging Post-Covid-19

By John Moorhead

The topics discussed in this article are only suggestions and areas to consider when competition organizers decide to hold a competition and are not guidelines to condone a competition. Organizers should continuously monitor local, state, and federal restrictions, as well as guidance from the Center for Disease Control and World Health Organization. There are a lot of …

Coronavirus Precautions and Procedures for BJCP Exams

By Travis Hammond

Purpose This purpose of this document is to identify potential precautions and procedures to minimize the risks of exposure to coronavirus during a BJCP beer, mead, or cider judging exam. This document is not official BJCP guidance. These recommendations were compiled from many sources of information and with input from many experienced BJCP judges and competition …

Venueless Judging: A Modest Proposal

By Jay Hersh

Homebrewers typically enter three bottles in a competition. The idea behind this approach is that you pick two judges per category and take two of the bottles of each entry in that category and make up "to go" boxes, each of which has 1 of the 3 bottles from each entry in that category. The organizer could …

The Perils of Pulling Rank

By Andrew Luberto

Beer judges like beer. Most people wouldn’t dispute this fact. However, it could possibly be one of the few facts you wouldn’t find at least some BJCP judges debating. This is because if there’s anything that some in the organization …

Member Announcements: June 2020

Member Announcements: June 2020

The Minnesota Home Brewers Association has been developing a handbook for how to conduct Virtual Homebrew Competitions in line with CDC safety guidelines. They hope to have it available for download on their website July 1st. Mnbrewers.com …

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