Professor Good Ales

The most recent BJCP guidelines, for use in all competitions in November. Expanded quite a bit from 2008.

Written by Ken Carman

 

 Right up front: this Diary is going to be different. And I’m not going to sugar coat anything: this is a sales pitch, a promotion. If you love beer, especially craft beer, you brew beer, or are interested in the process and might like to learn: think of becoming a beer judge.
 You don’t have to become a BJCP beer judge to judge beer. And please don’t call them “Certified.” That’s a rank. There’s Recognized, Certified, National, Master, Grand Master and almighty, unquestionable, all powerful (especially once I’ve had a few brews) BEER DEITY: ME!  Yes, the last was just me goofing around, the others actual ranks.
 The test is very tough, takes a lot of studying, and don’t pay much attention if someone claims they don’t want specifics, they just want to know the breadth of your knowledge. Horse hocky. Before you pass you’ll need to know, backwards, forwards and upside down, many specifics… so many “specifics” I’ve known those who say the BJCP beer test is tougher than some of what they had to do to get their PhDs. .
 Good news: you can take it online. More on that in a moment. Continue reading “A Beer Judge’s Diary: Becoming a Beer Judge”

Profiled by Maria Devan

Looks like a tripel. Sweet golden color. Creamy white head Slight chill haze.

Smells like a tripel. Soft sweetness of the pils malt. Fruity middle wafting out to the top of the nose without any fanfare from the tettnang. They simply look on and give out pepper and floral as a greeting. Spice as your bring your head down to drink.

Taste is a gentle sour on all that nose. Citrusy fruit mingling with soft breaddy malt. A sparkling touch of acidity to enliven the palate before a crisp finish. Tettnang is known for it’s clean bitterness and in this beer it only shows you as much as it needs to to finish the beer and let that malt come to the finish breaddy and dry while they wait for all that long finish earthy and herbal . A warming from alcohol so slight, so pleasant a touch of sweetness from the alcohol . The finish is where you finally get a sense of the body of the beer. Medium, creamy, and carbonated to a bubbly perfection.

It’s amazing at 9.5%. Drinks like a sour tripel.

4

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

_____________________________________Beer HERE

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Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is a great beer writer. That’s Maria in the middle. She lives on a hill, but has to walk down and up it because she has yet to buy a jet pack.

Some craft beer lovers get a “fix” out of weird, novelty, brews-PGA

Written by Tom Becham

Spring and Summer seem to be the times of year when brewers get a little more whimsical with their releases. They experiment with flavors of fruits and spices, in what many people might call (and this is the most polite term I’ve heard) “girlfriend beers”.

Well, fruit has a long tradition as a beer ingredient, and as to experimental beers, well, that’s what pushes the envelope. It’s good to have an open mind about what constitutes things like patriotism, a family, or even beer.

Okay, my first two beers are both from The Bruery, in Placentia, California. Something one can *never* say about The Bruery is that they do anything normally, average or “to style”. Every single brew they produce is drastically unique in some way, and these two certainly fit that description. Continue reading “Tom Becham on Novelties”

Profiled by Maria Devan

Looks so good. I never rate a beer’s appearance that high but this beer is perfectly clear, has a thick creamy white crown that lasts and leaves a film and ring on top. Body is sunshine yellow. Golden.

Nose is sumptuous but fun with lots of fruity citrus, a plentiful hops herbal that is whimsical with pepper and a malt sweetness that is a touch of white bread with honey. Taste is sultry and heady with lemon, the bright lemon peel, the spontaneous herbal.

The hops herbal in this beer is like hay or dried grass but it also has quite a bit of pepper. A perfect tartness that makes the mouth water and a dry and bubbly finish that lets that pepper really tickle. Smooth and at 7.5% it’s on the high side for abv but you will find it a pleasant warmth in the swallow. There is a bitterness in this one and it’s welcome because of the slightly higher abv. It balances out that alcohol sweetness and bit of extra body perfectly and lets the beer reside in the aftertaste as plentiful in flavor as it was on the palate.

4

Welcome to the PGA beer rating system: one beer “Don’t bother.” Two: Eh, if someone gives it to you, drink. Three: very good, go ahead and seek it out, but be aware there is at least one problem. Four: seek it out. Five: pretty much “perfecto.”

_____________________________________Beer HERE

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Maria Devan lives in Ithaca, NY and is a great beer writer. That’s Maria in the middle. The other two are not, but they are lucky to have her as a friend.

The Topic: it’s Toucan CAN-ned Man! (Or: A Morning Well Spent with Mo, Carl, Bailey, Steve and Jackalope

Written by Ken Carman

Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay, Clarksville Carboys and Music City Homebrewers, who has been writing on beer-related topics, and interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast, for over 15 years.

 The machinery chattered, rumbled as it twisted, turned and inserted probes. No, we’re not on some odd alien space ship with a long line production line of cows, or abductees, about to be experimented on. Instead, as beer cans moved quickly down that line, one almost expected all that was left of the Terminator to reach the end and attempt to strangle Linda Hamilton.
 No Terminator here to be feared!
  Instead, there was plenty of beer, Toucan-ers: Mo and Carl Oelker, then Master Brewer Bailey and Head Brewer Steve at the end of the behemoth; putting together six packs.
 Oh, and just to assure any concerned quaffers: no one was being strangled.
 Instead a virgin was being sacrificed.
 A beer virgin.
 Yes, I was there for the first canning of Rompo, one of the standard brews at Jackalope, and only the second Jackalope brew to be canned. The first was Thunder Ann, their pale ale.

Continue reading “Brew Biz: Werts and All, Toucan Mobile Canning and Jackalope”