I’ve discovered the same thing…astringency seems to be the “go to” fault for many inexperienced brewers and judges. In truth, I rarely see it.
I think astringency and lingering bitterness easily confused, especially if some acidity is mixed with bitterness. And beer is just a complex beast anyway.
I mentioned exotic twice and its not the right word. Didn’t know how else to say ‘unidentifiable to me’. I see now it was grains of paradise, coriander, ginger, sweet orange peel. Maybe say “rich unique and complex blend of spices made it difficult to identify a single variety.” ?
Kinda wordy, identify what you can. Complex phenols of pepper and … would be better IMO.
Just because the beer may not have been made with a particular ingredient does not mean the aroma and flavor might exhibit it. Use something you know and can identify, but be sure others can identify it as well. One could say “aroma of my grandmother’s house”, but we have no way of knowing if that is dirty and musty or floral and fruity so saying apple pie spicy phenols of cinnamon and… will let the grader immediately imagine what you perceived.
When they pour beers at the exam do they announce the category name only or by number, letter, or do they use both? Are you expected to memorize all the category names / numbers / letters ?
They announce the name and number, either with each beer or all at the beginning. They also won’t use any specialty styles (including fruit, spice/herb/veg, etc).
The style you are judging will be announced. Keep in mind for the exam in the Aroma, Appearance, Flavor, and Mouthfeel sections you are best served by simply discussing what you perceive. Use the Overall Impression section to discuss style and how to better emulate style. More than likely if you make a style comment in AAFM you will be off the mark.
I’ve seen people say things like - Amber - too dark for style, when in fact amber color was smack dab in the middle of style, same for diacetyl - someone said low diacetyl - not to style, but low diacetyl was allowed. Had they simply said low diacetyl and left it at that or Amber and left it alone they would have been describing what they perceived and been correct as opposed to adding incorrect verbiage which did not advance their overall score on the exam.
Thanks, that’s one less thing to try to recall. Didnt want a ding for incomplete.
Started to get frustrated on the weekend when my sheets were not matching up to the style guidelines and what the brewer named the beer. Until I realized what beers I can get in this small town are not in the commercial examples list except for the very popular categories. I’d almost rather not know the Category till I get to Overall Impression now, it just makes you biased and second-guessing yourself, don’t have time for that.
Scoring is against the style guidelines, Overall Impression requires style comments, and the Stylistic Grid considers the style. It would be a great methodology to ignore the style in AAFM and the tick boxes at the left and then focus on it for the three areas where it is required.
Thank you guys for all your excellent links and advice. I knew I was still weak on the sub styles even after handwriting some 50 pages of text so I didn’t offer too many real specific style comments for fear of being wrong, instead made procedure comments. Was at least able to ID the spiked beers and hit on every subheading under AAFM. Had 3/4 minutes at the end to double check math and completeness. Glad for that. 90 minutes never went so fast. You guys improved my score, wherever that may end up. Plenty of time to really prep for the next one in November. Thank you.
So this morning I was issued BJCP ID #. Hard to interpret cause it says my rank is still Provisional, with Rank Pending.
But the BJCP site says Provisional Judge: someone who has passed the Entrance Exam, but not yet taken the Judging Exam. A Provisional Judge is not yet a BJCP member, and does not have a BJCP ID. Provisional is not a BJCP judge rank.
Can this be interpreted as a passing grade?
EDIT: Never mind, could be apprentice
It means you’re Rank Pending. Provisional is someone who has passed the Online, but not taken the Tasting. If you have taken the Tasting, but it hasn’t been scored yet, you’re Rank Pending. Once your score is done, you will either be Apprentice, Recognized, or Certified depending on your score and judging points. Below 60 is Apprentice and you’ll need to take the Tasting test again (with the Online screening through people though, this is rare). Score between 60 and 70 and you’re Recognized. Score 70 or higher and have at least 5 judging points and you’re Certified. If you score at least 80 or higher on the Tasting and get 10 judging points, you can register to take the Written test to advance to National or Master (with the appropriate scores and points).
Turnaround on getting your ID from Tasting exam is typically relatively quick (usually within a few weeks of the exam). It basically means that your exam set has arrived at the AHA has been scanned and uploaded into the BJCP system for the grading team (although not the same organization, this part is a cooperative effort since the AHA benefits from helping the BJCP out on the logistics).
Turnaround on scores varies a lot at the moment. Target is around 12 weeks (3 months), but you typically don’t hear of that target being hit or exceeded, so there’s no certainty about how often they hit it. The only thing the average judge or examinee hears is about the ones that take longer. Both of mine took between 5 and 6 months. Your best bet is to be patient and wait between 3-4 months for your score. Judge as much as you can, and build up points. I jumped from Rank Pending to Certified right when I got my scores since I already had the 5 judging points needed.
If you haven’t received your scores after 4 months, your best bet is to send the Exam Admin who gave your Tasting and see if he’s heard anything. He will have the contact information for the ED that’s in charge of grading your exam set (there are typically two graders, an AED, and an ED for each set) and can hit them up. It’s generally better to do it that way because the other examinees are probably asking too and the Admin can keep it from being 12 different people trying to hit up the ED.
unfortunately at less than two months from your exam date, it is very likely not done. From what you’ve said previously though, you do not have any worries re: passing the exam.
Thanks Toby. There’s a lot of outdated (and new) info on all this on BJCP.org. Makes it confusing to separate the two, Thanks for the explanation. I’m only at about 7 weeks from my tasting exam date and was surprised to get any info so quickly, didn’t realize that assigning an ID was an intermediate step.
Thanks for the vote of confidence udubdawg. I was able to review what I wrote in my scoresheets for the first time since the exam now that they posted them on the BJCP site. Easy to have doubts
From what I’ve seen, 7 weeks to get your ID is slightly long, but with NHC, that’s not surprising. At leash NHC is over now, so hopefully things will start picking up speed for you.
Thanks guys for your help. 77. Scoring accuracy was erratic/apprentice across all beers, master for completeness, certified or national for other categories. I need to start judging with someone who actually knows how to taste.
Congrats! Dont be sad about being Certified. All of the best judges are certified. It means you know your stuff, but also are an independent thinker 
Thank you Jim. I was hoping they would post the Proctor’s sheets for comparison to your own to see where you went wrong.
I would email the lead grader and see if they’ll share some advice. They don’t usually share proctors scoresheets, and I think those would be less helpful than you’d expect. It’s really based on the proctors, admin’s notes on the beers, and a consensus of the examinees too.
77 with only 10 days of study is pretty darn good. Judge at some comps, get the lingo down and you’ll easily get the score you are after.