I’ve got to do the BJCP tasting exam on Sept 30. Not ideal timing since I just passed the entrance exam and this is the only time that there will be an exam in the next year near me.
So, any advice on cramming for this? I can read the off-flavours material in How to Brew, style comments in Brewing Classic Styles and look around on-line but that’s about it. I’ve gotten some great advice PM’d to me but I’d love to hear from others how I can do my best on this. Doesn’t help that I’m away working all next week. I will try to drink as much beer as I can while I’m gone, hope that works.
Please help.
Thanks.
There is a lot of good stuff on the BJCP website in the exam center section. I would download all the PDFs under the heading “Studying for the Beer Judge Exam”, and read all of them at least once. Then you can just go back study the one’s where you may be deficient. Once you’ve done that it’s the fun part, practice. I don’t always trust online beer reviews (e.g. Beer Advocate), but I think it’s useful to buy a beer, fill out a full BJCP/AHA scoresheet, and compare your thoughts to other reviews to see if you can pick up the same flavors/aromas.
Complete scoresheets probably score the best. For example on aroma the score sheet says to comment on malt, hops, esters, and other aromatics. Make sure you comment on each of those and include your perceived intensity, for example, intense toasty malt, low citrusy hops, low peach-like esters, very low, but clean alcohol.
Complete sensory comments are worth more than the actual scores in my opinion.
I agree with filling out a complete sheet. I can relate as I was in a similar position when I took my tasting exam. I was wait-listed and found out 5 weeks before my exam that I had a spot.
Not sure how you learn but, I made flash cards for every style. Writing everything out really helped me cram. Don’t get me wrong, I expect to take it again as I don’t think I scored an 80 or better (still waiting on results).
Also, I know for me “cramming” doesn’t work for any test. I just can’t process any more info after awhile. So if it were me, I would make sure to go maybe 30 - 45 minutes a day for the next 10 rather than try to study for 2 hours at a time on any day.
I think the best thing you can do is keep filling out scoresheets every time you try a new beer. The more complete your sheets, the better. Work on your vocabulary of descriptors. If you can’t communicate what you’re tasting, your sensory skills are worthless. Go back through your Zymurgy issues and reread the commercial calibrations. I picked up a lot of good descriptors in there. Also take some time to study the style guidelines if you don’t already know them. You won’t have access to them during the exam. And did I mention keep drinking as many different beers as possible? That’s the toughest part of preparing.
Using descriptve adjectives and filling up the allowed space are two good pieces of advice but ultimately it comes down to how well you match the judges who evaluate the beers. Be prepared to see one or two of the major types of flaws like DMS, diacetyl or oxidation. Oxidation is the toughest one for me.
This from the the BJCP website:
Scoring Accuracy (20%), 9/20 is lowest score, though.
Perception Comments (20%)
Descriptive Ability (20%)
Feedback (20%)
Completeness/Communication (20%)
Also there should be one nearly perfect brewery fresh beer and one badly flawed beer.
do you have time to spend @ a craft beer bar and have the bartender pour you a random beer, where you’d have to guess it? combine that (I’d suggest a half pour, or taster if they’ll do it), fill out the score sheets, as they say, and try to find some good reviews on BeerAdvocate/Ratebeer and compare to yours. iPad/remote internet/smartphone would be key for this approach.
Take a deep breath…you have very little time to learn all the essentials of each style - but you can still cram to get a basic premise…If I were in your position, I would do the following:
Read all BJCP styles 1-19 and 22 over and over and over every single day if you can.
Read the troubleshooting section of the BJCP study guide over and over and over every single day.
There is also a good section in the BJCP study guide that tells you how to evaluate - read that, especially if you are new to judging.
Keep in mind, that your objective is to become a better brewer - you can always take the tasting exam again if you choke, and if you have already completed the written/multiple choice part, then you have a great foundation. Have fun learning about all the beer styles and tasting at the exam!
For my exam, I modified the BJCP styles into a table format to make it easier to study - send me an email or PM with your email and I’ll send it to you as a word attachment.
Thats true but if you don’t match the proctor’s perceptions you will also be dinged for perception comments and to some extent feedback. My experience is that there are more points to be lost by not finding something, than there are to be had to identifying and describing what you perceive.
The scoring directions also say to use the descriptors in the BJCP guidelines as a rubric, so if you’re tasting a beer and the guidelines say ‘No esters’ under aroma, then you need to write something about esters under aroma, even if it is to repeat ‘No esters here’. A table would be great for studying. Tasting classic examples while reading the guidelines and filling out scoresheets will help too.
Edit: My guess is also that mentioning a character listed in the guidelines, even if your perception is wrong, will get you more points than failing to mention it at all.
