Embark on the BJCP Odyssey

I have mixed feelings about beer competitions.

If I brew I beer that I think may be worth winning an award, it is safe to assume I enjoy the beer myself, and thusly am mailing away a portion of a limited batch that (given the nature of homebrewing) will never be precisely replicated again.

I don't take well to criticism in general, much less criticism I deem to be unconstructive or poorly thought out. So far all criticism I've read on judge sheets have been, in my opinion, both unconstructive and poorly thought out. I don't necessarily blame the judges however. Having judged a homebrew competition myself, I understand the time and space constraints of judging beer in large quantities. There is pressure to keep moving forward with the entries, and the spaces leave little room thoughtful criticism. So an individual beer crafted with love and attention, doesn't always get the full time and attention in judging the brewer would have liked. But that doesn't mean the judge didn't provide criticism with the best of intentions. The judges experience or time constraints may very well have been a limiting factor in providing the kind of feedback the brewer would find useful.

Furthermore, I find beer styles in general to be a crude tool. Its like making assumptions about a person based on character traits we assign to nationalities. Sometimes submitting a really creative beer in the category it is most like, would be like me, having held myself out as an American, evaluated based on how good of an American I really am. Imagine my dismay if I got my evaluation results back with a low score and a note that said "Nice guy but you would have scored higher if you submitted yourself in the Canadian category." That may have been a strained analogy, but it was intended to illustrate that what makes the American micro-brewery so special is that brewers, many having started as homebrewers, set out to bring something unique and creative to the marketplace. As supermarket shelves fill with a wider variety microbrew selections, new breweries must become increasingly creative to grab a consumers attention. You can no longer build a micro-brew dynasty on a well balanced, hoppy pale ale as Sierra Nevada did. And lets face it, as homebrewers we frequently pride ourselves on our creative brews.

So why then are we so eager to seek awards based on proscribed styles that reward textbook brewing? I don't have an answer to that question because I, almost spitefully, brew outside style guidelines.

With all this in mind it would seem incongruous for me to disclose that I am about to start studying for the BJCP exam. Yet that is exactly what I am about to do. A small (or maybe not so small) group of homebrewers in Utah have decided to use their numbers as interested test takers to draw an exam administrator into the Beehive state to give us Utah homebrewers a chance at beer judge certification without the hassle of long distance travel.

Perhaps my mindset as a skeptic will generate an interesting perspective as I work through the material in preparation for the exam. Perhaps my eyes will be opened to the beauty of the style guidelines. Perhaps there is plenty of room within the four corners of proscribed perfection. And maybe, just maybe, I'll come to realize that I shouldn't have been enjoying my off-style brews as much as I have been.

Only time will tell...

Keep it all bottled up.

With 11 carboys full in the basement, a mass bottling day was well overdue.
Friday October 30, 2009 my faithful wife and brewing assistant helped me buckle down and pull together the big project.
Two carboys went to soda kegs making the menu on the kegerator my Walden's Dubbel (Belgian Dubbel), Scrumdidlyumptious Brew (A Bavarian Amber Wheat), Barbaric Yawp (A Belgian Golden Strong Ale), and a pale ale simply titled "BEER" is carbonating on deck, for when one of the three other taps run dry.
Into bottles went the other half of the Scrumdidlyumptious Brew, and "BEER" batches, along with a chocolate coconut porter I brewed with my friend Eric, which I have dubbed Winter Beach.
In the basement are four sour ale carboys of a variety of underlying brew styles that are gradually escaping my memory. Lastly there is a slowly aging mead all by itself in the corner of the basement. It is a back to basics mead. All my previous experiments with mead have been some experiment with spices, fruit, or win bases. I thought it was high time I just made a simple dry mead. It started fermenting in the spring and I can't wait to see how it turns out...but I will.