Everybody is a Beer Judge

The recent growth in the craft beer industry, and the inroads that small batch beer has made into the market, especially younger generations of people with their newly minted Liquor ID's is pretty great.  Those of use who've been drinking good beer for 30 years are happy to welcome the many new beers, and improved access to old favourites, that this trend has created.

If you've been one of the people like me who have long been advocating for better access to good beer, and recognition of the economic development activity that locally owned, small scale alcohol production generates, it's even better.

Beer is a very broad topic, with an equally broad and inclusive boundary of what, exactly, beer is. In my drinking lifetime, there was a time when beer was mostly categorized by which country it was produced in. The along came Michael Jackson (and others, but he led the way) to point out that beer has terroir, like wine, and could be traced back to a place, and was almost always of a "Style".   In particular, Jackson expounded on the pleasures of certain Belgian beer styles and their place in a meal, by a fire, or at a bar.

This would have been in the early 1980's.

Jump forward to today, and we generally live in a world where beer is categorized by style, with perhaps an adjective related to place, or sometimes method, that further defines what the beer is expected to look, smell, and taste like.  And how much alcohol one should expect.

In 1985, a bunch of homebrewers, mostly people involved with the American Homebrewers Association got together and started the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP). The BJCP has since expanded to include judge resources and a certification program for cider and mead.  The goals of the BJCP are to:

• Encourage knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the world's diverse beer, mead, and cider styles;
• Promote, recognize, and advance beer, mead, and cider tasting, evaluation, and communication skills; and
• Develop standardized tools, methods, and processes for the structured evaluation, ranking and feedback of beer, mead, and cider.

This organization has been tooling along for 32 years, and has trained and certified a fair amount of people - over 10,000, of which a little over 6,000 are now active. There are ranks within the program, based on how well one does on exams (the exams are not difficult to pass for the knowledgeable beer geek, but are very difficult to score well enough to get to the "National" tier, of which only about 830 exist in the world; of those, only about 20 are in Canada.  You can learn about this organization at BJCP.org.

The most interesting thing about the BJCP is that although it is incredibly rigorous, and is the organization that is the "keeper of the styles, but it's all run by volunteers.  The costs for the exams are minimal, for expenses only, yet the comprehensive information on beer, cider and mead on that website is free to anyone. There is also a beer styles app if you want to take it with you.

Long ago, back in 1991, after I'd been homebrewing for 6 years, I wrote the exam in Toronto, and did well enough that I probably will never need to write it again.  I was lucky I knew how to write exams, because back then I had no one to study with and my tasting exam wasn't very good. Since then, I've judged at over 50 sanctioned competitions, and several others. It's been fun, and I've learned a lot.

The world is now rapidly filling up with people getting on the beer bandwagon via whatever handle they can grasp. There are bloggers, photographers, podcasters, people sitting and rating beer in between burps, whatever.  And just like everything else these days, it seems, those of us who do know something are sometimes attacked, or derided for offering a contrary, but informed opinion on something beer related.

It can go like this:

Them: Here try our new Kolsch, it's delicious, refreshing, creamy, a sort of hybrid between lager and ale.

Me:  This is definitely not a Kolsch, do you think you should really be telling this to people? 

Them: Well that's what the recipe said it was.  And anyway how would you know?

Me: I've been to Köln. 

Them: What's that got to do with it? 

If you don't get the humour in that, for starters, you shouldn't be judging beer.

Homebrewers and professional brewers assume that because they can make beer, they can judge it.  Judging beer is not the same thing as just evaluating it, or deciding whether you like it. There is a standardized scoresheet, and the use of that sheet to fairly assess and compare beers to style guidelines is what separates judging from opinionated drinking.  The most opinionated drinkers are professional brewers, who have mostly all decided the beer they make is the best, and anything that doesn't taste like theirs cannot be good. (I'm only exaggerating a little).

But they still believe they can judge other people's beer.

Recently I got to read some typical uninformed comments on beer judging, and even on the value of competitions.  It's common to hear things like:

"I still maintain the stance that you do not NEED a BJCP certification to properly analyze a beer and don't subscribe to that elitist attitude. I'm personally not one of them, but I know a few folks that aren't BJCP certified, yet have been in the industry for a long time and are extremely good at dissecting a beer, spot flaws, off flavours, etc. Certainly no disrespect to those that are BJCP certified, but don't look down on those that aren't."

How's that for passive/aggressive ignorance.  This person thinks that "dissecting" and "analyzing" a beer are what judging is about. Certainly no one is looking down on anyone, but it's hard to escape the reality that you're either trained as a judge, and have passed the exams, or you're not (insert Yoda quote here). A BJCP Judge has to have passed an exam where they complete the judge sheet on 6 beers, and their exam is marked very carefully, in a completely anonymous manner.  The components they are judged on are given below and total 80% of their mark, with the remaining 20% a calculated percentage related to how close their assigned score for a beer was to the consensus score out of 50.

1. Perception (20 points/beer): Points should be deducted for missed flaws and errors in aroma, appearance, flavor, and mouthfeel perception. The rubric formed by the proctors’ scoresheets enables the graders to make a correlation between the characteristics identified by the examinees and those noted by the proctors. 
2. Descriptive Ability (20 points/beer): A beer judge should be able to describe the intensity and characteristics of the aroma, appearance, flavor, and mouthfeel using the proper terminology. The BJCP Style Guidelines serve as a reference for this aspect of the scoresheet.
3. Feedback (20 points/beer): The brewer should receive useful and constructive feedback explaining how to adjust the recipe or brewing procedure in order to produce a beer that is closer to style. The comments should be constructive and consistent with the characteristics perceived by the examinee as well as with the score assigned to the beer. 
4. Completeness/Communication (20 points/beer): A complete scoresheet should have well-organized, legible, and have informative comments that fill all available comment space. Checkboxes for stylistic accuracy, technical merit, and intangibles should also be marked. This aspect of the scoresheet is generally consistent with the level of descriptive information and feedback conveyed by the examinee.

The ability to perceive - the dissection and analysis that the opinionated non-judge sees judging to be, only counts for 1/5th of the exam mark.  That person who has been in the industry for a long time, drinking lots of beer, probably won't pass the exam on the ability to do that alone. A beer judge has to have the language, standardized, and legible, to provide information to the brewer about how the beer was perceived, what it looked, smelled and tasted like, and what might be done to improve it, if anything.

And this person "knows" things, or so they say...

"I know there have been a number of people judging in the 'BJCP sanctioned' events who should have nothing to do with judging beer. I also know of plenty non-BJCP judges that would be able to provide better/more accurate feedback than some BJCP judges."

Perhaps a little homework is in order. If someone can pass the exams, they have proven they know something about judging beer. A lot more than someone who hasn't passed anything but gas can prove. Sure, there are inexperienced judges, but they are still going to be of more use than an opinionated homebrewer. Go take the exam.

And sure, there are always going to be exceptions.  I can think of one or two people who were OK at judging before they got involved in the BJCP.  But even then, they didn't have the training to properly use the scoresheet.

So what's my point here?  All I am saying is that someone who has passed the judging exam should be able to give you better written feedback than someone who is unfamiliar with standardized beer judging protocol.  I mark some of the exams from fields afar now, and it's pretty easy to identify those written by people who "know beer" but don't know how to judge beer. It's like this. There are people who can skate. There are people who can figure skate. There are people who can judge figure skating events. It's nice that you can skate.

When people don't understand beer, or economics, but get to write about both.

A former insurance salesman... okay, executive, who seems to have some people in this city believing that he understands business, wrote a very ill informed opinion piece about the craft brewing industry in Nova Scotia in this weekends paper that shall remain nameless. He sounded like a shill for "molbatt's".  But enough idiots are out there (see Canadians for Trump) that this warrants a response to try to ward off anyone taking this guy seriously.

Here is what he wrote:     Bill Black being a knob

Mr. Black needs to learn a bit about what he is pontificating on.

Most (by a large margin > 90%) of the beer consumed in NS is made by companies owned outside of Canada. We send money from our economy to theirs for something we can make better here. Has Mr. Black ever heard of the concept of import substitution? No, he probably never read Jane Jacobs, because he is an old white man.

One measurement I invite anyone to make is to calculate the jobs/litre that craft beer production creates compared to factory beer. And where those jobs are located. We have spent (blown) so much government assistance trying to force feed companies looking to set up in locations where they have a geographic disadvantage. But these new breweries are selling much of their product close to home, keeping all the money spent on beer consumed in their community (something that won't be stopped, even with prohibition) and the jobs created by making and distributing it, in that community. This is one of our very few industries where the majority of businesses are not in the metropolitan area.

Another factor seldom discussed, and possibly not well researched, is the almost certain benefits to the public health that craft beer provides in comparison to the alternative. Start with the (safe) assumption that people are going to drink beer, regardless of what you tell them is or isn't good for them. Craft beer consumption differs substantially from factory beer in several interesting ways.

The density, intensity of flavour, and "filling" aspects of craft beer almost always slow intake of alcohol compared to the almost frenetic drinking associated with factory beer and youth. Less total alcohol is ingested, and it is usually done so over a longer time period. This, over a lifetime, should result in less alcohol related health problems, and lower average degrees of intoxication that causes accidents - whether walking or driving.

The distribution of the craft beer production around the Province tends to encourage the direct purchase of local beer at the breweries, or at local shops or farmers markets. And it has triggered the opening of more local pubs. By definition, this will decrease the lengths of vehicle trips taken by people who have consumed beer or are on their way to do so. Those trip lengths will switch to walking or inexpensive cab trips and reduce the overall number of "drunk driving kilometres". Less time behind the wheel means less chance of an accident - drunk or sober.

The contents of a chemical free craft beer - normally water, malted and un-malted grains, yeast (AKA Vitamin B12), alcohol and other fermentation by-products, provides sustenance, and vitamins and minerals not always present in a highly filtered, preserved, stabilized, and otherwise manufactured, standardized product made in a factory. At least two of the larger craft breweries here are 100% organic, with another making some organic beer. It is difficult to argue that craft beer is not better for you, and not just much more interesting to taste and fun to experience.

The economic benefits of the jobs in the non-urban locations is something that Randy Delorey (who is supposed to be directing the operations of the NSLC as Minister of Finance, but appears to being led around by the nose by them) and his people appear to be acutely aware of, and perhaps there is even some recognition of the potential value to our society via the concept of people drinking less, but drinking better. Nova Scotians seem to be ready to recognize this same concept for other foods, after all. And now beer is just starting to generate spin off activity in agriculture and service industry - a new maltings has opened and a bottle washing business looks to be going ahead.

One cannot help but think that these aspects of the industry go a long way to offsetting the relatively small tax loss (did anyone count the new payroll and business taxes to be paid by all these new breweries?) that seems to have gotten under this commentator's skin. In this case, we may have the rare occurrence of the Government actually understanding a business better than a "businessman". How much are we talking about compared to the subsidies given in the past to factory breweries to set up and stay here, for pulp and paper companies and mines, and shipbuilding plants (how much $/job?). Where is the consideration of the value in taking people off the unemployment line and giving them work close to their homes and families, instead of seeing them leave Nova Scotia for work?

Finally, craft beer definitely brings variety to the local beer scene. And most would agree with the old maxim that variety is, indeed, the spice of life.