Session #6 of our BJCP study group combined two categories that almost everyone who drinks craft beer in the United States should be pretty familiar with. With the exception of a couple of odd ball sub-styles (looking at you, Red IPA), we somehow managed to do a tasting run of nearly every flavor the two […]
When the early summer strawberry season came on the horizon, my thoughts turned to Awkward Gingham 1 and how badly I needed to re-attempt that beer. Given how much I’d learned since that clumsy 2015 attempt, 2 and given the nostalgia I was feeling for that clumsy 2015 attempt… it seemed totally appropriate to once […]
For study group #5, we stuck with the bitter European beers and tackled Category 7. Similar to last time, examples in this category turned out to be difficult to find — and the ones that our coordinator did find were all brewed in the United States or Canada. Regardless of their country of origin, we […]
Reconvening on cadence, our BJCP study group jumped from Category 2 to Category 5. 1 Right off the bat, our coordinator let us know that these beers turned out to be fairly difficult to find commercial examples of — which was to say, only 2 of the 4 would get the professional treatment that night. […]
I have a love/mostly-hate relationship with wheat beers. Most of the wheat beers I’ve had, I could do without; it’s either “too much banana ester!” or “ugh too grainy!” But once in a while there’s one that’s just right. It’s hard to put my finger on it. In an effort to get there, I thought […]
Our BJCP study group reconvened on cadence, this time to cover Category 2. Two brief asides about that: first, that our main BJCP mentor recommended against going in straight category order, and instead to choose the styles based on the season, meaning to hold off on those stouts and bocks until it got cooler 1; […]
Following our successful introductory session, our BJCP study group re-convened two weeks later 1 to cover Category 1: Standard American Beer. After a quick round of group business, we launched right into the structured evaluations. That’s our cadence![↩]
I’ve decided to become a BJCP judge. In other words, I’ve decided to learn about the 34 beer categories (and their many sub-styles) recognized by the BJCP, about structured evaluations, about brewing ingredients and process and technique, about off-flavors and contaminants. I’ve decided to subject my palate to so-neutral-they’re-flavorless American Light Lagers and the sometimes-pleasantly-sometimes-punishingly […]
For the past few months, I’d been idly kicking around the idea of doing a series of single hop pale ale experiments. I slapped together a few formulations, but there was no over-arching theme other than the fact that each one only used a single hop type. After thinking it over, I deleted all of […]
Since the bottles from batch #5 went so quickly, I was… forced to brew this again. And apply the lessons learned from the judges’ feedback. Honestatis (Mk. VI), my extra amber ale: