New BJCP Styles

What do you think of the changes? I’m wondering how you would judge a "clone brew." This seems like a train wreck waiting to happen. Maybe they could provide the commercial example so you could judge them side-by-side?

A bunch of them are dum a dum dum. I think that some categories, "Brett Beer" in particular, are going to have some issues.

The biggest issue I see is that you can’t recapitulate what a beer should be like from any document - you need to get out there, travel and find them. It’s not easy and very few people will do it, BJCP judge or not.

IPAs can be a combination of every color imaginable and be session/regular/double. Session Brown IPA sounds atrocious.

WTF is an Australian sparkling ale?

This seems like WAY too many changes to institute in one update… some of them I like, but others I’m like whaaa? I’d hate to be a judge and have to test this minefield.

One other thing I thought was interesting was the overall impression section of the styles will now be an " expanded consumer focused description". Could this be a nod to the beer geek community aka BA and ratebeer? I’ve always been frustrated by the rigidity in BJCP and how they sometimes reject or downgrade beers because of being "outside style guidelines". Am I interpreting this correctly as meaning they will now be giving a bit more attention to the overall enjoyment of the beer rather than how perfectly it fits into their guide?

Originally posted by BoostIPA
WTF is an Australian sparkling ale?

Hopefully, a bunch of mis-characterizations of various styles will get corrected. Joris Pattyn might even be pleased.

My feeling is that a lot of the international styles have been fixed and black/rye IPA are out of specialty, great.

As someone who has been judge coordinator for about ten comps I have people with 3000+ ticks here or elsewhere that can probably judge the clone category well. Either way the entrant is providing a description of the cloned beer.

Originally posted by bitbucket

Originally posted by BoostIPA
WTF is an Australian sparkling ale?

A very obscure style. Looks like there is only one commercial example available today? Ratebeer calls the currently available example a Golden/Blonde Ale.

COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION
Coopers Sparkling Ale is brewed naturally by the centuries-old top fermentation method just as it was in the beginning by Thomas Cooper. This beer displays a solid head and a distinctive, full-bodied flavour enhanced by a soft, fruity character and the sediment which gives it a cloudy appearance

Originally posted by JoeMcPhee

Originally posted by bitbucket

Originally posted by BoostIPA
WTF is an Australian sparkling ale?

A very obscure style. Looks like there is only one commercial example available today? Ratebeer calls the currently available example a Golden/Blonde Ale.

COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION
Coopers Sparkling Ale is brewed naturally by the centuries-old top fermentation method just as it was in the beginning by Thomas Cooper. This beer displays a solid head and a distinctive, full-bodied flavour enhanced by a soft, fruity character and the sediment which gives it a cloudy appearance

It’s a pale ale - nothing more and nothing less. Fruity yeast and moderately hoppy but it’s not a separate style.