Just got my BCJP competition results back

I brewed a spiced Belgian brown ale for a Winter warmer contest and received a 30 from a BCJP apprentice who is a certified Cicerone, 34 from a recognized BCJP professional brewer (it said 38 but was changed), 34 from a certified BCJP and 32 from an apprentice BCJP.

I have to say, I’m very happy with the results from my first ever recipe and the first one I entered. A lot of the points missed were due to banana esters on the nose (too high fermentation) and not enough spice, which I went for subtle flavors instead of overspiced in your face stuff. I can’t wait to tweak the recipe and push for a 40 next time!

Congrats!

Sounds very cool. I’m not familiar with the bjcp though, how does the scoring work? Max/min scores and such?

Just a note... Work on getting the banana esters down with ferm temps before tweaking your spices. The lowered esters will make the spices more pronounced so take it one step at a time! The question I want the answer to is how the heck did 4 people judge your beer? Usually you’re lucky to get two...

Nice work!

Originally posted by kujo9
Just a note... Work on getting the banana esters down with ferm temps before tweaking your spices. The lowered esters will make the spices more pronounced so take it one step at a time! The question I want the answer to is how the heck did 4 people judge your beer? Usually you’re lucky to get two...

Nice work!

2 apprentice brewers and two that have passed the exam is my guess. Probably a glut of judges.

Originally posted by JulienHuxley
Sounds very cool. I’m not familiar with the bjcp though, how does the scoring work? Max/min scores and such?

The BJCP judges on a 50 point scale. Into the 40s is pretty primo beer. Mid 30s is a good beer with some minor flaws. In the 20s is generally something with one major issue (either style or process related) and below 20 is generally has a lot of problems, usually infections or really poor fermentation/sanitation or missing the style by a lot. One thing I will say is that judging has gotten a lot better over the last couple of years, in my opinion. The new system of certification has really helped to refocus on the tasting of the beers rather than just filling out arbitrary scoresheets. Out of curiosity, how fully were your scoresheets filled out? Which competition was it? I’m really interested because I’m also a judge (will have the experience I need to promote to Master in June) and like to get feedback on this sort of thing as I’m looking at working my way into program even more.

Originally posted by JulienHuxley
Sounds very cool. I’m not familiar with the bjcp though, how does the scoring work? Max/min scores and such?

1-50, with the 30’s being listed as "very good" with minor flaws to style.

Originally posted by kujo9
Just a note... Work on getting the banana esters down with ferm temps before tweaking your spices. The lowered esters will make the spices more pronounced so take it one step at a time! The question I want the answer to is how the heck did 4 people judge your beer? Usually you’re lucky to get two...

Nice work!

I’m in a huge homebrew group that runs contests nearly every month. There are a few BCJP certified judges and they tend to do the judging for the groups contests.

Originally posted by NobleSquirrel
Out of curiosity, how fully were your scoresheets filled out? Which competition was it? I’m really interested because I’m also a judge (will have the experience I need to promote to Master in June) and like to get feedback on this sort of thing as I’m looking at working my way into program even more.

This is the scoresheet used. Everything was filled out with comments on each section. The contest was for my local homebrew group called Barley Legal Homebrew, we are the largest, I believe in New Jersey, and perhaps one of the larger ones in the country, over 150 paid members. If you’d like I could scan the sheets and send them to you once I get my printer situation set up.

Originally posted by keanex

Originally posted by JulienHuxley
Sounds very cool. I’m not familiar with the bjcp though, how does the scoring work? Max/min scores and such?

1-50, with the 30’s being listed as "very good" with minor flaws to style.

Originally posted by kujo9
Just a note... Work on getting the banana esters down with ferm temps before tweaking your spices. The lowered esters will make the spices more pronounced so take it one step at a time! The question I want the answer to is how the heck did 4 people judge your beer? Usually you’re lucky to get two...

Nice work!

I’m in a huge homebrew group that runs contests nearly every month. There are a few BCJP certified judges and they tend to do the judging for the groups contests.

Originally posted by NobleSquirrel
Out of curiosity, how fully were your scoresheets filled out? Which competition was it? I’m really interested because I’m also a judge (will have the experience I need to promote to Master in June) and like to get feedback on this sort of thing as I’m looking at working my way into program even more.

This is the scoresheet used. Everything was filled out with comments on each section. The contest was for my local homebrew group called Barley Legal Homebrew, we are the largest, I believe in New Jersey, and perhaps one of the larger ones in the country, over 150 paid members. If you’d like I could scan the sheets and send them to you once I get my printer situation set up.

I was asking more how much they filled their scoresheets. I try and fill up all of the lines on the aroma, taste & overall. There is less info to give re: appearance and mouthfeel, for the most part. would be interested in seeing them, though.

They were adequately filled out, it varied from judge to judge, but I think the sheets were filled out fully enough for me to see where they want me to go if I were to re-create this and re-submit this.

Thanks for the info. Congrats ;)